Diana Springford – Head of Music

On Thursday, we were very fortunate to enjoy a ‘virtual’ visit by four talented musicians from worldmusic group Mara! who performed three online live and interactive concerts entitled Music in my Suitcase for Years K-2, 3-4 and 5-6. Over the course of an hour, students were inspired to listen to and understand each other by sharing music from a diverse array of cultures. Integrating music and dance, Music in my Suitcase encourages students to explore Australian history and share their own languages.Thank you to our teacher panellists from the Music Faculty for their enthusiastic on-screen participation.

Look out for a review of the concert from a student perspective in next week’s Ma Nishma.

All private instrumental lessons, IP and ISP are up and running on Zoom! Please let your tutor know if the sound is hard to manage as they might have some suggestions about how to change the Zoom settings to be more music friendly.

Extra-curricular Music Ensembles and Choirs: We have pirouetted back to the platforms established last year with all choirs and instrumental ensembles online, however our approach is different to last year. On Reshet and Stile, current members of our ensembles and choirs will find a range of new activities every week. These are not intended to imitate or fill in for rehearsals, which focus on repertoire learning and ensemble skill development. We want to use the unreality of online learning to allow us to focus on learning things on our instruments and voices that we might otherwise not have had time for because we were focused on exams, concerts and performances. When we step back from these big goals that usually motivate us, we can begin to get to know the weirder regions of our instruments and voices, which in turn, will make us stronger players. For example:

• A clarinet player might try to flutter tongue for the first time
• A violinist might try pizzicato
• A brass player might learn about the connection between good breathing and the ability to play high notes
• String players might learn about shepherd tones
• A chorister might learn a new piece of body percussion, or some interesting vocal warm-ups

All our conductors and tutors have contributed something different, and the Stile and Reshet pages where you find these activities will be refreshed every Wednesday at 8.00 am with new weird and fun activities for you to try – some easy, some tricky.

Private Music Tuition and Infant Strings Program

Schedules for Private Music Tuition and Infant Strings Program have been emailed to parents, using the same link as previous terms, so you should all be able to access and bookmark your schedules on your device. Tutor Zoom ID codes are embedded at the top right of each Private Tuition Schedule. 

A note about new enrolments to ISP: in the case of the K-2 Infant Strings Program, we are regrettably unable to add new enrolments into the program during this period of online learning.  As soon as the situation changes, we will let you know.

A note about new enrolments to Private Music Tuition: new applications to enrol into private instrumental or voice music lessons will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. For example, it is necessary in the current online environment for the enrolling student to have access to the instrument which they wish to use for private tuition and new ventures in online private music tuition are more likely to succeed where the student has a pre-existing experience of learning with a tutor (perhaps the student has been learning the instrument in IP, or is resuming private lessons after a break). However, we are open minded, so please ask.

Please contact Matilda Grieve by email if you have any questions about private tuition.

Instrument sundries: for those who need to stock up on replacement reeds, cleaning gear, strings, rosin and other bits and pieces, below are the website details for our local suppliers, who can post items to you or are open for click and collect purchases:

• Sydney Band Instruments         
• Irwin Violins           
• Sax and Woodwind              
• Prestige Musical Instruments     
• Sydney String Centre                   

 For Emanuel instruments needing repair, please email Joanne De Araujo  with detailed information about the fault.

 For announcements and further information, please check our Music Portal Page 

 You can also find fun news and updates from us on Instagram.