Co-curricular Arts News

Marist College Ashgrove Musical 2024

Marist College Ashgrove is excited to announce that we are planning a Musical Production for the 2024 Performing Arts season. At this stage, we are finalising the rights for a production scheduled for mid-Term 2, 2024. We are reaching out for expressions of interest (EOI) to students who may be interested in participating as singers, actors, dancers, musicians, chorus, production, and backstage crew. Once you have expressed your interest, we will be in contact with further information and audition requirements as they come to hand.

Details so far are as follows:

• Rehearsals will be scheduled after school (2 afternoons) during Term 1 and early Term 2 with several Sunday rehearsals.
• Production is scheduled for 3 nights on May 9,10 and 11.

Please follow this link to be included on the Expression of Interest database. 

Year 5 and 6 Drama

Well done to the boys who performed a selection of poems and skits and freeze frames to an appreciative audience last week in the Draney Theatre. A special thanks to Louise Marshall and her staff for preparing the boys throughout the year in a series of engaging, creative and entertaining productions. We look forward to more in 2024.

Year 5 String and Band Concert

Well done to the Year 5 boys who recently presented their Semester 2 concert to conclude the year. The boys had a very successful year and we are looking forward to many of them continuing their musical journey at Marist in 2024.

Prizegiving, Graduation and Senior Farewell

A big thank you to all of the Marist Musicians involved in this year’s end-of-year events. We had much to celebrate this year and the boys have excelled at multiple activities over this term. The Graduation Mass and Farewell Ceremony were a particular highlight for our musicians last week.

Music Staff Farewells

As the year draws to a close we would like to thank several staff who will be leaving the music faculty at the end of the year. Monash Lal (Flute), Owen Tilbury (Percussion) and Malcolm Wood (Trumpet) have all been invaluable assets for Marist Ashgrove Music and will be greatly missed by students and staff.

Co-curricular Arts Review 2023

2023 has been another outstanding year for Co-Curricular Arts at Marist College Ashgrove with a year full of opportunities for boys to participate in a wide variety of activities in contrasting settings. The College’s artists, dancers, dramatic groups, choirs, bands, orchestras, and small ensembles produced some outstanding creative outcomes at exhibitions, festivals, and events across Southern Queensland. Highlights of the year included the Tower Art Show, Murder on the Menu Drama Performance, the Queensland Catholic Colleges Music Festival, The Essentially Ellington Festival and Big Band 1 and 2 travelling once again to Warwick to perform in the Jumpers and Jazz in July festival as a feature ensemble.

As usual, the musical year commenced with the traditional music camp over the first weekend back at school, held once again at Alexandra Headlands. Only a few weeks later, performances were already underway, including the Inaugural Mass, Premier Concert, Autumn Concert, Grade 5 Musical, and the Pemulwuy Prelude Concert co-hosted with the Voices of Birralee.

In Term 2 the Tower Art Show presented multi-faceted Arts through visual art, dance, and music. A special highlight was the Indigenous dance presentation and Acknowledgement of Country that opened the show on the Friday night. This continued throughout the weekend with music performances by current students and old boys as well as arts displays from primary and secondary students. Other Term 2 events included the Marist Jazz Night, Guitar Summit, Cathedral Concert, Ashgrove Anzac Day Ceremony and the Winds and Percussion Concert. The choirs represented the College at the National Sorry Day Ceremony held at Teralba Park and Big Band 1 performed at the Brisbane Youth Jazz Festival held in the Queensland Multicultural Centre where the boys performed alongside many other outstanding school and professional Big Bands from across Brisbane. Chamber Choir and Performance Choir performed at the Queensland Youth Music Awards with Performance Choir receiving a bronze award and Chamber Choir awarded gold and third place overall out of 12 competitors.

