Great Scot September 2018 Gt Scot_154_September_online | Page 50

Music
AUTUMN CONCERT. JONATHAN ZHANG ACKNOWLEDGES APPLAUSE AT THE CONCLUSION OF RACHMANINOV’S 2ND PIANO CONCERTO
A musical semester
Impressive music from large scale ensembles and brilliant individual performers
Term 1 commenced in earnest with a visit by a group of young ladies
from the Tokyo College of Music High School. This is the specialist music
school that feeds into the Tokyo College of Music. For some reason, the 10
students were all girls – but our boys didn’t seem to mind(!), and made the
ladies most welcome.
Some of the girls performed at a lunchtime concert, while others
were absorbed into the Steinway recital, giving that concert a little more
breadth than is customary. Some of the girls also played in the orchestra
for rehearsals. It was a rewarding experience for many of the boys, and
we hope that it will develop into a long-term arrangement, similar to our
association with the Shanghai Conservatory specialist music school.
Special projects and events bring excitement and freshness to the
musical environment, and this year we have enjoyed a number of these. The
first ScotchArts concert of the year featured Wilma & Friends, presenting a
beautiful concert of chamber music. The original concept of the ScotchArts
series was to bring professional artists into the School, and for those artists
to work with our boys and provide an extended role model. Wilma Smith,
former Concertmaster of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, has embraced
this concept wholeheartedly, and with great energy and imagination.
This first concert featured two of our recent Old Boys in performance.
Tian Tian Lan (’17) and James Bakirtzis (‘14), pianist and hornist respectively,
performed the Brahms Horn Trio, with Wilma playing violin. It was a truly
beautiful performance. James was also the horn player for Mozart’s Horn
Quintet. He is currently completing tertiary music studies in Stuttgart, and
Tian Tian is studying medicine and music at the University of Melbourne.
The other ScotchArts presentation also deserves a mention. The
project, Reconciliation, was Wilma Smith’s brainchild. It became a
collaboration between the internationally renowned didgeridoo performer,
William Barton, the distinguished pianist and composer (and former Scotch
student) Ian Munro (‘80), William Barton’s mother, whose story was the
main feature of the project, our own Indigenous students and Wilma’s
professional string quartet. An article about the preparation of the project
appeared in the April issue of Great Scot, but the actual performance was
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truly remarkable – bringing together such a diverse range of experiences
and talents. It was a very special night.
Jude Hallum, Head of Percussion, and possibly the greatest evangelist
for percussion since the late James Blades, has developed a culture
whereby our boys have earned a strong reputation in percussion circles
for their willingness and ability to step into nearly any musical situation.
This came to the fore when Jude invited the Melbourne Conservatorium
Percussion Ensemble to work with our boys and their like-minded
counterparts from a number of Melbourne schools, for a workshop and
performance of contemporary classical percussion repertoire.
In August, Jude took our percussionists, including the Military Drumline
as well as pitched percussion, to the National Percussion Eisteddfod in
Queensland, where they performed music of various styles from classical
through to pop. The boys continued to show their versatility and Scotch
spirit in the first Australian Drumline Battle, where they improvised a hilarious
performance, drawing from popular culture, such as Star Wars, Minions and
even rap! They achieved all this while showing great skill and musicianship,
as well as encouraging the other performers.
Our boys deserve to be commended not only for their musicianship,
but even more so for their conduct in representing Scotch to the wider
community as balanced young men who are capable and generous of spirit.
The annual Choir Camp was the first of the perennial large-scale events
of the year. Almost 200 boys arrived at Rutherford Park, near Daylesford,
for nearly three days of intense rehearsal. Andrew Hunter, Choral Director,
is to be commended for establishing an environment where focused work
is the main purpose (although there is a good deal of fun as well). The
various voice staff, notably Peter Mander and Joanne Blankfield, and other
musicians, work very hard to foster choral excellence at Scotch.
The annual Choir Camp segues neatly into the Autumn Concert
Season (formerly known as the May Concert). The night of Intermediate
Ensembles featured the Ted Joyner Band, the Intermediate Concert Band,
the George Dreyfus Band, the Intermediate Orchestra, the Henri Touzeau
String Orchestra, the Cambiata Choir, the Morrison Street Big Band and
Great Scot Number 154 – September 2018