Musica Viva have provided live music opportunities to schools in Australia for more than 35 years. They specialise in presenting the best small ensembles Australia has to offer, made up of culturally diverse groups that perform in a wide variety of musical styles.  Attending a live concert performance is exciting in itself and when you add the element of fun by making it interactive, the whole experience is further enhanced.

This year, the visiting group was Akoustic Odyssey who performed Music of the Mediterranean.  The boys attending the concert not only heard some familiar musical instruments but were introduced to some new sounds and techniques of instrumental playing such as the bowed bass guitar. 

Throughout Term 3, the boys at Lindfield have been listening to original compositions written by group members of Akoustic Odyssey and they have engaged in a variety of class activities based on the music.  Some of these included dancing, singing, playing percussion instruments, as well as exploring the digital resources supplied by Musica Viva to create a rich musical learning experience.  A particular favourite called ‘Shift the Telly’ was based on the Greek style belly dancing called Tsifteteli and included the sound of a bouzouki and toumberleki as well as cello, violin and guitar.  One brave teacher was chosen to dance out the front of the performance wearing the hip scarf, decorated with coins, that is a feature of the belly dancing costume!

During the concert, students used body percussion and movement to identify changes in tempo and dynamics and they recognised structural devices by responding appropriately with movement to the sections of the music.  In one piece, a group of students joined the ensemble and played kulup seeds creating an effective soundscape to mimic storms and the sea.

This is what two of our music monitors thought of the performance by Akoustic Odyssey.

‘I enjoyed hearing the music and it’s new to me.  I just like enjoying new music that I’ve never heard before.  Overall I think it was a very good performance because of the songs.  I liked them singing the song Shift the Telly since we’ve heard it before.’  Oli Barrington-Higgs 

‘I really liked the style of music and how they played the instruments to represent realistic sounds like the ship.’ Ethan Hardwick

Mrs Jodie Winton – Music Mistress (acting)