NSW School Band Festival: A Gold Medal Event!

Six of Newington’s seven High School Wind bands and Jazz ensembles went off with a bang at the NSW School Band Festival last weekend. Approximately 150 high school boys participated in performances across a variety of musical styles over the entire weekend, with Gold medals won and stunning music performed.

The festival began on Saturday evening with the prestigious Percy Grainger Event for premier Wind ensembles. This section featured performances by ten groups whose repertoire is judged to be of an appropriate standard. All bands performed at an exceptional level and the Newington Symphonic Winds group certainly held their own. I had chosen a repertoire most often performed by university ensembles, requiring of the boys high-level technical mastery and excellent ensemble skill. The performance exhibited magnificent playing by Symphonic Winds and featured moving solos by many of the boys. Newington was rewarded with a Gold medal!

Sunday saw the performances of five other groups in their respective divisions. The Big Band and Junior Jazz Ensemble each received a Gold award under the direction of Mr Stephen Foxe. The Intermediate Jazz Ensemble and Wind Orchestra also did the College proud receiving Silver and Bronze awards respectively. Special thanks also goes to Ms Rebecca Grubb for her assistance in leading and conducting the bands through the first half of 2012.

Congratulations to all the boys who participated. The hard work put in since the start of the school year resulted in very fine performances! We can proudly boast not only first class ensembles at the highest level, but also enviable depth in the College’s Band and Jazz programs!

Concerto Competition

The Annual Concerto Competition was held over the last two weeks. The junior section was conducted on 16 July and the seniors the following Monday, 23 July. This annual event has always attracted the cream of our instrumental talent eager to display the fruits of long practice hours. Both of this year’s competitions were hotly contested while maintaining the Newington ethos of celebrating the fine achievements of others.

The adjudicators for the 2012 Concerto Competitions were Mr Goetz Richter (Associate Professor of Violin at the Sydney Conservatorium) for the Junior Division and Mr Francesco Celata (Associate Principal Clarinettist with Sydney Symphony Orchestra) adjudicated the Senior Division. Both were impressed with the outstanding level of music making from all competitors. All entrants in this year’s competitions should feel proud of their achievements.

Music is not about competition, however the following boys were selected as outstanding performances by the adjudicators on the night:

Junior Section:

Winner: Ari Volovelsky (7/ME)
Runner up: Victor Dai (9/FL)

Senior Section:

Winner: Michael Choi (10/FL)
Equal Second: Dominic Longhurst (10/JN) and Valeriy Suraev (10/MA)
Third: Steven Xu (10/ME)
Highly Commended: Ciaran Frame (12/JN), Chris Yap (10/FL)

In addition to this, Dominic Longhurst (pictured below) won several divisions and was named Champion of Champions for the Concert Bands (Trumpet) and Brass (cornet) at the State Band Championships on Sunday.

All in all it was a great weekend for Newington Bands!

Luke Gilmour
Director of Bands