The Muse News from the PNGHS Music Department

Transcription

1 The Muse News from the PNGHS Music Department History of Recorded Music June 2016 Are you watching Prime on Tuesday evenings at 9.30pm? There is an 8 part series on the art and science of recording. You can learn more about the programme here: usic/news/article.cfm?c_id= 264&objectid= Music Success Story Nicole Cheng and Arianah Reid (both Y10) performed a lunchtime concert at St. Peter s last month. Sakura Mukhopadhyah (Y12) led the Manawatu Youth orchestra at their first concert of the year. Esther Lee (Y12) has been appointed the student accompanist for the PN Choral Society. Rose Wu (Y12) performed on piano (Chopin and an original composition) alongside winning Barbershop groups the Manawatunes and Vocal FX to an audience of 600+ at their concert.

2 Musician Profile Rebecca Ye, choir accompanist I am a Year 12 student this year. I decided to volunteer as the piano accompanist for Zing in 2016 and am currently thoroughly enjoying it! I have played the piano for 6 years before stopping 2 years ago and after having a break have begun to miss playing! So at the start of this year, I thought it would be perfect to get back into some playing by being an accompanist for the school choir. It is also a perfect opportunity to get to meet new people, and to broaden your skills! It is taking some time getting used to playing confidently in front of others, however, am having lots of fun learning and playing the pieces. In addition to all of this, I am fortunate enough to be using this as part of my skill section for my Gold Direct Duke of Edinburgh Award, which is just another super bonus to this awesome activity. It is also a great opportunity being able to hear some awesome singing from the choir every Wednesday lunchtime. Keep up the good work Zing! :-) Overall, I would definitely recommend taking an opportunity like this in the future for anyone who is up for a challenge, enjoys music, and would like to try something different! New Equipment As part of the 2016 budget the music department is purchasing equipment for a digital recording suite. We have also purchased a bass clarinet to use with Concert Band. Jazz Band Prior to their competition at Queen s Birthday weekend the jazz band had a workshop with legendary local sax player Johnny McCormick. Johnny used to teach at PNGHS prior to his retirement. His retirement however hasn t been a time of putting up his feet but rather a period of musical rejuvenation as he has taken on new performing challenges. Originally in pioneering NZ pop groups Johnny was also saxophonist in Quincy Conserve. Their classic Kiwi song Aire of Good Feeling (1971) became the TV2 theme tune music in You can read more and see the photos! - of Johnny s musical story here Listen to Aire of Good Feeling (you might remember hearing it on TV) on YouTube

3 School Assemblies Through Music Month and into June various groups performed/ will perform in assembly. The Jazz Band, Guitar Orchestra, Junior Choir and a Chamber Music group (The Uneven Trio - one piano, six hands) each present one of their competition pieces. Jazz Band in assembly with Miss Joe Guitar Ensemble Musicians Confidence Course Do you need a boost in confidence, either on or off the stage? This free five-part course by NZ teacher Ryan Kershaw covers: getting clear with what confidence actually is, where you are at currently, and where you want to be. transforming your ways of thinking and it is here that real change is starting to occur. practical techniques including using visualization to sing in tune, making a vision/goals board, 'auto-suggestion' (your self-talk) and more. clearing any limiting beliefs that might be preventing you from implementing the new techniques and strategies. staying inspired after change has happened. You can watch it on Youtube or download it from Musician of the Month Congratulations to Sonakssi Ramilan (Y10), our May winner who won an itunes voucher. Runner-up prizes were awarded to Shannen Petersen (Y11) and Sarah Henderson (Y10). For our Musician of the Month in July you are being asked to nominate a fellow student who went the extra mile to help out or support others during one of the four major music competitions Jazz, SFRQ, Chamber Music and The Big Sing. Fill out a form found outside the music office and post it in the blue music mail box by Tuesday 5 th July at 3.30pm. Include Name and form of the person you are nominating The event at which the person went the extra mile What she did that was noteworthy Also add your name and form class as the person doing the nominating. Saturday Music Many of you, while at Primary or Intermediate school, will have had music lessons at Saturday Music. Some of you play in the Manawatu Training Orchestra, which is a SM class. Saturday Music has a new Facebook page. Like it at

4 The Metropolitan Opera View live opera performances on the big screen direct from New York at Cinema Gold here in PN. Many of you enjoyed your trip earlier this year to Mozart s opera Cosi fan tutti at the Globe. Expand your musical horizons with the following Puccini operas: Turandot June Manon Lescaut 26 June 2 July Madama Butterfly July Music Movie Florence Foster Jenkins tells the story of Florence ( ), a New York heiress and socialite who dreamed of becoming an opera singer despite having a terrible singing voice. However, she had the funds to pursue her dream that included singing at Carnegie Hall to a sell out audience. She was known as the Dire Diva or the Diva of Din. This is a biographical comedy-drama featuring Meryl Streep as Florence. You can hear original recordings from the 1930s 1940s of her singing on YouTube. Chamber Music Workshops Five of our ensembles had a session with Graham Parsons as they prepare for their contest. Students (and the Director s of the ensembles) found the workshops very helpful.

