MUSIC

Orientation Concerts

It’s been a productive few weeks packed with performances in the Music department. Over 50 students from our Encore program, senior music, and members of Stage Band and Sinfonia delivered performances for our incoming students for 2021. Encore students performed as soloists or in small chamber groups, with many of these students giving their first public performance for the year. Students from Kindergarten to Year 7 2021 made a wonderful audience for our students, who enjoyed leading a culture of music performance at the College. Congratulations to the following students for being our performers:

Imogen Smith, Tyler Forell, Michael Bacon, Kate Burton, Laynee Visser, Joshua Sarantakos, Lincoln Bowcher, Cailtin Cumberlege, Harry Pratt, Karin Rezkalla, Olivia Harding, Baci Menhennet, Nate Sarantakos, Frank Zhou, Sienna Hillam, Madison Turner, Molly Pillow, Jack Stanton, Ava Harvey, Zander Downie, Lilah Norden, Sienna Browne, Anna-Simone-Ghabriel, Imogen Metcalf, Lincoln Bowcher, Archie Grintell, Amelie Murrell, Bethany Bacon, Jocelyn Corbett, Asha Hillam, Matilda Wickson, Patrick Dunn, Ella Menzies, Lachlan Purnell, Teddy Leah, Freya Mathews, Tessa Quigley, Georgia Thompson, Daisy Jones, Harriet Barton, Amity McLennan, Aoife Stockman, Juliette Kozlik, Ethan Whiting, Lucas Bailey, Jackson Payne, Cecil Wahba, Ava Bailes, Carter Zhang, Caitlyn Harvey, Dionisa Gendy, Katherine Scott, Ciara Wilson, Emily Tidd, Trang Nguyen, Karina Zhang, Miles Martin, Bianca Lubke, Isabel Browne, Angus Smith, Tyler Forrell, Michael Bacon, Kate Burton, Katherine Scott, Liam Whiting, Isaac Collingridge, Tyson Gentle, Laura Boetto, Juliette Kozlik, Ethan Whiting, Patrick Dunn.

Music Camp

COVID meant we couldn’t undertake our annual Sydney Music Trip this year. Thankfully the Australian Schools Band and Orchestra Festival decided to run an online festival allowing schools to enter with video entries. After a tough year of minimal and irregular rehearsals, we were so happy to be able to pull together a quasi Sydney Trip at home and try out the idea of a school-based Music camp. Students from the Band and Stage Band came together for three days of rehearsals, sectionals, tutorials, games and activities in our first ever day-based Music Camp at the College. Audio engineer Grant Luhrs teamed up with and cameraman and visual engineer Michael Pattison to make professional recordings of both ensembles for our entries. While some String Sinfonia musicians attended Music Camp activities, we made our String Sinfonia video recording at the end of our Year 1 Orientation Concert last Friday. I submitted all three ensemble video recordings to the Festival early this week, and now look forward to our adjudications. A sample of each ensemble can be found here:

String Sinfonia  - Bolero de Strings

Stage Band - Chattanooga Choo Choo and Summertime

College Band - Mambo Australiano

Many thanks to the staff who volunteered to assist with supervision: Mr Humble, Mrs Humble, Mr Tyndall, Mrs Jenkins, Mrs Miller, Mrs Graffen, Mrs Ganapathy, Mrs Kjaer, Madame Vignas. Thanks also to our Arts Captains, Bianca Lubke and Miles Martin, and our Band seniors for their assistance with making our Camp so fun: Megan Hardy, Liam Whiting, Charlotte Wickson.

Band next year

Some changes for Band arrangements next year: 

College Band 

College Band will no longer rehearse during class time. Band will now rehearse on Monday afternoons from 3.30pm - 4.30pm. Supervision will be provided for students until 5.30pm. College Band will be for students in Years 7 - 12 and advanced students in Year 5 and 6. 

Stage Band

Stage Band will continue to run on Friday afternoons from 3.30pm - 4.30pm with supervision provided until 5.30pm. Stage Band is for saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and rhythm of intermediate to advanced ability in Years 9 - 12. Highly-skilled students in Years 7 and 8 may be also invited to participate.

Lessons next year

We have lessons available throughout the school day as well as before and after school in 2021. Students who have received lessons as part of Encore in Year 8 must now enrol in private music lessons if they wish to continue with their instrument. All students who participate in an ensemble must take private lessons. All students who take private lessons must participate in an ensemble if requested. We offer many lesson packages to suit families, including options for group, individual, weekly or fortnightly lessons. We have an excellent peripatetic staff whose vacancies are filling up! I encourage you to book your lessons for next year soon via our online enrolment form: https://bit.ly/MusicAcademyEnrolments

Instruments

A great way to encourage your child to strive for excellence in music, and to acknowledge their effort in their music learning is to buy them an instrument! If you are considering buying an instrument for child for Christmas, or for their next birthday, I encourage you to seek advice from our team of teachers. 

There are several shops which can help with instrument purchasing including:

Allison Music (Wagga)

Better Music (Canberra)

Sydney String Centre (Chatswood - for string instruments only)

Cellissimo (Prahan - for string instruments only)

Clare Brassil | Director of Music Performance