Music

Extracurricular Music

22 Blueprint I St Aidan’s Anglican Girls’ School

St Aidan’s music shone in 2021 and contributed greatly to the fabric of the school through Gala Concerts, assemblies, award ceremonies, Performing Arts Recitals, Open Mornings, Glow Online, school and family chapel services, Mother Emma Service and Mother Eunice’s Funeral.

The biggest highlight was a return to being able to perform for a live audience. The first of which was at City Hall at the Academic Awards Ceremony in week 3 of the year. Symphonic Winds, Chorale, Four Seasons Quartet and Paganini Strings performed iconic works with great confidence after a year of limited performing. The girls did not let their time away from the stage effect their ability to perform on a large concert hall stage.

Throughout the year, there has been an increased participation of musicians willing to perform hymns at assemblies, school chapels and family services. The piano students and small chamber groups have provided much of the music for these services all year, building their own skill sets that will be transferrable to services in their own church communities. Assembly has also been a forum this year to showcase the student’s talent with vocalists, percussion ensemble, pianists and string players performing solos in front of their peers with great support from the student body.

In Term 3, following on from the lockdown disruption students involved in Chorale, Ensemble Volar and Back-Beat Band all got an opportunity for a recording session with a professional recording sonologist. This took place in the CHC and the girls took this new experience in their stride, doing a few takes of their songs that was then woven together in a recording studio. This was done in conjunction with a video recording company to capture visuals that was then put together and showcased at Aidan’s Celebrates early in Term 4.

The newly revived Back-Beat Band was a hit this year with junior and senior students coming together to perform more Jazz/Pop repertoire within this ensemble. Consisting of students from Years 6-12 it was wonderful to see the mentoring opportunities in rehearsal each week from the Senior Students towards the junior girls. This has set up a wonderful foundation for this ensemble and I am sure in 2022 this group will continue to grow in numbers and stature.

All three strands of music: choir, strings and band at St Aidan’s grew this year with increased participation across all ensembles. These students have shown weekly dedication to rehearsals, all performances and the resilience to continue to flourish whilst dealing with health restrictions. The girls are to be congratulated on their efforts and standard of performances in all performance formats: solo playing, chamber music and large ensembles.

Ms Shannon Tobin Head of Performance

BMus, MMus (Res), MMus(Perf), Grad Dip Teaching

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