Scotch College

Our musicians acclaimed

Their Zimbabwe triumph

The Easter Holidays saw nine of Scotch's finest musicians depart for a tour of Zimbabwe. The tour lasted almost three weeks, but given the political situation many parents assured me that it felt somewhat longer.

The tour came about because of the lunch time series of concerts at Cabrini Hospital which have frequently featured our Piano Trio. These three boys - Frank Yang - piano, Allen Wang - violin, and Ye Lian He - Cello, are all in Year 10.

They started as a piano trio towards the end of Year 7, and in Year 8 won the Victorian Schools Chamber Music competition. Last year they won the Open Chamber Music Section of the Waverley Eisteddfod, and last month were prize winners at the Boroondara Eisteddfod, coming 2nd in the Murray Sharp Memorial Chamber Music Competition. One of the Cabrini Concerts was recorded for broadcast by Radio 3MBS FM, and a CD of this broadcast was sent to a committee member of the Harare International Festival of the Arts by Wendy Brooks, the concert organiser, and former resident of Zimbabwe.

An invitation for the trio was forthcoming, and we negotiated a small expansion so that a few more boys could be involved.

The programme we took to Africa included the Mendelssohn D Minor Piano Trio, the Schubert Octet and the Schubert 'Trout' Quintet.

Aside from the Trio the boys involved were Jeremy Chin (Violin), Adam Ridgewell (Viola), Jason Abramowski (Double-Bass), James Matt (Clarinet), Lin Yang (Horn) and Peter Commons (Bassoon).

After flying into Harare, we flew to Bulawayo, and then moved to a game park called Malalangwe about an hour's drive from Bulawayo. The scenery was wonderful, and we had an amazing experience going out on game drives and also exploring the area on foot accompanied by very knowledgeable guides who delighted in sharing their understanding of wildlife, rock paintings and the somewhat turbulent history of Zimbabwe. The political situation in Zimbabwe was never very far away, and on our last morning in the Game Park - a Sunday - we gave a concert for local farming families, all of whom had squatters on their farms.

Our main concert in Bulawayo was very warmly received by more than 200 people. Bulawayo has an International Festival every two years, and has notable overseas artists such as Leslie Howard who is a regular visitor, and Elizabeth Wallfisch. From Bulawayo we travelled to Victoria Falls, where we were generously accommodated at the Elephant Hills Hotel, in exchange for a concert in aid of wild-life anti-poaching. The concert was presented outside in an amphitheatre, and raised $7,000 towards the cause. The Falls themselves were truly magnificent, and, owing to the political situation, there were very few other tourists around. From Victoria Falls we flew to Harare, and then boarded the train to Mutare.

Mutare is in the eastern highlands, and the scenery was breathtakingly spectacular. We were due to be billeted on farms around the Mutare Region, but with the potential for farm invasions by war veterans and squatters, we were advised by the Australian Consul in Harare to stay in a hotel in Mutare. However, we did spend a great deal of time visiting rural communities, including a small African village, where the grandmother of a young girl who accompanied us, showed the boys how to grind Sadza, and welcomed us into her circular mud hut with a thatched roof.

What impressed us all was the fact the people lived in these huts, and this was not some kind of Sovereign Hill. It was also interesting to see how important education can be.

The girl who accompanied us attended school in Mutare where the English education system is followed. She had 10 'O' levels, all with A grades, and is currently studying for her A levels. She had an interview pending as the final stage of a scholarship application to Cardiff University to study medicine. Aside from grinding Sadza, the boys also visited the well, some 400 metres away from the mud huts. Here they made themselves useful by pumping up water, and then were most impressed to see a fairly elderly lady pick up this large bucket, place it on her head, and, with no support from her hands effortlessly walked back towards the village.

Our Mutare concert was generously received, and we spent the last morning walking in a Game Reserve where we came into quite close contact with a bull elephant, and also saw rhino, sabel wildebeest and a crocodile. We returned to Harare for the final eight days of the tour.

The Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA) is a much bigger event than we were expecting. The Festival itself lasted six days, but used multiple venues and simultaneous performances of different genres. There were some 21 international acts, and aside from the Festival proper there were a large number of performances making up a healthy 'fringe'. Aside from our main performance, we also became involved in several other events. We performed at the Australian High Commission for a Rural Arts and Crafts Exhibition and prize giving ceremony organised by the Australian High Commission, and Ye Lian He played solo cello as part of an evening of Shakespeare Sonnets (to an audience of over 1000 people).

As artists we were given passes to other performances, and we saw the magnificent festival opening concert - a performance of David Fanshawe's African Sanctus.

This diverse and spectacular work, which included recordings of traditional music from all over Africa combined with western vocal music and supported (for this performance) with traditional African dancing was quite magnificent. An audience of over 2000 enjoyed the thrilling event in the Harare gardens.

Perhaps the most spectacular event of all for the festival was a performance of Mozart's Magic Flute. We were invited to participate in this event because the Belgrade Chamber Orchestra had to withdraw from the festival.

I was asked to convene and rehearse an orchestra comprising our own musicians and professional players from South Africa prior to the arrival of the opera company from London.

The company, Pegasus Opera, is a young professional company which had the unique idea of exchanging the Mozart allegory on Freemasonry for Voodooism. It proved to be a very easy and successful exchange of concepts, and this spectacular production took place outdoors under an African sky to an audience of over 3500.

The performance included magic and fireworks, and superb singing. Following this triumphant performance, I was concerned that our own performance might be something of an anticlimax.

Our concert was scheduled for 5.30 at the Dutch Reformed Church on Sunday April 23. The setting was beautiful, with a lovely Steinway Piano and lighting supplied by several wartime candelabras. It was with surprise as well as joy that I saw a large queue of people waiting to come into the concert, and we filled the church which held some 300 people. The audience was as delighted to hear this young polished group from Australia as we were to be there. The applause for each item, particularly the Mendelssohn Piano Trio, was spontaneous and filled with enthusiasm, and following our final item, the boys received a standing ovation which lasted several minutes as our musicians, clutching their bouquets of flowers, had to return repeatedly to the stage.

We returned to our Hotel, hastily changed and travelled to yet another venue, this time a modern theatre, and enjoyed the Dallas Contemporary Dance Company from America.

While not all boys felt that contemporary dance was exactly their scene, all agreed that it enhanced the diversity of performances.

The tour, which included the opportunity to perform a complete opera, the sheer privilege of having been invited, on merit, to perform at an international festival, and be sponsored for participating, the performances we attended, all added up to an unforgettable experience at the festival.

When one adds to that the travel to other parts of Zimbabwe, the game parks, the wild-life, Victoria Falls and the Eastern Highlands, it becomes clear that we really had two tours. Naturally the political situation in Zimbabwe was ever present.

The fact that our hotel had virtually no tourists, but was instead filled with journalists and other artists involved in HIFA made us all appreciate the political stability of Australia.

A few days after returning to Australia I received an e-mail from Bulawayo inviting us to participate in the Bulawayo Festival next year or, in case we feel that's a bit soon to return to Zimbabwe, in 2003.

It would appear that the ever resilient Zimbabweans are determined that life will go on.

Mr John Ferguson, Director of Music