Q& A
Music Director and Old Boy
Jeffrey Black Eagles’ Wings sat down with Churchie’s new Director of Music, Old Boy Mr Jeffrey Black (1979) to talk about his career as an international opera singer and his vision for the School’s music program.
Jeffrey Black as Don Giovanni (1991) for the Australian Opera
When did you first start singing? I became a chorister at St John’s Cathedral through the scholarship program at Churchie. I was incredibly fortunate that the Director of Music, an eminent musician within Brisbane’s cultural life, David MacFarlane (1954), recognised I had an interest in productions and stage works. I was in the school productions every year from that moment onwards, and in my first performance, the Gilbert and Sullivan production The Mikado, I played a Japanese girl. Back in those days there were no shared productions with girls’ schools, so all the boy sopranos had to play female roles. Did you grow up in a musical family? Every member of my family is musical. It sounds old fashioned, but we would have soirées and on Boxing Day we would take turns singing or playing the piano. It’s a part of the culture we are missing today. When did you realise you had a gift for singing opera? I knew I enjoyed singing classically, and because of my background as a chorister at St John’s Cathedral, it was natural to go from that into the classical repertoire.
Jeffrey Black in Morris Hall
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Where is your favourite place you have performed? The Metropolitan,
New York and houses like the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. How did your return to Churchie come about? I was out in Australia to adjudicate the Australian Singing Competition and was subsequently asked if I would compere Churchie’s Centenary Concert in 2012. The following year I became aware that the School was looking to appoint a Director of Music – I thought with my expertise as a performer of some note and with some of the work I had done in education in London with regards to methodologies, structures and programs, I would be a good fit. What is your vision for music at Churchie? A focus on music across the entire School is paramount. The Prep School do a wonderful job; they have a dynamic and vibrant instrumental program. Building on this, the key to our success is making sure we marry both the students’ singing and instrumental abilities. To flourish, a music department needs to be firing on both levels as they feed one another. My challenge is to make sure that the degree of dynamism and involvement in the Prep School continues in the Middle and Senior Schools. It has been proven that studying music improves numeracy and literacy, not to mention confidence and self-esteem. Being part of a team or an ensemble, being able to be empathetic – those are the skills students develop in a vibrant music department. It’s an important element of the work we do.