Music
Welcome back! Rehearsals have begun in earnest as we prepare for yet another manic term of music making! Private lessons have also commenced and if you have not heard from your tutor, please do reach out to them to organise your lessons.
Regarding private tuition, please understand that our tutors work on a rotating timetable to ensure your daughter does not miss the same class each week. However, when a tutor only has 4 students, this might result in 2 school classes per term being missed. This is unavoidable but it does not hinder your daughter’s progress in learning. The science does not lie – music lessons have been proven to help learning and retention. I therefore ask kindly that you discuss lesson times openly with your private tutor and accept that there will be times when a class is missed. Year 12 are the only students who are given priority for lunch time, before and after school lessons.
Congratulations to our wonderful Year 12 Music 1, 2 and Extension cohort.
These girls received an Encore Nomination for their performances. Encore is the concert held at the Opera House and showcases the students who received the highest marks in their performance exams for the HSC.
Xin Ying Selina Hsieh
Freya Carmody
Charlotte Allen
Eliza Michie
Bella Zhang
Gabrielle Zhong
Odessa Girdis
Claire Oslington
Dates for your diaries:
14 October – Foundation Ball: String quartet and selected choristers. Please check parent portal for information
18 October – Music Support Group Meeting: 6.00pm Music Gallery
20 October – Internal Scholarships take place. Information was delivered via the portal and email.
25 October – Junior School Ensemble Concert: 6.30pm in the GMCPA (this is a compulsory event for all Junior School ensemble members)
Week 3: Junior School Ensemble Concert
The Junior School Ensemble Concert will be held on Wednesday 25 October (Week 3) at 6.30pm in the Gillian Moore Centre for Performing Arts. This is a wonderful opportunity to see and hear the culmination of a year’s hard work by your daughter. The ensembles have achieved some outstanding results this year and I know you will be amazed and very proud of what your daughters have achieved.
The concert will be approximately 90 minutes in duration with no interval. Please note that no student will be allowed to leave during the concert. Students in the Band and String Ensembles will be arriving from 5.45pm as directed by their conductors in order to tune their instruments. Students in Choirs only, need to arrive at 6.00pm. Following the concert, parents are to collect their daughter from the holding room they were dropped off at for the start of the concert.
If students are not going home prior to the concert and need supervision from 3.00pm, please complete the following LINK. We have arranged for a College staff member to supervise students. Sign up for supervision will close on Friday 20 October. In addition, if your daughter has an after-school activity and needs to be collected for supervision, please indicate this in the online survey.
31 October – String Quartet performance for the opening of Barrenjoey House.
1 November – BIG BAND BLOW for Year 3 students. More details will be sent home for this very fun morning
13 November – EOI for the Concerto Competition Close
22 November – Secondary School Ensemble Concert: 6.30pm in the GMCPA (this is a compulsory event for all Secondary School ensemble members)
2 December – Choral Climate Festival – All School Choir (notes will be sent home)
3 December – Community Christmas Carols Service – from 5.00pm on Gloucester Lawn then the Chapel. Bring a picnic, your voices and your joy of Christmas.
6 December – Speech Day Celebrations for Junior and Senior Schools.
Concerto Competition
An EOI was placed on the portal for this. Please ensure you have read the information and discussed this with your tutor. Entries close 13November.
Congratulations to the following students in their musicianship exams.
Chloe Ayton - Grade 1 Musicianship - High Distinction (A+)
Charlotte Henderson – Grade 2 Musicianship - High Distinction (A+)
Amrita Marwah – Grade 2 Musicianship - High Distinction (A+)
Celine Cai - Grade 3 Musicianship - High Distinction (A+)
Sophia Kok - Grade 4 Musicianship - High Distinction (A+)
Angela Tao - Grade 4 Musicianship - High Distinction (A+)
Ang-Ya Koo – Grade 8 Cello Comprehensive – B
Lydia Chen – Grade 6 Cello Comprehensive – A
Chloe Ayton – Grade 5 Cello Repertoire – B
Celine Cai – Grade 5 Cello Comprehensive – B+
Vivian Zhang – Grade 4 Cello Comprehensive – A
Yuecheng Xu – Certificate of Performance Cello – A
Megan Ng in Year 4 also achieved an A+ in her violin exam for C.Mus.
TOUR 2024 – Spain and Portugal
If you or your daughter completed the EOI, you will soon be receiving some information about deposits. Some girls have been invited to audition – please note that this is so that the conductors have a sense of what instrumentation is available. If your daughter has not received any emails asking her to audition, it is assumed she is confirmed for the tour and you will receive notice about deposit payments.
Regarding costs, please note that if you were at the information session, we provided you with the amount that was the higher end of the spectrum based on smaller numbers of girls attending. The more girls we have going, the less the cost.
Sarah Turner
Head of Music