Music Matters

Despite the state being in lockdown, we are fortunate that Year 12 Music students can continue with their HSC Performance preparation.  The health guidelines for these rehearsals have been strictly adhered with distance rules in place.  It has been lovely to see the girls working with Ms Heidi Jones and with external musicians who form a small band to accompany some of our Music 1 students.  Our best wishes are extended to our Year 12 Music students as they work towards their performance trial examinations on Monday 2 August.

At Home Learning – Kindy on Zoom!

Online learning has its challenges, but Mrs Cleworth’s Kindergarten class had no problems following her directions.  You can see in the picture below Mrs Cleworth teaching her Kindergarten class and asking them to copy her rhythms and actions on Zoom.  Well done Kindergarten and thank you Mrs Cleworth.

Co-Curricular Music Activities – Primary and Secondary

Primary students are now invited to participate in their co-curricular music ensembles starting next week.  Please see below for the addition of Primary ensemble times.

All students can access the musical materials that will be rehearsed in their ensembles through Seesaw (String Power and Stringalong) and Cognito.  Students are encouraged to take these parts to their instrumental teachers to prepare in their online lessons.

If you have any questions, please contact Mr Peter Jewitt, Ensembles Coordinator – peterjewitt@sceggs.nsw.edu.au

We look forward to when we can resume our rehearsals with our friends and conductors.  In the meantime, we encourage students to take part so we can be ready when we resume our face-to-face rehearsals. But we do understand that learning online can be very tiring and so if you need a screen break, please don’t feel you have to come to co-curricular music activities. Having down time, away from screens and being outside are important too!

Peripatetic Zoom Lesson Guidelines

Peripatetic lessons via Zoom are being offered to families to maintain continuity with learning.  If you decide to proceed with online lessons for your daughter, please note the following:

1. There must be an agreement between you and your daughter’s tutor, detailing date, time and platform for lessons (Zoom is preferable to Skype).
2. For the protection of both parties, a parent/guardian should be nearby to assist during the lesson if necessary. This is to protect both parties.
3. Students must let their class teachers know well beforehand if they have a music lesson during a timetabled class.
4. If your daughter is unwell, please let the music tutor know.

Practical considerations:

• Ensure that appropriate device and setup is confirmed well before the lesson.
• Ensure that the tutor has necessary contact details.
• Instruments should be tuned before the start of the lesson. Your daughter’s tutor can recommend a suitable app to assist in tuning instruments.
• Consult with tutor to determine the best camera angle for the lesson.
• Quality of connection may be improved if other family members remain offline during the lesson.
• Establish a dedicated space for music lessons is useful to eliminate distractions and extraneous noise where possible.
• Student should be appropriately addressed for the lesson.

We would love to see pictures of your daughter’s Zoom music lessons at home.  If you would like to share these with our school community, please email them to paulinechow@sceggs.nsw.edu.au.

Meet our Tutor – Lerida Delbridge

This week, our tutor of the week is Lerida Delbridge who teaches Violin in our Music program.  This week we asked Lerida the following questions:

What attracted you to your instrument? 
My big sister – who is 9 years older – played the violin.  I just wanted to do everything that she did!  My Dad made me a cardboard violin when I was 2 and at 3, they gave me the real thing. The rest is history!

Share a performance highlight.
I have been fortunate to have had many performance highlights and perform in many of Europe’s greatest halls.  The most memorable was performing in the war-torn town of Mostar in 1998 in one of the first open air orchestral concerts programmed at the newly built Pavarotti Music Centre.  The concert was attended by NATO troops and communities from both sides of the conflict, with the aim of using music to start the journey of reconciliation.  NATO bombers patrolled the skies throughout the performance which was, without a doubt, one of the most extraordinary nights of my musical life. 

Where has your instrument taken you?
As you can see from my previous answer, playing the violin has taken me to many wonderful places!  I remember playing for a remote Fijian community at the age of 7. I first toured Europe with a small chamber ensemble at 9.  I have toured throughout Europe and North America with the Tinalley String Quartet and more recently with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra – and was fortunate to spend several Winters in Banff studying at the Banff Centre for the Arts – with endless days at minus 30!  It has been a wonderful way to see the world!

What do love about teaching at SCEGGS?
The girls!  I love getting to know them all.  Every girl has a different approach to learning the violin and it is such a joy to discover each girls’ strengths and then work together to improve the more difficult aspects of violin playing.  Most of all, I love the imagination and determination that every girl shows and the wonderful desire to learn!

Pauline Chow
Head of Music