Scotch College

Second gaol term for choir

Following the success of the 1999 Choir Camp, the Choir unanimously decided to re-offend and as such received a repeat sentence at the Castlemaine Gaol as final preparation for the May Concert.

The Choir has thrived under its current Director, Mr Andrew Hunter, now in his second year at Scotch. It has almost 100 voices, all of whom auditioned to gain a place in the Choir. Aside from the full Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass choir, there is also a Senior Chamber Choir comprising Tenors and Basses. In addition, a four part SATB Chamber Choir is sometimes convened and there is also a Barber Shop Vocal Ensemble.

Castlemaine Gaol, decommissioned as a gaol in 1990, provides an ideal venue for the Choir Camp. Supervision is obviously very easy (it is, after all, a prison), but more importantly the venue has an excellent conference room for the full choir and a number of a smaller rooms which are ideal for sectional rehearsals.

Mr Hunter was ably assisted on the Choir Camp by Ms Jenni Allen (Head of Junior School Music), Mr David Brown (Organist and Mathematician, and associate member of Music School), Julia Piggin (Junior School Class Teacher and Accompanist) and Mr John Ferguson (Director of Music and Coach Driver).

James Worladge (Captain of Choir), assisted by other senior boys, helped with the overall running of the camp, and the mealtime entertainment was lead by the David Cheetham.

The meal time entertainment sketches have become a major and much loved feature of Choir Camp. At least we hope they will become much loved - we look forward with eager enthusiasm, and not a small degree of optimism, to their further development! The camp was a terrific success, and the inmates are all set to re-offend next year.