1997 School Magazine

@irlli @rmmn11r ~cbooI J)j!risb11ne 1997 ---------11f------------------------ ~ Canberra Tour

O n the sixth of August, 34 Grammar girls accompanied by Mr Sullivan, Mr Jarvis and Mrs Bailey flew to Canberra for the biennial Combined Schools Music Festival. Two years ago it was held in Brisbane, where a large number

The showcase item of the night was the combined choir and orchestra performing the spectacular work of Walton's Belshazzar's Feast. Intense rehearsals by the choir and orches- tra alike were necessary to pull this most challenging and

difficult work together. It was an experience no-one involved will ever forget. Charismatic Dominic Harvey directed the choir and orchestra through forty minutes of intense emo- tion, sounds and harmony. The audi- ence truly appreciated the effort the students, staff and conductors had gone to in order to produce such a high quality performance. On Sunday, the group slept in and then went for a short tour of Canberra which included the new and old Parliament Houses, the Sci- ence Centre, National Library, High Court, Lake Burley-Griffin, the War Memorial and Black Mountain and the Telstra Tower. All the girls who went on the tour had a rewarding and fantastic time. Pleasant memo- ries will be taken away by all, espe- cially the grade elevens and twelves, for whom it was their last festival. A sincere and warm thanks is extended to the "tour teachers" who were on call twenty-four hours a day and were always willing to help. Can- berra will be remembered by all as

of students took part, whetting their appetites for Canberra in 1997. Over four hundred students from ten Aus- tralian schools and one international school combined to form a choir, a concert band and an orchestra which had four days of intense rehearsals to prepare for the festival concert on the Saturday evening. The orchestra, under the direction of Max McBride, rehearsed and performed two works, Prelude to Hansel and Gretel, by Humperdinck and the Prokofieff Pi- ano Concerto No. 1 in D Flat. The orchestra accompanied the enor- mously talented solo pianist Daniel Hill, a senior from Canberra Gram- mar School, for Prokofieff's Conce110 which, for some members of the orchestra, was their first time. The concert band performed three works, Greensleaves, Symphony No. l In Memoriam Dresden, and Anne- nian Dances Part 1. The symphony was introduced at the concert by Helen Smith, a year eleven student from Girls Grammar. She told the sto1y behind the composition of In

cold and frosty, yet as a beautiful and unique city.

Memoriam Dresden, which was a moving tribute to all those who lost their lives in that particular air raid and indeed in any war. Helen delivered her sp~ech passionately and held the audience mesmerised for a moving performance of the piece that followed.

CATHERINE CHAPMAN

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