MUSIC NEWS

Exciting Music News

Wow!! What an incredibly busy and exciting time we’ve had in our Music and Performing Arts Department recently. I am so massively proud of our voice and instrumental students as well as all of our singers, musicians and performers in Chelt's Got Talent, Windsor Exchange and Rock of Ages.

We were extremely lucky to have legendary singer and musician Ross Wilson come to our school to judge the Windsor Competition along with renowned guitarist Phil Ceberano and Icehouse’s keyboard player, Glenn Reither. Ross was such a good sport and joined both Chelts and The Avenue on stage at the end of the night to perform his massive hit “Eagle Rock”.  He later gave our students a lesson on the simple way to play the song, which blew us all away.  Ross, Phil and Glenn were very impressed with the way that our students conducted themselves and the talent that we have nurtured here.  The judges were a wonderful inspiration to our beautifully behaved students and they later told me that they were not expecting such a high standard of singers and musicians. They also said that our stand out students could easily be successfully working professionally in the music industry right now.  It’s great to be able to provide our students with this kind of feedback and exposure from the greats in our biz.

But wait, there’s more!!  I invited my good friend and music industry colleague, Tracy Kingman along to judge in our “Chelts Got Talent” competition.  Tracy brought with her all of her experience in the music industry having spent 20 years as Australian music legend, James Reyne’s backing singer.  

Tracy has also sang with many prominent Australian music greats, released her own music, co written tracks for films and sang on many commercials and recording sessions with many other artists.  Our students got some great tips from her.

And if that’s not enough, Rock of Ages was a massive hit with all who attended. It was jam packed with talented singers and actors and the show was a huge success thanks to the incredible direction and dedication of Martin Rice, Kate Brady and Laura Knox. We were lucky to have the Musical Director from the “Kids’ Voice” and keyboard player for recent Boy George shows, Nik Pringadi playing keys for us, as well as bass player, Mr Ben Cripps who’s credits include; Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Human Nature, David Campbell, Nathaniel, Tina Arena and Kate Ceberano, playing in the superstar rock band. They teamed up with our very own Rock God guitar teacher and professional musician Mr Christian Meyer, mega talented ex student Oli Collins on the drums and pro guitarist Tim Chilman to form the best Secondary School theatre band in the region.  

I invited my immensely talented friend Leah Howard (Resident Director of The Rocky Horror Show, actress/singer/dancer and casting agent for School Of Rock) and her husband, Joe Accaria (Musical Director for Human Nature and Producer and performer in the Australian production of Velvet, which is now being taken to the US).  Both are music business and theatre luminaries.

Leah was so impressed with the performances in our production of Rock Of Ages that she invited the principle cast members along to see the Rocky Horror Show, have a backstage tour of Her Majesty’s Theatre, pose for a photo with Todd Mckenney (Frankenfurter), in full costume and meet the cast for a Q & A.  It was a great experience for all of us but in particular the students.  They asked some very important questions about the industry, what they needed to do to give them a better chance of success and many other relevant questions were answered.  The cast were incredible generous of their time with our students and some great advice was given.

Leah remarked to me how impressed she was with the conduct and behavior of our students.  She was so impressed, she volunteered to come and speak to our VCE Drama students in an invaluable classroom workshop. Leah has a mentorship program that some of our students may be suitable for.  This is an amazing opportunity for our drama students and we all look forward to see where all this will take Cheltenham Secondary students to help them prosper in the future with their career paths.

Lisa Maxwell Cripps

Instrumental Music Leader