Music Matters
Diana Springford – Director of Music P-12
Welcome to our Music Matters page! 🎶
Term 3 dates
Weekly ensemble rehearsals will resume at their normal times from the first day of Term 3, including Gershwin and Bernstein Concert Bands and Senior Choir at 7.10 am on Tuesday 18 July 2023. Instrument Program (IP) classes and Private Music Tuition resume on the first day too. Please remember to bring your instrument and music.
Ensemble auditions (for new members) in Term 3
Some ensembles will be holding auditions for new members (existing memberships will automatically roll forward) in early Term 3. Please keep an eye out for an announcement in Ma Nishma at the end of Week 1 next term.
Music Camp
Last week, we had the wonderful opportunity to bring together 163 student musicians from Years 4 – 12, across 22 music ensembles, for our annual Music Camp. We were joined by a group of 40 students from Mount Sinai College and their teachers. These students and 28 staff worked tirelessly over four days to learn a huge range of repertoire and refine a number of items for performance at the Music Camp Showcase Concert, which took place on Thursday evening.
Our guest artist for camp was Paul Jarman, a wonderful composer and choral conductor and lovely person.
Our student MCs at the concert gave us insights into their favourite moments from camp: The Talent Show as always was a highlight, as well as the scenic bushland and coastal setting at Lake Macquarie, the good food, and the extensive facilities for table tennis, soccer and other games during breaks in rehearsals.
I would like to thank the brilliant music team for their care, energy, expertise and inspiration during camp, including Mr Burley, Mr Owen and Ms Yendell, and our outstanding music tutors, conductors and accompanists. Thank you to Mrs De Araujo for her tremendous behind-the-scenes event organisation. Thanks to the wonderful camp welfare team including Mr Aghion, Ms Cresswell, Ms Ktalav, Mr Korkut, Ms Lijovic, Ms Butler and Mr Case for their energy, care and time.
We are very grateful to our Year 11 Hospitality students, under the supervision of Ms Ephron, who volunteered to cook and serve the BBQ (Timmy Simon, Samuel Greenberg, Yoni Springer, Gia Jocum, Gabriel Stiassny, Talia King, Kyra Levin and Milla Silberman).
We also thank our many colleagues who helped with concert logistics: Marketing, Maintenance and Security teams for their help with concert logistics, Ben Marshall for his exemplary sound engineering, assisted by Dylan Budai (Year 10) and Mrs Lipson for reproducing our repertoire and program.
We would like to thank the many Emanuel parents who support the Music Program and who were such an appreciative audience. Kol Hakavod to all the music campers who worked very hard for long hours with great enthusiasm and focus and achieved really wonderful progress as musicians and stunning performances in the final concert. They should be very proud of themselves!
Our stunning photographs of the concert were taken by Sharon Arnott, a member of our parent community, who captured superb images of our performers. Please see the separate article ‘Music Camp in pictures’ for a gallery selection of these and some highlights from camp.
Recent student performances
We have been very lucky to enjoy some wonderful musical performances at our Tuesday morning assemblies this term. Our final two performances were no exception!
Mazal Tov to:
- Mariah Lewy, Ruby Miller, Ruby Brody and Lucinda Labi who performed Landslide so beautifully in Week 9.
- The Senior Chamber Choir, conducted by Mr Remington Owen, whose performance of Remember Me from Coco was mesmerising earlier this week.
Private music tuition and Infant Strings Program
Thank you to those who have already advised us of changes to private tuition and Infant Strings Program (ISP) enrolments for next term. The deadline for new enrolments, notification of changes or intention to discontinue for Term 3, was the end of Week 7. All students currently receiving private music tuition and students in Years K-2 who are currently participating in the ISP will be automatically re-enrolled into tutor schedules along with students commencing for the first time.
Please contact music@emanuelschool.nsw.edu.au if you have any questions.
The schedules for Term 3 will be created at the end of term and emailed during July term break.
Please visit our Music Portal Page for information about:
- Private Music Tuition (beginning and discontinuing)
- Ensemble and Choir membership for K-12 students
- Infant Strings Program (ISP) for K-2
- Performance opportunities
- Borrowing an orchestral instrument.