Music News | Preparatory School

Tips on how to practise for success: Know key signatures, patterns and structures

Studio Concerts

The Music Department has scheduled Studio Concerts commencing next week.   Every student who learns in our Private Tuition Program is expected to perform as part of their Teacher’s Studio Concert.  Boys are reminded that they must wear full winter uniform – no sandshoes please (except those concerts scheduled on a Thursday and PK students).  Notifications have been sent and an RSVP is required as all concerts will have limited capacity to adhere to COVID restrictions. All concerts will be held in the Mozart Room. Parents are asked to scan the QR Code on entry and please enter the Music Centre via the Llandilo Avenue staircase. 

Tuesday 25th May

11:45am | Ed Schots/Jonathan Ryan/Antonia Deasey

Friday 28th May

3:30pm | Louise Welsh

4:15pm | Amelia McCluney/Calvin Li

Tuesday 1st June

11:45am | Mandie Vieira/Valeria Korjenevski/Lorraine Jayasinghe

Thursday 3rd June

11:45am | Jenny Swanton/Matthew Harrison/Jay Tripolone/Samantha Kelson-Gray

2:10pm | Jenny Trynes

4:30pm | Alistair Wallis

Friday 4th June

4pm | Stefano Rocco 

Gala Concert

Excitement and anticipation for the Gala Concert is building and on Wednesday we welcomed Mr Trevor Adams the Director Of Music from the Junior School to our Trinity Singers rehearsal to help the students prepare for the combined Junior School item at the Gala Concert. Next Thursday Trinity Singers and Jaemin Yoo (member of Symphony Orchestra) will be travelling to Summer Hill for a combined choir and orchestra rehearsal. 

Creative Ensemble

This year a Creative Ensemble was formed that rehearses each Wednesday at first break. The ensemble aims to develop improvisation skills and creativity on tuned instruments and untuned percussion instruments. Students have been composing short musical riffs on their own instruments to be performed simultaneously against a repeated chord progression on the piano. The idea behind this exercise is for students to experiment and to develop their aural skills to create a melodic pattern that fits with the chord progression.  

Further to this, the boys have also composed a musical composition to artwork i.e. Renoir.  The notion in this exercise is to communicate the feelings that the artwork evokes and to translate this into sound with various instrumental combinations. One student described the process in this way; “I like the creativity of this ensemble and making music is like creating a picture with your instrument”. Mrs Jayasinghe and Mrs Swanton are thoroughly enjoying experimenting with the boys in this fresh musical context.

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Performances this week

Thanks to Jaemin Yoo and Mr Rocco and the Guitar Ensemble for their performances during the deliberations for the adjudication at the Recitation Competition Finals on Monday morning as both performances were outstanding. Thanks also to Ms Welsh for her accompaniment.

Guitar Ensemble

The students taking part in the guitar ensemble have continued rehearsing every Monday, showing a very good level of commitment in preparing for two fantastic events this term: “The String Soiree” and the “Poetry Finals”.

The boys have performed “Sailing Home” with solid musical expression and maturity, it was exciting and rewarding to play in front of a great audience after such a long time, and it was nice to see how everyone contributed to a sound performance by being focused during the concert.

Rehearsals will continue in the following weeks by adding new compositions to the repertoire, some examples include the famous “He’s a Pirate” (from the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie soundtrack) and the guitar ensemble’s very own composition. 

We look forward to showcasing our new songs at the next concert!

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Upcoming Events

Weeks 6 & 7 Studio Concerts

Thursday 27th May Gala Concert Rehearsal (SH)

Wednesday 2nd June Gala Concert (City Recital Hall)

Geraldine Campbell | Director of Music Preparatory School