In the spotlight

By Mrs Kirsten Knight, Head of Co-curricular Music and Director of Strings

The co-curricular music offering at Radford College is extensive. With more than 30 groups rehearsing on any given day, there are many staff working with our students to help them achieve their personal best at every level.

Before students can participate in music making in a group, they need to acquire adequate skills on their chosen instrument. Many students start their instrumental journey at the College in the Year 3 strings or Year 5 band programs, but we have many who take up an instrument in their first year at the College. We are privileged to have as many as 30 specialist individual music tutors who work one on one with our students. Some have worked with the same student for more than a decade.

Most of our rehearsals take place before school and our groups are led by expert conductors, a few who are also Radford College teachers. Supporting our choir conductors are piano accompanists who attend rehearsals and concerts to perform with their groups.

Overseeing the 5 areas in music — bands, strings, choirs, ensembles, and keyboard — are our music directors. Behind the scenes our creative staff are well supported by our Performing Arts Administrator and Performing Arts Assistant.

To provide adequate performance opportunities for our groups and individual musicians, we run a busy schedule of concerts and recitals over the year. Term 3 is always the busiest, with more than one event every week.

Our concert series is made up of mixed group concerts such as the autumn and winter concerts and Spring Showcase, as well as events that cater for specific styles of music, such as Radford Rocks and Jazz Café. Our recital series is open to any music student and creates a platform for students from Kindergarten to Year 12 to perform for an audience. Our Evening of Fine Music is a very special recital event, showcasing our top Year 12 musicians. Throughout the year our groups and individual musicians also contribute to services and other school events such as End of Year Celebration.

This large team of passionate musicians enjoy working with our students to ignite and sustain a lifelong passion for music.