Musical
Moments
What makes a successful music department? Is it the marks our girls achieve in their external or internal music exams? Is it the prizes we win at eisteddfods and festivals?
Yes, of course, we strive to do the best we can and we have had excellent results in 2016 but none of that is more important than hearing a Grade 1 learner walk out of class music saying,“ That was great!”. Singing, moving, learning, understanding and enjoying music is what we teach at WGJS.
Our Autumn Concert was our first presentation of the year and the performance by our 70-voice junior choir conducted by Miss Vollenhoven was great! Our orchestra, choirs and ensembles excelled at the Facets Festival and the Cape Town Eisteddfod. The flute ensemble deserves special praise for their continued dedication. A few of our girls completed their external theory and practical exams. Our“ Saturday Dress Up Concert”, with the theme“ Great Composers”, was successful. The vocal ensemble performed“ Welcome to Cape Town” for the prestigious national South African Girls’ Schools Association conference which we hosted.
The Foundation Phase Concert gave our girls the opportunity to showcase their hard work. The vocal ensemble performed with one of South Africa’ s most well-known conductors, Richard Cock.
Some of our musicians enjoyed an outing to the Baxter Concert Hall to hear international celebrity organist, Gordon Stewart, present his fun introduction to The King of Instruments. In September there was an outreach concert for Ottery Road School and an important audition for the chance to perform for Archbishop Desmond Tutu in 2017. We ended our year with the Prestige Concert and our performances at the Prize Giving ceremonies.
This year we welcomed Miss Liana Thomas back for a short time, along with Miss Susan McAlpine( Clarinet and Sax) and Miss Tamay Peters( flute, piano, class music, theory, choir). We appreciate all our music teachers for their work this year.
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