The Australian Combined Schools Music Festival

The Australian Combined Schools Music Festival

Mikhael Djauhari, Vice-Captain of Music

With COVID-19 restrictions having all but disappeared, interstate festivals and events have returned, and Scotch music ensembles are once again revelling in the opportunity to gain real-world performance experience. The Australian Combined Schools Music Festival is a prestigious biannual event that brings together high level music students from some of Australia’s pre-eminent private school music programmes. Although not a permanent member of the ACSMF, Scotch was invited by Dr. Andrew Sutherland at MLC to participate in the festival as a partner school for 2023. The four-day festival involved performing in ensembles of various styles under the tutelage of outstanding national and international conductors. This year was the twenty second festival, held between the 28th of June and the 1st of July. Not only was it a privilege for this exclusive festival to be hosted on Western Australian soil, but it was also an incredible opportunity for Scotch College music students to workshop and hone their musical collaboration skills.

Three days of rehearsals (approximately eight hours each day) culminated in the Gala Concert, held at the beautiful Winthrop Hall on the campus of The University of Western Australia.

As a result of our representation in 2023, Scotch has now been invited to become a permanent member of the ACSMF and has received an invitation to travel to Adelaide for the 2025 festival.

It was rewarding to see Scotch’s deep involvement in this festival, with participants from Junior, Middle and Senior School. Through the sheer quality of our Music programme, boys from various instrumental and musically stylistic disciplines were nominated and accepted into the Primary Schools’ Choir, the Festival Choir, the Festival Concert Band, and the Festival Orchestra. There is no doubt that these boys gained great experience and knowledge in the short period of three days, as well as enjoying the lifelong friends they made along the way.

It was inspiring to see the Scotch College Junior School boys from the Primary School Choir, walk out of the auditorium with beaming faces, pleased with the outstanding performance they had just delivered. In terms of personal experience, I am filled with gratitude and humility to have been accepted as the Festival Concert Band’s pianist. Although it was a new experience, as I am more familiar with Orchestral work through my past string experience, I have increased my musical ability and gained experience under the expert tutelage of my conductor. As a student leader in the Performing Arts, it was extremely encouraging to see a great number of boys from younger years partaking in this event. These boys are the future of our department, and I am sure that they will become future role models in Scotch Music.

As a result of our representation in 2023, Scotch has now been invited to become a permanent member of the ACSMF and has received an invitation to travel to Adelaide for the 2025 festival.

I would like to close with one word: Pursue.

Pursue future opportunities such as these. Pursue the experience and skills you will develop. Pursue the future connections that you will establish through the wonderful people you will meet and play music with.