5 Staff News Carina Holdaway (French Horn), Mandy Houlahan (flute) and Jami Wallace (clarinet) instrument teachers at PNGHS - performed with the Manawatu Sinfonia in their May concert. John Schwabe, former instrument teacher at PNGHS and conductor of the Manawatu Training, Youth and Sinfonia Orchestras attended a luncheon where he was presented with a certificate to acknowledge his acceptance of the position as Patron of the Manawatu Music for Youth Trust. The Trust owns the instruments that Saturday Music uses and fund raises for SM. Marc Patterson (jazz guitar), HoD Maths, performs regularly with his band at the Celtic. Massey University Music Visit Dr Oli Wilson, programme leader for the new commercial music degree at Massey University in Wellington spoke to senior music and audio course students about the degree. The degree has three strands: music practice (popular), music technology and music industry and is suited to students who have strengths in science, maths and technology. He also told us about his personal music journey from high school to academic, via involvement in classical music, pop (keyboardist for Dunedin Sound indie band The Chills; lecturing in rock music at Otago University) and indigenous music (research in PNG). massey/news/article.cfm?mnarticle_uuid=6ecc780a-e889-bc66-c11b- 4F455C The Voice - PNGHS Vocal Competition Those who attended our first ever PNGHS Vocal Competition were in for a treat. With an outstanding turnout of 18 performers, a plethora of voices, genres and accompanying instruments the singers rendered the Huia Centre a showcase of outstanding talent. The Cantabile solo award was presented to Riley Booth (Yr 11) who sang Sarah McLachlan's In the Arms of an Angel while the Con Voce ensemble award went to Shannen Peterson and Lisabet Morgan (both Yr 11) singing their own composition Fighter. A big congratulations to all girls who participated and thank you for providing such an entertaining, valuable night. We greatly appreciate the support everyone who came to watch, Mrs Biggs the adjudicator for her time as well as the girls working behind the scenes to make this competition a success.

6 The full list of results: Solo Cantabile Award: Riley Booth (Y11) 2 nd : Amy-Mae Sorrell (Y10) 3 rd : Eliana Turu (Y10) Highly Commended: Sylvia Kanace (Y11) Ensemble Con Voce Award: Lisabet Morgan & Shannen Petersen (both Y11) 2 nd : Ankita Aneesh, Nicole Cheng and piano accompanist Lily Warnock (all Y10) Other certificates: Award for Original Song: Rachel Greene (Y12) Award for Best Costume: Ayesha Satya (Y9) Award for Presentation: Mahnoor Hussain & Arianah Reid (both Y10) Go to the PNGHS website to see more photos and the recording of each performance. tent&view=category&layout=blog&id=147&itemid=800 Training Orchestra Playout This orchestra caters to beginning and other developing instrumental players. It is directed by Mr Whittaker. They played their first performance this year to the Y9 Instrument Music class which, as part of their course, has studied and played a range of instruments. The orchestra played Hello, Can You Feel the Love Tonight and Touridon. Later in the year they will play in the IRMT Competition and one of the PNGHS Concerts. Music Committee News Following the success of the music quiz in term 1, the music committee has been hard at work coming up with ideas for our next big event this term. We are already well under way in terms of planning and lets just say it's something that hasn t been done in recent years! As a hint, we suggest you sharpen your vocal skills by singing in the shower! Keep lunchtime on Friday 24 th June free in your diary.

7 Music in the Library - May Thanks to Femke Pearce (Y11) for performing on cello. This was a good opportunity for some public rehearsal before her music exam in June. Femke plays in the PNGHS String Orchestra, a chamber music group and the Manawatu Youth Orchestra. June will bring Open Mic where anyone can sign up to perform.this might be music, poetry, comedy or whatever! Giving Directions Workshop Cantatrices participated in the 'Giving Directions' workshop which aims to help build skills in conducting a choir. We sang 'Seal Lullaby', 'Say a little prayer' and 'Castle on a Cloud'. We also learnt a lot about how our voices work and the sound that should be made. Cantatrices had fun being led by other conductors as it created a different energy. As our accompanist, Miss Joe was kept very busy as she also had to adjust and respond to new conductors. Rock da House Music finalists are Riley Booth (vocal) ad Rose Wu (instrumental, piano). Congratulations and good luck for Friday night. Youth Space Concert Rachel Greene (Y12), a vocalist, performed at the Youth Week concert on 27 th May. Rotary Youth Music Festival PNGHS representatives Riley Booth (vocal soloist, Y11) and our Y10 vocal group (Annabel Orwin-Higgs, Laura Dodd, Emily McKay and Alannah Grey) who mixed solo, duet, trio and quarter songs, performed at Joe s Garage on Saturday.

