SIM News
Welcome
Welcome to 2007 to the music staff and students at Brighton Secondary School, especially the 31 Year 8 Special Interest Music students.
Several of the current Year 8 music students have already performed at different events with me in 2006. Tara Bouchier played trombone with me at the piano in the 2006 Festival of Music. Stephen Isaac, Georgia Trabilsie and Sean Helps performed at the Conference for the Gifted and Talented, and Shai Martin and Rachael Bartholomew performed at the Cummins Historic House Concert. Others will be performing at the Music Information Night on 20 February in the Hudson Room. All students are encouraged to perform in public concerts and events.
New Music Coordinator
The Brighton Secondary School music community is delighted to secure the service of Craig Bentley as the Coordinator of Music. Here is a brief outline of Craig’s career to date:
Craig won a position at Stuart High School in Whyalla in 1988. He spent 10 years teaching music which is his passion. Throughout these years he worked with many school bands in a variety of styles and brought many professional musicians, including James Morrison, Kevin Hunt, Tommy Emmanuel and Don Burrows, to Whyalla to work with and inspire his students. Craig toured annually with different bands to many parts of rural Australia performing to students and the wider communities. Craig is a highly skilled saxophonist and has been part of many community bands and rock line ups. These bands have toured extensively and were winners of the Eyre Peninsula Battle of the Bands twice.
In 1999 he won a position at Aberfoyle Park High School where he conducted both the Concert Band and Stage Bands who regularly competed in many festivals in both South Australia and Victoria with great success. Craig organised two highly successful music tours to Japan.
In 2006 he participated in a Teacher Exchange to Canada with his family. This exchange brought with it many musical experiences and introduced him to a very different education system which has enhanced his teaching style. We are very excited about Craig joining the Music Centre at Brighton Secondary School and the staff and students look forward to working with him.
2006 Results
The Year 12 music students from 2006 achieved another year of exceptional results in their SAABSA exams, with 26 merits (20 out of 20) scored. Of the 98 merits achieved in Ensemble Performance across the State, 20 were from our Music Centre. We were particularly pleased that music students, Patrick Johnson (Dux of BSS 2006), gained 4 merits, and Jade McEvoy and Ben Parton both gained 3 merits.
Merit Ceremony
Many of our students joined the rest of the most successful 2006 scholars for the annual Merit Ceremony held at Government House on 13 February. Apart from brass players from the four Special Interest Music Centres playing the Vice Regal Salute, our Stage Band gave a 25-minutes performance at the conclusion of the ceremony. The beautiful sounds of the band echoed throughout the Government House gardens. No wonder that this band was the only ensemble featured on the Channel 10 TV news that evening. I was particularly pleased that our school colour was so vivid on the television. It is great that we have s uniform policy!
Treble Choir
The much loved and highly successful BSS Treble Choir will again be directed and run by Annie Kwok and William Hughes this year. The choir had a successful and very warm 2007 weekend camp on 17/18 February where students learnt new repertoire and fundamental vocal technique. The choir will perform at this year’s Anzac Day Dawn Service on 25 April. Since the Service will start early in the morning, I am seeking help from someone who may wish to help make breakfast for our choristers! More information will be given in the next newsletter.
Festival of Lessons and Carols
Our Lessons and Carols Service did not run in 2006 due to the Concert Choir China Tour. I am hoping that 2007 Lessons and Carols Service (10 December) will have the support of our old scholars to form an Old Scholars Choir. Please send me an e-mail (jeff.kong@brightonss.sa.edu.au) if you wish to be part of this very worthwhile music service.
China Tour
Our Concert Choir returned to Adelaide after a hugely successful tour of China in December last year. The students had a wonderful three weeks in Beijing, Xian, Ningbo and Shanghai where eleven performances of an array of choral masterpieces were presented for a very young audience. With the looming of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, our Chinese counterpart and concert organisers have already promised us even bigger and more prestigious events in the near future. I understand that there could very well be a volleyball tour to China in 2008.
School Hall
The school community is keen to upgrade the facilities in our school hall. No doubt we need the support from the school community for this project. A concert will be devoted as a preliminary fundraiser for this redevelopment. Elder Hall has been booked for Saturday 1 September for a spectacular concert featuring some of the most distinguished musicians and performers from Brighton Secondary School. Naturally we will also showcase all BSS major ensembles. Our special guest performer will be Australian horn virtuoso, Andrew Bain. Andrew is currently Principal Horn with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra and lecturer at the Sydney Conservatorium. We are hoping that Andrew will perform the Richard Strauss Horn Concerto in Eb with the BSS Orchestra. Further details will be given later.
Events Calendar
The concert/events calendar has already been placed into the school’s term calendar. However, we are still discussing and refining the number of concerts and the nature of our performances for this year. A printed version of the concert/event calendar will be available in week 5.
Parent Fundraising Committee
The Music Parents and Music Fundraising Committee gave us enormous help in numerous Car Boot Sales and other fundraising events throughout 2006. With their help we were able to subsidize our Concert Choir China Tour, Stage and Swing Bands at the Generation in Jazz events in Mount Gambier, and the special music scores for the 2006 BSS 30th Anniversary Concert. We would like to thank all of you for your help and, in particular, David Anderson, Mark Gissing, Gary Smart and Peter Gillard who gave us so much of their time and energy.
Jeffrey Kong, Head of Music
