Music remains the yeast of life. Music is written to be played beautifully. It is written to be heard, appreciated and to touch that inner being. It is written to be interpreted. It is written to be “live” – and with all the inherent dangers, challenges and excitement of the one special performance – the immediate. Yet so many hours, days, weeks and years of complex preparation go into that immediate.

Newington’s Headmaster, Dr David Mulford, in his address to the audience of the Sesquicentenary Founders Concert, articulated why the program had left us all, as he said, “wanting more” and most significantly, the risks taken to get us there.

The annual Founders Concert for Newington College always sets a standard in musical performance that enables our most accomplished musicians to demonstrate that they can do all of the above while securing wide appeal in a diverse audience. This year however there was a significant “step up”.

The venue of the Sydney Town Hall, with its lavish ornamentation and grand organ, set an historical reference in our Sesquicentenary. The inclusion of 75 students and 15 staff from Tupou College, Tonga, in their own and combined items; and a commissioned work from one of Australia’s leading contemporary art music composers, Gerry Brophy, all required months of detailed coordination – and trust. The program demanded technically challenging opportunities for soloists across multiple genre and several grand items of massed participation.

But really what raised the bar was the extraordinary commitment of the Newington boys and the Music Department staff, under the leadership of Mark Scott, who together, supported each and every musician on the night to make music that “touches the inner being” – whether old boy, prep chorister, soloist, staff member, ensemble leader, second cello, guest performer, beginner or prodigy.

In this Sesquicentenary event it was without doubt the music makers who made history 150!