Scotch College

Sax @ Scotch in Shanghai

Last year, I received an invitation to send a musical ensemble to participate in the International Children’s Cultural and Arts Festival organised by the Soong Ching Ling Foundation in Shanghai.

I originally declined the invitation as we already had a large scale tour in mind for January (Symphony Orchestra and Chamber Choir to Europe). However, invitations were persistent, and after three invitations, it was decided to send the excellent Year 8 Saxophone Ensemble, Sax@Scotch. The ensemble comprises Yang Li (Alto), Edward Hamer (Alto), Lachlan Shepherd (Tenor) and Hugh Marshall (Baritone). The quartet is directed by Peter Rickard who formed the group when the boys were in Year 7. It would be fair to say that once the decision was made to go, an intense regime of rehearsals followed, along with a substantial number of preparatory performances. By the time we all left for the festival, the boys were performing to a level well beyond their previous aspirations! The festival included some 35 ensembles from 24 different countries. The other Australian ensemble was the White Swan Dance Company from Box Hill. We therefore travelled in conjunction with the dance company and resided in the same hotel. This made a number of organisational matters very much easier. The festival comprised dance troops, music ensembles of many different kinds, a piano festival (which included an outdoor performance presented by over 100 pianists simultaneously), and there were also dramatic performances. Our students performed superbly at their featured concert, and a photograph of them was published in a widely circulated Shanghai newspaper. They also gave less formal performances at the Hotel, and at the Shanghai Conservatorium Music School (specialist Music School affiliated to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music). However, perhaps the most significant benefit for the boys was the broadening of minds which came from seeing such a diverse range of performances from all over the world. Many were of a remarkably high calibre, and the whole of Shanghai seemed to focus on this massive event. We were all rather impressed with our police escort which took us through the streets of Shanghai to the opening ceremony with streets closed off and many flashing lights as the convoy of coaches, full of excited performers, swept through the great city. There were also wonderful sights to see and the festival organises arranged some excellent sightseeing tours. A high spot of the tour was a chance to meet Mr Sam Gerovich, Consul General at the Australian Consulate in Shanghai. Mr Gerovich is no stranger to musicians from Scotch, having hosted a concert of Chamber Music performed by our students in Taipei in 2001. He told our students that Shanghai is one of the world’s most exciting cities, and the number of young Australian professionals going to work in Shanghai was increasing every year. He urged the boys to consider this – and to learn Mandarin!

No trip to Shanghai would be complete without shopping and learning the gentle art of haggling with the merry merchants of Shanghai’s markets. There were some remarkable bargains – and much fun in the dealing. Finally, we particularly need to thank the Australian Government for some funding for the tour, and to acknowledge the assistance from Jenny Chang. Jenny was responsible for obtaining the government sponsorship, and assisted with a number of the arrangements both in China and before leaving.

Concerto Concert

The annual Concerto Concert took place on Sunday 20 June at Melba Hall (Melbourne University). This concert is in many ways the main orchestral concert of the year – it certainly has the most notes! Flute soloists Andrew Loh A.Mus.A. and Anthony Kung gave a very creditable performance of the Cimarosa Double Flute Concerto for Chamber Orchestra and Flutes. Particularly impressive was the Cadenza which was composed by Anthony for the performance. A particularly fine performance from Peter Chandler L.Mus.A., who played the fiendishly difficult Zigeunerweisen for Violin and Orchestra by Sarasate. Peter handled the remarkably difficult technical passages with aplomb, while reaching a real depth of emotion for the more reflective passages. The orchestra also played well, never obscuring the sound of the violin. The other Concerto for the day was the magnificent Piano Concerto No. 3 by Beethoven. The soloist was Henry Hedinger A.Mus.A., who demonstrated real maturity in his understanding of the work and his technical security. It was a great pleasure to conduct these three concertos, and the orchestra deserves much credit for the speed in which these works were prepared. We will be taking these pieces with us on the tour to the UK at the end of the year. The saxophone ensemble also performed at the concert as part of its preparation for its tour to Shanghai.

The second half of the concert was a performance of Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9 “from the New World”. This, the best known of all Dvorak’s symphonies will be our “flagship” work on the tour at the end of the year. There was some superb playing from the orchestra in the performance of the 1st, 2nd and final movements. Oliver Blake is to be particularly commended for his Cor Anglais solo in the famous melody of the 2nd movement. There was also some fine brass playing, and the strings handled this immensely difficult work very well indeed.

Shanghai musicians to Scotch College

Professor Zhao Ziaosheng

Last November I had the privilege of being invited to present a paper at a conference for Principals of Specialist Music Schools at the Shanghai Specialist Music School affiliated to the Shanghai Conservatorium of Music. While I was a guest at the school, the Principal of the Shanghai school, Professor Zhao Xiaosheng, and I explored the idea of forming an ongoing affiliation between our two schools. As a direct result of this, we had the wonderful experience of hosting some musicians from Shanghai for a week immediately following our own trip to Shanghai for the Festival (the Shanghai musicians came to Australia with us on the same plane). The Shanghai Conservatorium Middle School runs two streams of music. First is its classical stream, and a huge number of Chinese musicians all over the world trace their routes back to their formative studies at this remarkable institution. The school also has a stream for traditional Chinese instruments, and has been responsible for commissioning many new works for traditional instruments as well as works for traditional instruments in combination with western instruments. The standard of music at the school is exceptional, with literally hundreds of students applying each year for a relatively small number of places. The group of 10 students who came from Shanghai for this first visit comprised a Chamber Ensemble of seven Chinese instruments plus a violinist, viola player and a pianist. Many of our students had never heard traditional Chinese music performed before, and certainly not to this exceptional standard. Their main concert was presented at MLC, as our own auditorium is not yet ready. It drew a substantial audience, and the concert received a spontaneous and heart felt standing ovation from the highly appreciative audience. A further performance to the entire School in assembly was similarly well received as the hushed audience of some 1300 boys listened in awe to music that was sometimes subtle and sometimes spectacularly vibrant. The performers wearing traditional Chinese silk looked wonderfully exotic on the Memorial Hall stage. As a conclusion to their performance, the students formed their own arrangement of Click Go The Shears. I had never heard Click Go The Shears played with such subtlety, and it bought the house down.

Sax@Scotch performing in Shanghai:
Yang Li, Edward Hamer, Lachlan Shepherd, Hugh Marshall

Edward Hamer and Yang Li accepting the flag on behalf of Australia
Ð where the festival will be held in 2005

The Shanghai musicians were also involved in our Chamber Music Concert and Dinner and they also had time to see some of the attractions of Melbourne and the surrounding area. A high spirited bunch, who considered their visit to Sovereign Hill to be enhanced by the rain in terms of how the early settlers, including some of their Chinese ancestors no doubt, would have experienced it 150 years ago! The visit was a huge success, and Principals of both Schools expressed their hope that this would be the first of many visits in both directions. We are hoping to take some chamber musicians across to China next year and it has been widely felt that we can all benefit from this musical and cultural exchange. I would particularly like to thank the host families for welcoming these musicians from China into their homes – it would not have been possible without your generosity!

John Ferguson,
Director of Music