8 Manawatu Youth Orchestra Concert This concert was very successful and the orchestra played superbly. Congratulations to all the PNGHS players, who ranged from Y9 to Y13: Sakura Mukhopadhyah, Amy Srichantra, Enshean Lin, Sibel Atalay, Emma Stein, Cindy Xu (all violin), A Young Cho, Bronte Tongs, Femke Pearce (cello), Marian Sun (flute) and Ginny Lee (clarinet). This was Sakura s last concert before she leaves us. Thanks for your contribution to PNGHS music Sakura and all the best for your future in Sydney. Music Alumni Sylvia Neild Sylvia was the Head of Arts in She studied music as an academic subject, played violin (and then later viola) in string orchestra, was accompanist for one of our choirs and performed chamber music. Last year she won a Sir Edmund Hillary Scholarship to Waikato University where she is in her first year of study. She aspires to perform as a professional musician in a chamber music ensemble. Read about Sylvia here: TED Talks Enjoy this short audience participation performance led by Bobby McFerrin based on the pentatonic scale entitled Watch me play the audience. n Music Competitions These start later this week. Have you returned your permission slip(s)? Letters for Jazz Band, Chamber Music, Smokefree Rockquest and The Big Sing were ed out. There are some hardcopies at the Music Office. Not returned it yet? Please do so urgently and make life easier for your music teachers! We appreciate not having to chase you... Performance times (approximate) are: Jazz Festival - Jazz Band11.35am at the Regent Note that this competition often runs ahead of the scheduled times Chamber Music - From 4pm and 7pm at the Speirs Centre 11/20 groups feature PNGHS students The Big Sing - Zing 11.54am, Voices Rechoired 2.36pm, Cantatrices 3.41pm at the Regent. (Still in draft format)

9 Contacting your Music Leaders You can contact any of the Music Leaders on their school address. Cindy Xu Prefect Amy O Neill amyone@pnghs.school.nz Volunteers Rose Wu rosewu@pnghs.school.nz Instrumental Katie Monaghan katiemon@pnghs.school.nz Vocal The Muse Please send your ideas and contributions to the Editor, Ms Carter at k.carter@pnghs.school.nz If you have any problems with receiving this newsletter contact Mr Lilley at h.lilley@pnghs.school.nz If you know anyone who would like to be added to our circulation list for The Muse please ask her/him to Mr Lilley h.lilley@pnghs.school.nz with the subject line Send me The Muse. Contributors: Rebecca Ye, Rose Wu, Cindy Xu, Gabriella Purdy, Amy O Neill Next issue: Late June, Special Edition, Competition Reports This special edition will not be a full newsletter but will focus just on the competitions with reports and links to photos and performances.

10 Music Calendar Concerts, trips, workshops, playouts and music events are regularly added to the calendar throughout the year. June 1 Voices Rechoired, assembly, Huia Centre, 10am 2 Cantatrices performs at Crossroads, 1.30pm 3 Rock da House Finals, Huia Centre, 7pm 4 Manawatu Jazz Festival High Schools Jazz Competition, Regent, 11.35am 4 Jazz band attend the Jazz Gala concert, Regent, 8pm 8 The Uneven Trio, assembly, Huia Centre, 10am 9 NZCT Chamber Music Competition, Speirs Centre, 4pm and 7pm 10 SFRQ Heats, Globe, late afternoon onwards 15 NZCF The Big Sing, Regent, all day and evening 27 UCOL Bands, free concert, Huia Centre, 1.30pm July 1 SFRQ Finals, Regent, 7pm August 1 Regional String Workshop, Huia Centre, 1.30pm onwards, concert 6pm 4 Open day/ night; invited groups perform 5 & 6 Weekend Workshop: Instrumental, Huia Centre 13 IRMT Competition, Huia Centre, all day 16 PNGHS Music Concert 1, Huia Centre, 7pm 29 NCEA performance assessments this week September 1 PNGHS Music Concert 2, Huia Centre 7pm 21 PNGHS Piano Competition, Huia Centre, 7pm Mardon Award 2016 entries close October 19 PNGHS Music Concert 3, Huia Centre 7pm November 1 Arts Prize Giving, Huia Centre, evening 7 Senior Prize Giving, Regent, evening December 14 Junior Prize Giving, Huia Centre, morning