PERFORMING ARTS

AUSTRALIAN YOUTH ORCHESTRA

Congratulations to Jenny Jung (String Quartet violinist) from Year 11 who has been selected to play in the Australian Youth Orchestra. This is an amazing achievement and places her in an elite crowd of young musicians. The competition is very stiff, especially for violin. 

FAREWELL

It is with immense sadness that I am wishing both Baltazar Kurowski and Rose Kavanagh well as they leave McKinnon Secondary College and move onto new schools. Baltazar has been a highly valued classroom music teacher - specialising in the VCE classes for the last few years. Rose will be incredibly missed as an instrumental teacher, specialising in the upper strings. Whilst we are incredibly sad to see them leave, we do wish them great success at their new teaching appointments.

MAKING WAVES

Congratulations to Nam Tran (Year 12) who had his composition selected to be performed at the “Making Waves” performance on Friday 9 December at Melbourne Recital Centre as part of the VSV concert series. 

This concert can be viewed online at https://www.vsv.vic.edu.au/making-waves-2022/ 

YEAR 10 DRAMA AND YEAR 11 THEATRE STUDIES PERFORMANCE NIGHT - 11 NOVEMBER 

Unit 2 of Theatre Studies looks at a variety of modern theatre styles, and the students explore scripts and conventions from these eras. They were able to apply much of that study into their creative interpretation of The Actor's Nightmare by Christopher Durang. 

This eclectic play is an embodiment of every actor's worst nightmare - being onstage without knowing the lines or even the play!

As a culmination of their hard work all semester, the Year 10 Drama students also presented their interpretation of Country Gothic by Tim Kelly. 

Here is what Wynn Swanson, (Year 10), said about her experience: 

I joined McKinnon at the beginning of this year, I had made some friends and enjoyed most of my classes. When semester one ended and we came back for the start of term two I remember the nerves and worries I had about taking part in Drama class as 'the new kid'. In our first drama class Ms Angell welcomed everybody with open arms. I was relieved to see that I was definitely not the only one who was nervous when we were called to the stage for a warm up. It felt very silly and there were lots of giggles passing around the room while a class of total strangers attempted to play a game together... 

Well, I don't know how Ms Angell did it. But by the end of only a few classes everybody was friends. Drama became my favorite class. Everything was so fun, we were either acting out a new script or composing our own mini productions and given creative freedom in what we wanted to focus on. Creating our own full production of Country Gothic was a rewarding way to end the year and work together as a class. 

INTERMEDIATE CONCERT

Congratulations to all the students in Ovenden Band, Keenan Strings, the World Music Ensemble, the East Percussion Ensemble and the Intermediate Stage Band who took part in the Intermediate Concert on Thursday 24 November in the East Gym. The standard was extraordinarily high. Thanks to James Morrissey, Stuart Cook, Rose Kavanagh, Sergei Golovko and Stuart Byrne for their work preparing these ensembles for performance.

YEAR 9 MUSICAL PRODUCTION

Congratulations to the students in the inaugural Year 9 Musical Production class who performed a student written musical “Trigger’d” on Friday 25 November in the Theatre at the Main Campus. The students demonstrated their developing knowledge of the skills required to write, rehearse and stage a musical. Well done!

MRS BINNION’S RETIREMENT

Thank you to the fantastic String Quartet for providing music at the start of the retirement party for Mrs Binnion on Thursday 1 December. Thank you also to Clare Bugeja who has worked with this fantastic group of students for these formal occasions.

YEAR 9 GRADUATION

Thank you to the Intermediate Brass group, Honkers, for their performance at the Year 9 Graduation on Monday 5 December. Thank you also to Adele Finn (Year 9) and Olivia Capurro-Martinez (Year 9) for singing the National Anthem. Thank you to Dmitry Serebrianik for arranging these musicians.

JUNIOR ART SHOW

Congratulations to the excellent musicians JJ Braithwaite (Year 9) and Arnav Mahajan (Year 9) who provided fantastic background music for the Junior Art Show on Monday 5 December. Thank you to Dmitry Serebrianik for organising these musicians and arranging for Frankie Noble (Year 8) and Joshua Golembo (Year 8) to also perform.

YEAR 7 ASSEMBLY 

Congratulations to the Year 7 Extension String Group who performed at the final Year 7 Level Assembly on Wednesday 7 December. Thank you to Clare Bugeja for organising this group to perform.

JUNIOR CONCERT

In our final major concert for 2022, it was wonderful to see and hear the many amazing students from Years 7 and 8 Ensembles performing. Thank you to all the Ensemble directors who prepared their groups for performance on Wednesday 7 December. Thank you to all the parents, family and friends who attended and supported the concert.

 2023 PRODUCTION 

Thank you to all those students who auditioned for “The Wedding Singer”, you made it difficult to choose our complete cast. Congratulations to all those who made the final cast. Please make sure you have picked up your copy of the script from Ms Angell at Main, or Ms Papworth at East before you go on your end of year break.

 UPCOMING EVENTS

We also wish to thank in advance all the students who performed as part of the Intermediate Stage Band at the 2023 Parent Information night on Monday 12 December, and to Stuart Byrne for organising this ensemble.

Thank you also to the Senior Stage Band for their fantastic final performance at Presentation Night on Thursday 15 December. Thank you to Dmitry Serebrianik for his organisation of this ensemble.

Megan Papworth

Head of Performing Arts