Music Matters

Musicale 4

Our final Musicale for 2022 will take place on Thursday 17 November at 6pm in the Great Hall (Week 6).  The ensembles featured in this concert are:

• String Power
• Primary String Octet
• Bugles
• Training Band
• Glennie Percussion
• Van Reyk Percussion
• Contemporary Strings
• Clarion Band

Letters (see a copy here) have been sent to secondary students and families from both secondary and primary school with further information about this performance.  The concert is free, and we invite all parents to come and enjoy the music.

Gondwana National Choirs

Congratulations to Eva Harris (Year 12) and Olivia Flanagan (Year 5) who have both successfully auditioned for Gondwana National Choirs.  Hundreds of young choral singers from all over Australia go through a rigorous audition process of performance and sight singing for these highly sought after places. Both girls are looking forward to working with some of Australia’s best choral conductors and finest young singers on challenging choral music.  

Allison Harrigan
Director of Choirs

AMEB String Examinations

Congratulations to the 16 string players who recorded video submissions for their AMEB examinations recently. These national music exams require thorough preparation and students are to be congratulated for working hard to prepare so well. Special thanks to Ms Stephanie Holmes and Ms Heidi Jones for accompanying the girls in rehearsal and for the recordings and to the string tutors Ms Dominique Gallery, Dr Lerida Delbridge, Ms Evelyn Drivas and Ms Bonita Williams for their tireless efforts.

Congratulations to the following girls:

Year 7 Strings Lunchtime Concert

The string players from Year 7 hosted a delightful lunchtime concert in the Great Hall this week. Each girl brought a non-string playing friend and performed a short piece for her peers, accompanied by Ms Heidi Jones. Congratulations to the girls for their performances and enthusiasm for sharing their music making with each other and to Ms Jones for rehearsing carefully with each girl and her sensitive musical support in the performance.

The performers were:

• Pui Wai Evelyn Li – violin and cello
• Caitlin Cameron – violin
• Mia Chang – violin
• Camille Asher – violin
• Jasmine Cohen – violin
• Ashley Diec – violin
• Hannah Peacocke – violin
• Amelia Wilcsek – violin
• Josie Grayden – viola
• Alexis Monahan – viola
• Ruby Peters – cello

Primary Cello Ensemble

Congratulations to the Primary Cello Ensemble for their very entertaining performance of “Boil Them Cabbage Down” for the Year 3-6 Assembly last week. Cello tutor Ms Amelia McCluney performed with student cellists Elizabeth Teoh, Georgina Auld, Victoria Lincoln, Akansha Singh, Olivia Roberts, Giselle Wharton and Ying Huang for this toe-tapping tune. Well done, girls!  

Week 5’s Assembly Performance Lux Strings

Lux Strings is a chamber ensemble of students in Year 9 who perform unconducted and the girls worked hard to prepare “Summer” from “The Four Seasons” by Vivaldi which they performed at the Year 3-11 Assembly. The girls then performed it again for hundreds of delegates from all over Australia at the Positive Schools Conference in the city this week. Congratulations to Bondi Barlow, Sophia Barry, Emma Chang, Zara Clarke, Scarlett Stapledon and Cassandra Davies. See it on Vimeo here.

Mrs Anne Sweeney
Director of Strings

Brass Ensemble – Remembrance Day Service

Congratulations to members of the Brass Ensemble who played for the Remembrance Day service at Paddington Woollhara RSL last Sunday.  The Brass Ensemble consists of: Annie Furness (Trombone) (Year 11), Samantha Millin (French horn) (Year 9), Maggie Harper (Euphonium) (Year 10), Christine Chen (Year 9) and Lucy McInnes (both Trumpets) (Year 9).  The girls played a series of hymns for the service, providing musical accompaniment to the laying of wreaths by members of the community.  Special guest vocalist, Eva Harris (Year 11) joined the Brass ensemble and was accompanied by them as she sang the National Anthem.  A special “shout-out” to Lucy McInnes who also performed both the Last Post and Reveille at the service.  Big thank you to Mr Michael Tierney for his organisation and direction of the performance.  Well done to everyone!

Primary Percussion Soiree – Lunchtime Concert

Congratulations to the primary percussionists and ensemble who performed in their lunch time concert last Friday.  The students were accompanied by our percussion tutor Ms Jayne Groves and the performance also featured special guest artist Mr Michael Tierney (Director of Bands) on trumpet!  Well done to the girls who performed the following pieces:

• Annabelle Dempsey (Year 4) – Mercy Mercy Mercy (Zawinul)
• Alice Chandler (Year 2) – Welcome to New York (Taylor Swift)
• Lily Withers (Year 5) – Enemy (Imagine Dragons)
• Annabelle Kariappa (Year 5) – Dynamite (Taio Cruz)
• Olive Hunt (Year 5) – Stressed Out (Twenty One Pilots)
• Pippa Dodwell (Year 5) – All Star (Smash Mouth)
• Zoe Coudounaris (Year 5) – Seven Nation Army (The White Stripes)

Term 4 Music Calendar

Pauline Chow
Head of Music