Victorian School Music Festival
MGC Choir
Congratulations to the following students in our MGC Choir who attended the VSMF last Wednesday, 7th August in Blackburn to perform “Circle of Life” and “Suddenly I See”:
Sia Ajai, Jess Chang, Rachel Chiu, Maggie Chang, Maddy Cook, Claire Garner, Elita Hemley, Madeleine Poon, Ella Reeman, Shani Siregar, Tyana Tsai, Emma Watkins & Helena Webb.
Despite 16 students being unable to attend due to the clash with House Production, the Choir still achieved a Silver Shield. Thank you to our choir leaders, Ellyce Calder and Susan de Jong for this opportunity.
“Schools from all over Victoria perform in front of others and work with leading music educators.
It was an amazing experience to sing at the One Community Church as it has great acoustics. It was fun to perform in front of other schools as well as seeing them perform. The music educators, who were also the adjudicators, worked with us and gave us feedback on how we could improve as a choir. I really loved the whole experience and through that, I have gotten to know some of the choir members better.”
Tyana Tsai
Choir Captain.
At the Festival, we received individualised feedback in a masterclass format from an adjudicator, Christine Anderson, who advised us on how we can improve our singing. An important piece of feedback we got was that we had to be conscious of our tongue positioning on the vowel sounds in order that we produce the same consistent sounds. We found the feedback extremely helpful and we will continue to apply what we learnt.
Rachel Chiu, Co-Choir Captain.
MGC Jazz Orchestra
Congratulations to our MGC Jazz Orchestra, who competed at the VSMF for the first time at the Hawthorn Arts Centre on Tuesday, 13th August, achieving a Platinum Shield, the highest award possible!!
The band played three numbers, “There Will Never Be Another You”, featuring a saxophone solo by Natasha Lowe, “What’s Your Hurry?” featuring a saxophone solo by Miranda Moloney and finished with their free choice song, “Lingus”, by Snarky Puppy, whom our students had been lucky enough to work with earlier this year. Ella Ball (sax), Talia Meiri (flute) and Marissa di Marzio (drums) all had solos.
They then had an improvisation workshop with Steve Sedergreen.
The chief adjudicator, international trumpeter Will Murillo, had this to say after their performance:
“this is the hardest music I’ve ever heard a high school band play…students don’t know it’s impossible to play a Snarky Puppy tune in 5/4…it’s so freaking cool, I want to play in your band. Can I play in your band?...this is to be celebrated- the energy and the love and everything that’s happening here, so sophisticated- so proud of you guys!”
A huge thank you to Tony Hicks for all his work with our award winning Jazz Orchestra. Will Murillo summed it up:” I can’t just say enough about the creativity and the whole thing you bring- thank you for being such a great educator”.
Ella Ball (sax )Clara Batten (sax) Sandra Byrne (violin) Eirene Carajias (sax) Sophie Clemson (violin), Marissa di Marzio (drumkit) Zoe Korr (flute), Natasha Lowe (sax), Talia Meiri (flute), Miranda Moloney (sax) Caitlin Moloney (bass), Alexandra Morris (cello) Abbie O’Flynn (flute and trombone) Isabella Rao (flute) Jessie Radda (violin)Lorraine Sanares (piano/vibes) Evie Scott (violin) Imogen Silver (piano/keyboard) Victoria Trentin (sax) Laura Wilcox (guitar)Chantel Wong (Baritone Sax) and Charlie Young (trumpet).
Thank you to our parents who attended. For those who missed it, here is the performance: