Secondary Music

Musicale 1 – Thursday 11 April, 6.00pm, Great Hall

The following secondary ensembles will be performing at Musicale 1;

• Contemporary Strings
• Clarion Concert Band
• Van Reyk Percussion Ensemble
• Glennie Percussion Ensemble
• Years 7-10 Choir
• Years 7-10 Madrigal Ensemble
• Years 7-10 Contemporary Vocal Ensemble

Further details can be found in this note.

ANZAC Day – Holst Wind Ensemble

Tuesday 30 April (first day back of Term 2)

• 7.30am warm-up and sound check
• 8.30am Assembly performance (Great Hall)

Holst Wind Ensemble will be providing the ceremonial music for this year’s ANZAC Service during our first school assembly of Term 2. Participating students are asked to arrive at 7.30am for a pre-assembly warm-up and sound check.

Term 1 String Program

“Ah music! A magic far beyond what we do here” Albus Dumbledore

The K-12 String Program has hit the ground running this year, with 11 string players selected to perform in the Eisteddfod Highlights Concerts for Primary and Secondary in Week 8. Congratulations to Alice Zhang (Year 1), Lauren Lee (Year 2), Lark Xiao (Year 2), Emily Yeung (Year 3), Amelia Chow (Year 4), Cynthia Cai (Year 7), Miranda Lin (Year 8), Natalie Assaad (Year 10), Amber Jarman (Year 11) (Violin), Bronte Lusted (Year 3) (Cello) and Chloe Anderson (Year 4) (Double Bass). Special thanks to Ms Stephanie Holmes and Ms Heidi Jones for accompanying the string players at the Highlights Concerts.

Amati Strings performed for the two Easter services last week, accompanying the congregational hymns and playing an excerpt from The Lark Ascending featuring Amber Jarman (Year 11) on violin. This tone poem by English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams was composed in 1914 in the early days of World War I, when a pastoral scene of a singing bird seemed far removed from reality. Vaughan Williams supplemented the title’s image of a bird ascending skyward by prefacing the score with excerpts from the George Meredith poem that served as his inspiration:

He rises and beings to round,

He drops the silver chain of sound,

Of many links without a break,

In chirrup, whistle, slur and shake…

For singing till his heaven fills,

‘Tis love of earth that he instils,

And ever winging up and up,

Our valley is his golden cup,

And he the wine which overflows

To lift us with him as he goes…

Til lost on his aerial rings

In light, and then the fancy sings.

Amber performed this gentle introspective piece beautifully and created a mood of nostalgic reflection at the Easter services with her fluttering and soaring melodies on her violin, evoking the lark from Meredith’s poem.

Next Thursday, we look forward to performances by four string ensembles at Musicale 1. The concert will start with Contemporary Strings joining Primary and Secondary choristers in a musical Acknowledgement of Country Tarimi Nulay: Long Time Living Here written by Australian composer Deborah Cheetham Fraillon, a proud Yorta Yorta woman and one of Australia’s leading sopranos. In this piece, choristers sing in both English and Gadigal language, with the string parts supporting and complementing the vocal lines. It is wonderful to perform music by a living female composer, whilst honouring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders past present, and future. We will acknowledge the sharing of traditional stories of First Nations peoples on this land through song at Musicale 1 with Tarimi Nulay.

The theme of Musicale 1 is Film Music and string students have been working hard this term to prepare repertoire to fit the bill:

• Sinfonietta – Feather Theme from Forrest Gump
• Chamber Strings – The Ludlows from Legends of the Fall
• Primary String Octet + percussion – Theme from Mission Impossible
• Contemporary Strings + percussion – Music from La La Land

Performance opportunities as a soloist with piano accompaniment and as an ensemble member are vital for a musician’s development. We learn so many skills in the study of a musical instrument that transfer to all walks of life – commitment, teamwork, grit, perseverance, listening and adjusting, celebrating others’ moment in the spotlight and the joy of making something beautiful together. I am so privileged to be alongside string players from K-12 on their musical journey every day at SCEGGS. I look forward to sharing our upcoming performances with the school community this term.

Anne Sweeney
Director of Strings

Clipboard

All co-curricular music ensemble schedules are now available on Clipboard. If you haven’t set this up yet, please follow these instructions.

If you are having any issues with Clipboard set-up, please contact our Music Administration Assistant, Miss Alice Kotowicz.

Important Dates

Term 1

Term 2

Heidi Jones
Head of Music (Co-curricular)