Senior School 

Performing Arts

CAMERATA CONCERT

On Friday the 21st of June, the KWS music department held our annual Camerata Concert in the Derek Pigot Auditorium, featuring the competitors from our Camerata Competition earlier this year. The performance was a huge success, featuring 18 of our talented music students accompanied by Anne Stevens and David Shaw throughout the evening. 

Performances from all students showed great musicality, nuance and flair, across a diverse range of genre and style. It was such a delight to share the musical talents of our students with a packed auditorium of family, friends and teachers as we celebrated the return of live music performances here at Kinross.  

Katherine Howarth

Coordinator of Instrumental Music 

BRASS WORKSHOP

Leanne Sullivan Musica Viva Residency

This week, we were fortunate to be visited by professional trumpet player, Leanne Sullivan.

Leanne grew up in regional NSW, going on to study the Trumpet at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. She has worked with many of Australia’s leading orchestras and is active as a teacher and lecturer in trumpet at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and the University of Melbourne. Leanne performs on both the modern trumpet as well as her specialty, the baroque trumpet. She is currently Principal Trumpet with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra.

Leanne performed for senior KWS Music students and spoke engagingly with them about the development of the trumpet.  She shared her experiences as a student learning music in a small regional community and also conducted a workshop for brass musicians from both the junior and senior schools.

We are indebted to Orange Regional Conservatorium of Music and brass tutor Victoria Chatterley for facilitating this event, which was made possible with the support of the Godfrey Turner Memorial Music Trust and Musica Viva Australia. 

MUSIC FESTIVAL 2021

Our annual KWS Music Festival will be held on Thursday 10 June, in the DPA. Music Festival is the main event for co-curricular ensembles for the year and it is an expectation that students be in attendance.

Tickets are available through Trybooking here or via this link: https://www.trybooking.com/BROWQ to secure your tickets.  Ticket numbers are limited to enable us to comply with current COVID-19 restrictions so do not delay in booking your tickets.  You can either purchase tickets for a table of 8 or purchase individual tickets and be allocated to a table.  To ensure that we run on time for the evening, doors will open at 6.30pm for a 7pm start.

Further details regarding this event have been emailed to families of students involved.  Should you have not received this correspondence, please contact the Music Administrator, Sharon Martin, on performingarts@kws.nsw.edu.au

COWRA EISTEDDFOD: Success for Toby Gough

The eisteddfod season is upon us again and Toby Gough has already registered significant achievements. Toby has been awarded a swathe of awards in Speech and Drama, with the adjudicator saying she looks forward to seeing his name up in lights one day!

Toby used a self-devised character sketch that he wrote for a Drama assessment to win the Senior Entertainment Championship.  The major prizes Toby won at Cowra Eisteddfod include:

• Arts Council Speech and Drama Scholarship $2,000
• Senior Speech Championship
• Senior Entertainment Championship
• Whiteley Award for the Most Promising Public Speaker
• Whiteley Award for the Best Original Verse
• Open Pointscore Winner
• Kumar Trophy for highest aggregate marks in solo sections
• Colleen Johnston Memorial Trophy – Open Australian Recitation

We look forward to hearing more of our students’ successes over the coming Eisteddfod season.

VALE MERIAL OWENS

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of long-time piano teacher, accompanist and AMEB examiner Merial Owens. Merial was a member of the piano faculty at Orange Regional Conservatorium and also taught piano at KWS, prior to becoming ill. Merial was a revered teacher, friend and mentor to many, who will be much missed.

23 December 1932 – 21 May 2021