Scotch College

The Prom, the Wolf, the Pianos and Shanghai

A recital with poetry, a summer prom concert, a festival of pianos and a visit from China.

Words: John Ferguson • Director of Music
Photography: Andrew Murdoch and John Ferguson

The Close of 2007 saw a new event. Old Boy Andrew Leslie, who now lives in Germany, offered a recital. In Germany, he regularly gives recitals of his own music and transcriptions for solo clarinet, all matched with poetry. We decided to feature prize-winning poems from the students at Scotch and submitted the poems to Andrew in Germany. He then came to Scotch and performed music to reflect the poems read by the poets. It was a delightful Sunday afternoon recital of poetry and music in the James Campbell Room in the JFA, and we hope to repeat it annually using performances from our own musicians.

Poetry (of a kind) also featured in the Summer Prom concert in December. Nathan Su narrated the classic tale of Peter and The Wolf with the Scotch College Symphony Orchestra. It was an excellent performance, with the solo woodwind players handling this exceptionally difficult work with aplomb! The orchestra will repeat the performance with Australian actor Max Gillies as part of the Woodend Winter Arts Festival on Saturday 7 June at 2.30 pm. Details: http://www.collieroffice.com.au/wwaf/index.htm.

2008 started vigorously as we were delighted to welcome musicians from the Shanghai Specialist Music School that feeds into the Shanghai Conservatory. Our links with this remarkable institution – one of the finest specialist music schools in the world – go back to 2003. Their concert comprised a mixture of traditional Chinese music as well as western chamber music. Around 350 people enjoyed this exceptional concert. During the Easter break, a party of percussion students travelled to Shanghai to learn some of the mysteries of traditional Chinese percussion performance. The staff at the Shanghai specialist music school could not have been more generous with their time as they instructed our students, sometimes until 10.00 pm at night! The lessons were videoed so that the techniques learnt can be taught to other students. We also purchased a substantial number of gongs and traditional Chinese drums and brought them back to Scotch. We also took some Western contemporary percussion ensemble music and worked with some Chinese percussion students, thus contributing to the exchange of resources and breadth of music. Jude Hallum, Head of Percussion, deserves much credit for her untiring enthusiasm to push the boundaries of percussion music.

ScotchArts

The ScotchArts professional concert series commenced with a stunning performance by the Benaud Trio. They gave a particularly superb performance of the second, and somewhat neglected, piano trio of Mendelssohn’s, as well as Dimitri Shostakovich’s – Piano Trio No.2 in E minor Op.67. The next performance will be the much anticipated return of ‘The Song Company’ on 10 May.

Piano Festival

Following the success of the piano festival in 2007, it was decided to repeat the venture, and the indefatigable Head of Keyboard Studies, Teresa Lavers, vigorously assembled a brilliant program. The festival provides an opportunity for many of our student pianists to perform and to engage in master classes with some of Australia’s most distinguished pianists. It also features performances by professional pianists, some of whom are on staff. The festival opened with a stunning recital from Rita Reichmann from the Australian National Academy. Other recitals were given by Teresa Lavers (who performed the mighty Liszt B Minor Sonata), James Brawn, Lachlan Redd and Karen Vincent in duet mode with Gudrun Beilharz. The concert on Saturday April 12 featured concerto performances with our affiliated professional orchestra, Pro-Musica, led by Bob Wakely and conducted by me. Simon Xu (Year 11) opened the concert with an assured performance of Saint-Saëns’ Second Piano Concerto (1st movement). Simon handled the virtuosic cadenzas with aplomb, and achieved great poignancy in the reflective melodies. Max Foster (Yr 11) gave a dramatic and exciting performance of the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No 1 (1st movement). Max will perform the entire concerto with the Queensland Orchestra in June as a finalist in the keyboard section of the Australia Young Performer of the Year. A splendid achievement, we wish him well. He will perform the last movement of the Tchaikovsky with the Scotch orchestra at Foundation Day this year – so you can come and hear him! Following the interval, staff pianist Lachlan Redd gave a wonderful account of Rachmaninov’s glorious second piano concerto. The pathos of the slow movement was truly emotional, (and a great pleasure to conduct!). It was a wonderful night, and the concert received a well-deserved standing ovation.

Individual National Achievements

Max Foster, as mentioned above, has progressed to the keyboard finals in the ABC Young Performers Awards. This is a remarkable achievement in the country’s most prestigious competition. Max is a boarder (from Queensland) and holds a scholarship at the Australian National Academy where he studies with Rita Reichmann. Max was a finalist last year in Channel 7’s ‘Australia’s Got Talent’ event.

James Kim is a composition student, as well as being a fine pianist and clarinettist. Composition has continued to develop in recent years, especially since the appointment of Nicholas Buc as composition teacher (himself a former composition student at Scotch). Many of the students have managed to create a diverse folio of music styles, ranging from classical compositions, jazz pieces, rock and pop tunes, and even some contemporary experimental works. Some have even had pieces played by School ensembles, from chamber groups to the symphony orchestra. Individual successes have included James Jitivuthikarn, who came second in the 2007 Sibelius Student Composer Awards - an Australia-wide competition. This year, James Kim was a finalist in the Sydney Sinfonia’s recent composers competition, where entrants had to compose a piece based on a fragment of music by Beethoven.James was recently selected to have his work performed in Sydney by the Sydney Sinfonia under the direction of Opera Australia and Opera Victoria conductor, Richard Gill*. Richard and the finalists studied the pieces they had composed, with the Sydney Symphony Sinfonietta playing, and going through the pieces in detail. It was clear that everyone was very different to each other, and influenced by very different composers. On the last day, the Sydney Symphony Sinfonietta played the winners’ pieces and described their composition to the audience. James Kim writes: ‘During this trip Richard (Gill) taught us how to think in terms of the music, not ourselves: “Nobody cares if you liked the piece, what do you think about the music!” he said. I have gained friendship with a great man and the other composers.’ GS

*Richard Gill will be the guest speaker at the Music Auxiliary Gala Lunch on Thursday 16 October at Kooyong Tennis Club. Ticket enquires to the music office on (03) 9810 4219.