Striking the right chord Music for young people is more important than ever when you consider the results of recent neuroscientific research using fMRI and PET scanners. Testing showed that learning and playing music is the only activity to engage every area of the brain at once, stimulating the visual, auditory and motor cortices. Many other activities stimulate one or two of these areas, but not all three. If music is learnt early in life, the effect on mental processing is huge, flowing into every other learning area as the child develops.
JULIA YANG Piano
It is now 10 years since our Junior School Strings program began under the wonderful direction of Mr Adrian Wayte. The current Year 12 cohort was the first Year 2 group to learn a stringed instrument and besides now having a very strong culture of string players in the school, as attested to by the recent Concerto Concert, the effect on every area of the school in this regard is incalculable. From an early age, all students take classroom music for at least 90 minutes per week. In the Early Learning Centre all students have three lessons of music involving experiential singing, percussion playing, and moving and listening to all styles of music, then through our Kodaly-based program students attain musical literacy from Pre Primary through to Year 4. In Years 5 and 6 this is extended further and all students from Years 3 to 6 participate in their Year level choir, learning formal choral skills.
VIRGINIA LO Flute
Musical education remains an important part of life at the Senior School. As soon as students are in Year 7 they have two periods of music each week, one a choir session and the other in the Music Lab focusing on projects using software programs. From Year 8, the girls have two periods each week comprising aural, composing, literature and performance skills. Advanced musicians can choose to take ATAR music in Years 11 and 12, while many girls choose to continue on a tertiary level. Throughout the year, parents and friends would have caught a glimpse of one of our many co-curricular groups performing at assemblies, chapel and cathedral services, festivals, the annual Music Tour, functions, concerts and community performances.
ISOBEL YATES Oboe
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