Scotch College

Foundation Day Concert to be biggest ever

This year's Foundation Day Concert is set to be the biggest ever staged, which is only befitting an event celebrating a birthday of its own in the School's sesquicentenary year.

The Concert was first held in 1911, so this year marks its 90th anniversary.

And what an occasion it will be, held in the Rod Laver Arena at Melbourne Park Tennis Centre for the first time ever, after more than two decades of concerts in the Melbourne Concert Hall at the Victorian Arts Centre.

The move will enable an increase in audience from 2,000 to 5,000, but according to Director of Music, John Ferguson, another great benefit of having substantial extra space will be the ability to accommodate a much larger number of performers.

'For many years,' John said, 'only the boys in the three senior years have been able to participate, but I am very excited this year by the opportunity the new venue will give us to include every boy from Year 4 to Year 12.

The extra space will also permit the bands to demonstrate their marching as well as their musical prowess and I am sure this will be quite a thrill for many members of the Scotch Family, he said.

Scheduled to start at 7.30 pm on Friday, August 31, this 'special and spectacular' concert will involve the School's Symphonic Orchestra, Symphonic Wind, Choirs, the Military Band, Pipes and Drums, the Show Band and around 1,600 Scotch boys.

The musical component will be 'very large', John Ferguson assures us, with 'a few surprises' in store.

Some of the work performed will be quite sophisticated and complex, but all tastes will be catered for, with some simpler, bright works included in the repertoire. This will enable not only the boys to be united in song, but also those in the audience who enjoy a good singalong.

Although the Foundation Day Concert, always a sell-out success, is probably the best known and loved of Scotch's musical events, John points out that the School's long established tradition of music has expanded enormously over the past generation.

'We now have some fifty big musical events of various types in a year', he points out, 'including no less than tweve major concerts'.

This promises to be a truly outstanding Foundation Day Concert.