An early 3:00am start on Friday 28 April saw seven of our senior students, accompanied by Arts staff, drive through the early hours of the morning to the Goondiwindi show. Our music students performed admirably all day to the show patrons and our capable and talented art students ran art workshops that provided opportunities for children to come along and create an artwork based on gelliplate printing. It was an enjoyable and memorable experience that we hope to be able to replicate in the future. Another new initiative this year was the commencement of Audio Production as one of the many Co-curricular Arts activities offered here at the College. The club held sessions in live recording, production, engineering and mixing in the College’s new recording studio. The future of this activity looks extremely promising with the boys producing some high-quality work in its inaugural year. The semester concluded with our year 5 boys commencing their instrumental performance journey in the Band and Strings Concert. In its fourth year running, the ASHCAM Photography Competition, open to students and our Marist Community, coincided with Creative Industries Week. With more than 200 entries this year, our guest judge, world-renowned photographer Dr Joachim Froese, was impressed with the high quality of entries which made for some stiff competition in each section. 

In Term 3 Theatre Ash proudly presented Bill Hand’s satirical comedy, Murder on the Menu, in the Draney Theatre. A small cast of boys devoted six months of hard work rehearsing to create a story about a wealthy book publisher who has many people around him with a motive to ‘bump him off’. The result was a highly engaging production enjoyed by an appreciative crowd in the Draney Theatre. The August Ekka break saw a variety of the College’s musical ensembles participate in the Catholic Colleges Music Festival. The festival returned this year in full capacity since COVID and it was great to see Marist once again competing in each of the top A grade sections for Choral, Strings, Band and Symphony. This is a testament to the depth and quality of the boys’ standard of performance. Big Band 1, Performance Choir and Chamber Choir all received a gold award with Chamber Strings, Marist Voices, Symphony Orchestra, Wind Orchestra 1 and Big Band 2 being awarded silver. In September, we welcomed The Essentially Ellington Down Under Festival for 2023 hosting 15 Big Bands from across Southern Queensland. World-renowned Trombonist, Vincent Gardner and New York Saxophonist and educator, Sherman Irbywere thoroughly impressed with the standard of groups across the day. It was another amazing experience for our Big Band 1 and 2 students being mentored by two of the world’s leading jazz musicians in our very own Draney Theatre. On the last day of Term 3, we once again welcomed and entertained Grandparents at our annual Grandparents Day and farewelled our 2023 Year 12 Music cohort at the Soiree. Both concerts were a great celebration of music. The 2023 Soiree celebrated one of the larger musical cohorts in the history of the College in a special night of high-quality music making. 

In Term 4 Marist musicians, artists and actors performed once again at the MCA Awards night held in the Concert Hall of the Queensland Performing Arts Centre. This was followed by Theatre Ash presenting Astra Nova, a time-space travel story integrating MCA drama students and DJ students in an interactive stellar adventure. This production featured an original script written by our very own Miss Rebecca Taylor and resulted in another successful production for the Theatre Ash crew. The Junior Drama group were also very active this year producing a variety of digital and live performances culminating in the final term of school. The Year 5 boys performed a selection of poems and the play True Detective, the Year 6 boys presented a variety of gala performances entitled Little Susie and the Year 7 boys wrote, performed, and produced a short film using scary stories as the basis for their work. In late October Carols on the Green was moved from the McMahon Oval to the Draney Theatre due to inclement weather. This festive concert featured Marist Musicians and members of the wider Ashgrove music community, including students from Mt St Michael’s College, in a variety of combined ensembles and feature items which saw the culmination of the formal performance calendar for the year.

Special thanks must go to the administrative, full-time, and sessional co-curricular arts staff who have continued to provide the boys with engaging activities that have become an integral part of the fabric of our culture here at Ashgrove. Finally, a big thanks to the wonderful Technical Production Crew who always do an outstanding job in supporting our Performing Arts productions.

A heartfelt thanks to all the students, especially the Year 12 Class of 2023, who were involved in the Marist College Ashgrove Co-Curricular Arts Department this year. Without the dedication, talent, and enthusiasm displayed in rehearsals, exhibitions, productions, concerts and recordings throughout a challenging year, the successes that we have enjoyed as a department would not have been possible. It has truly been a blessing to work with such an outstanding group of young men and boys.