Monash Youth Music Festival
On the afternoon of Thursday 28 July, Tintern’s Senior Girls’ Chamber Choir competed in the Secondary School Chamber Choir Section of the Monash Youth Music Festival at the Huntingtower School Performing Arts Centre. With Mrs Alison Bezaire conducting us, we first performed a dulcet choral arrangement of Blackbird by Lennon and McCartney, accompanied beautifully by Mr Dave Bathgate on acoustic guitar. This was followed by a performance of ‘It Don’t Mean a Thing’, accompanied by Ms Heather McKenzie on the piano, in which the choir delivered this contrasting jazz item with devised choralography that captured the dance-like energy and joy in the song.
We had practised these songs thoroughly for weeks and had gained in confidence as we prepared for our first competition since the onset of the COVID lockdowns. It was a very exciting result to achieve second place, only 1 point behind the Our Lady of Sion Chamber Choir who placed first. We congratulate everyone involved on their wonderful performance. We not only enjoyed the benefits of our hard work, but also recognised areas in which we could improve to better ourselves. We are thankful for such an amazing opportunity to gain performance experience, display our skills and learn from the event.
Natasha Gillam & Ella Jones, Year 11 |Choral Captains 2022
Victorian School Music Festival
Chamber Orchestra
On Wednesday 27 July, the Tintern Grammar Chamber Orchestra attended the Victorian School Music Festival at the Hawthorn Arts Centre, which was a stunning building and former Town Hall. We performed a program of three pieces. We started with Italiana, which is from the third suite of Ancient Airs and Dances by Respighi. This suite differs from the other two as it is arranged for strings alone while the others are arranged for a full orchestra. Our next piece was Summer from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. Sophie Qiu was the soloist and did a fantastic job. Our last piece was Scheherazade by Rimsky-Korsakov, with Jedid She as the soloist.
After the performance, we had a workshop with Dr Gail Barnes on stage. Dr Barnes is professor of Music Education from the University of South Carolina, and a specialist researcher in string ensembles. She provided some helpful insight about continuing to develop our collective sound and explore the musicality of our works. Afterwards, we watched other schools perform, that were great to watch. It was nice to see what other schools were doing, experience some outstanding music and gain inspiration on what we could add to our own playing. Many thanks to Mr Veldman for organising this event for us.
Nishka Fernando, Year 12 | Instrumental Music Captain 2022
Victorian School Music Festival
Scrolls
The Victorian School Music Festival, or VSMF, was an incredible experience for all of the students involved. We were fortunate enough to travel to Hawthorn on 25 July to perform with three other schools at the Hawthorn Arts Centre. Tintern’s Scrolls String Orchestra played two of our favourite pieces, Scottish Ballade and Maelstrom. After performing, we were lucky enough to be coached by one of our adjudicators, International Music Educator, Dr Gail Barnes.
Before our performance, we were able to listen to the other schools performing their music. Each school did an exceptional job. They all had wonderful qualities which made their performances very enjoyable. A few days after our performance at the Festival, Scrolls received our mark from the adjudicators. We received a silver award, which is an incredible achievement, especially considering it was our first time performing at the Festival. All of our members are extremely proud of our work, and are incredibly grateful for the effort that our teachers put into the experience. We had a marvellous time and cannot wait for next year’s Victorian School Music Festival!
Isabella Di Felice Year 8 | Scrolls Cellist
Music Camp
Over the weekend of 22-24 July, 110 of our ensemble musicians and choristers enjoyed a period of intensive rehearsals at our Annual Music Camp (an onsite event).
