Performing Arts News

Production Update

Things are coming along nicely for the school production this year. We have packed in as many extra rehearsals as possible so that students can perfect the show as much as possible prior to you all attending the show in July.

We have been lucky enough to have been given 4 plants for the show, as a “pay it forward” motion from Marian College in Ararat. They look amazing and will be artistically brought to life by our very own students Jenna Casamento of 9E and Izzy McFarland of 10C.

Tickets for the show will be on sale within the coming weeks and we look forward to you coming to see one of the biggest shows we have put on in recent years. We have a cast of 61 students and 31 crew members. We have a high student input into the choreography this year as well as Mrs Mortimer, these students include Ash Polonsky, Jazz Whittaker, Aimee Harris, Lottie Hudson, Layla Carmeli-Wolski and Leila Newby.

Tori Wood our singing teacher has been highly involved with our vocals this year and perfecting the songs our students will be performing. There has been so much improvement with these students and it is now becoming a show. Laura Baker-Goldsmith has also started rehearsals for our live band, which will accommodate the students voices and dance moves. It will sound like you are really in the town of Skid Row.

Mayu Kano-Ton of 10F completed her Year 10 work experience early this year at an advertising agency where she was asked to complete some work of her choice. She has put together her interpretation of the show, and below is a copy of her final creation. Well done Mayu!

6 weeks until we see you at Mushnik and Son....

Sarah Mortimer

Production Coordinator and Director

Stringfest

On the 9th May, the Glen Eira College String Ensemble jumped on a train and headed over to Stringfest 2018, hosted at Cheltenham Secondary College. Stringfest invited schools from all around Melbourne to be a part of the festival, with over 100 string (violin, viola, cello and double bass) students participating. The day started off with us arriving and getting settled in. The conductor had everyone playing scales together to warm up, before jumping into rehearsing for the first piece.

The first piece we played was called Fiddles on Fire. It started off very unsettled, but when we worked on all of the sections of the piece together under the guidance of the conductor, everything really came together. After this we played and rehearsed March of the Titans, which was undoubtedly everyone’s favourite piece. It had a lot of different melodies and harmonies that intertwined, so it was really important for the conductor to work on smaller parts of the piece to get all of the melodies sounding united and complementary to each other. Everyone collectively put in a lot of effort and the piece ended up sounding fantastic.

At this point, one of our students, Joyce Huang, was moved up to lead the second violins! It was very exciting to see one of our students representing our school at such a high level. We were all very proud of her.

The last piece we played and rehearsed was called Trepak and was originally from Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker” ballet. It’s supposed to go very fast, but we took it slow at first to get used to all of the notes. We ended up trying it up to speed, which was very exciting but also a little overwhelming! In the end we went with a slightly slower tempo, and everyone decided that this was the best tempo for the whole group.

In the last 30 minutes, the whole group recorded all of the pieces we had rehearsed throughout the day. Ms Baker-Goldsmith and Ms Morley watched and listened to the recordings live. We could both tell that everyone was trying really hard and the result was a really polished and energetic recording from all of the students involved. The GEC String Ensemble sat down and listened to the recording last Wednesday afternoon, and we all thought that the recordings sounded great, acknowledging all the hard work we did on that day.

It was fantastic for our students in the GEC String Ensemble to be involved in such a big event. I’m sure we all found it very different to our usual setup, maybe even more challenging, however we all agreed at the conclusion of the day that it was a fun and rewarding experience for everyone involved… even if we did play for almost 5 hours!

Special congratulations to Claudia Miller, Meret Hau, Louis Ericson, Joyce Huang, Sam Pang and Jacinta Ide for all of their hard work in preparation for and on the day of Stringfest.

Zamarah Morley

Strings Teacher

Year 7 First Notes Concert

Earlier this term on Monday 14th May, we had a concert for our new instrumental music students that was aptly titled ‘First Notes’. This was a showcase of both beginners and experienced students from the GEC instrumental music program, with a huge variety of performances from solos to small and large-scale ensembles groups. It was truly a celebration of a busy semester of music from our new Year 7 students (and some beginning Year 8s!).

The students who performed on the night have made great strides in a short time. Many had never played an instrument before February this year, whilst some experienced students have decided to try something different from what they had previously pursued in primary school. We are also fortunate that a number of students who have been learning their instrument for many years have joined our program. The students have not only learned how to make music on their instruments, but also about music theory, how to read music, how to play together as part of a musical group and most of all how to practise and persevere.

Learning a musical instrument can be a very rewarding experience, particularly when students develop an effective practice routine and make significant progress on their instrument. All instrumental music students will be issued a GEC practice diary over the next few weeks to help document their learning and track their practice. The next challenge will be to document 20 hours of home practice over the semester. The next time that you will be able to hear these students, possibly at our Music Gala Night in term 3, they are going to be even better.

Congratulations to all the music students who performed so well and also to our instrumental music teachers; Mr Dipnall, Mr Voogd, Mr Westlake, Ms Morley, Ms Wood and Ms Wijaya for preparing the performances and organising the concert.

I’d also like to thank all of the GEC staff, including our College Principal, Mrs Kindler, who came along to support our instrumental music students. Thanks also to our Visual Arts captain Sierra Danon who became our official photographer for the concert.

Laura Baker-Goldsmith

Head of Performing Arts