Fort Street Student Shines at the Music Viva Competition

A huge congratulation to Fort Street’s brilliant cellist, Clara Moloney, who will be performing in the Musica Viva ‘Strike a Chord’ Competition Grand Finals in Melbourne in August 2024. Along with three fellow students from the Sydney Conservatorium Rising Stars program, their Lumina Quartet is one of just 12 groups from around Australia who have been selected to progress to the Grand Final from a record 155 groups who applied this year.  

Fort Street’s Sax Quartet won the inaugural Strike a Chord competition back in 2020 and commissioned a piece by IMP Alumnus Carlo Antonioli, who has worked with many of Australia’s major orchestras including Assistant Conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.  

Best of luck to Clara and Lumina Quartet! 

Fort Street Winter Concert 2024 

The Winter IMP Concert, held on Friday 28th of June 2024, was a huge success with stellar performances all-round.  

The Wind Ensemble opened with the brilliant and technically challenging ‘Godzilla Eats Las Vegas’ (composed by Eric Whitacre) complete with hilarious video montage, and the Big Band followed with Edgar Sampson’s ‘Stomping at the Savoy’. The Wind Orchestra entertained the huge audience with ‘Encanto’, composed by Robert W Smith, and the Jazz Orchestra had us tapping along to two numbers – ‘My Foolish Heart’ by Victor Young and ‘The Puffy Taco’ by Victor Lopez. The Concert Band showcased ‘Gadget’ composed by Randall Standridge. To round out the first half, the Junior Percussion Ensemble performed Sweet Rio by Arthur Lipner, the Training Band demonstrated how far they had progressed with Hot Apple Pie & the oldie, Ayers Rock, and the Senior Percussion Ensemble amazed us with the technically difficult ‘Ellipsis’ by Nathan Doughtrey.  

Before interval, each of the outgoing year 12 IMP students was honoured for their participation and services the program. We look forward to seeing them go on to achieve great things.  

The second half of the program included stunning vocal performances by the Chamber Choir – ‘Esto les Digo’ composed by Kinley Lange, and ‘O Pastor’ composed by Madredeus and arranged by Alex Pringle – and the Vocal Ensemble, who performed ‘Gloria’ movement 3 by John Rutter and ‘Matilda Medley’ by Tim Minchin. Following that, the Philharmonic Orchestra dazzled the audience with ‘Overture to Meistersingers of Nurnberg’ composed by Richard Wagner. To finish a musically diverse and inspiring evening, the Jazz Ensemble performed ‘Sycamore’ by Dave Douglas and the Symphony Orchestra showcased ‘The Sea’s Son’, composed by Fortian Edmund Huang, and the Finale from Beethoven’s ‘Symphony No. 5’. 

Many thanks to the conductors for their hard work with the IMP Ensembles during term 1 & 2, including Matthew Manchester, John Ockwell, Alex Pringle, Emily Irvine, Martin Highland, Rafael Karlen, and Stuart Vandegraaff, as well as the amazing accompanist, Katie Richardson. The evening could not have happened without the collaboration and efforts of IMP Coordinator and Director of Bands, Matthew Manchester, as well as Fort Street staff and teachers, the hard-working IMP Committee, parent volunteers, families and, most importantly, the students.