Camp starts year on high note
By Ellie Archer, Performing Arts prefect & Choirs captain
Last Friday students from Radford College's Bernstein Symphonic Wind Orchestra, Camerata, and Corelli Chamber String Orchestra headed out to Greenhills. These groups came together for three days to immerse themselves in music, refining their skills, and forging connections with their fellow musicians.
Ms Kimberley Steele led Camerata on Friday evening, tuning into the new voices in the group and introducing all members to the new pieces for this year. Ms Kerry Watson assisted Camerata by providing beautiful accompaniment. The rest of the musicians commenced their rehearsals on Saturday morning, including some students that came straight from drama camp. After lunch, members of Chorale joined these rehearsals.
Each group was introduced to their new repertoire, honing the pieces under the guidance of the dedicated instructors Ms Kimberley Steele (Camerata), Mrs Caroline Suthers (Corelli), Mr Ben Marston (Bernstein) and Dr Tracy Bourne (Chorale), with Mrs Kirsten Knight overseeing the organisation of the camp.
Over the three days, our musicians each rehearsed for up to 7.5 hours and during this time all the groups became familiar with their new pieces. The Berstein pieces included An Irish Air, Festive Hymn and the iconic Doctor Who theme song. Meanwhile, Corelli worked on the pieces Molly on the Shore and Sergei Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony and were joined by double bass tutor, Mr Kyle Ramsay-Daniel. Corelli and Camerata rehearsed a combined piece titled Glow which they plan to perform together at this year’s 40th Foundation Concert.
The members of Camerata were introduced to their repertoire for the term including Fly Away Home, Dig Deep, People Get Ready as well as several canons and music games.
Chorale tackled the rhythmic piece Time, the haunting canon Have you seen the Ghost of John and What was I made for. Mrs Bronwyn Brown, OAM assisted Camerata by providing beautiful accompaniment.
On Saturday night, all musicians took a well-deserved break from rehearsing by participating in the time-old tradition of music-themed trivia and games night. Music captains and Performing Arts prefects ran games such as musical trivia, guess the song title, teacher trivia, Scattergories, and karaoke. Games night was a fantastic opportunity for team bonding and for the students in the different groups to get to know each other.
On the last day of camp, families, friends, and faculty members listened to the Bernstein, Corelli, and Chorale groups perform their work from this weekend. These performances showcased the musicians' hard work, displaying the strengths of the pieces and the potential they held for the rest of the term.
We would like to thank all the students, conductors, accompanists and assisting staff. Thank you in particular to Mr Amer Salman and Mr Dale Casburn for coming down to supervise and for making this camp so amazing! Of course, a huge thank you to Mrs Knight for all her hard work, dedication, and guidance throughout the camp.