It has been a very busy start to the year across the Performing Arts Department and there has been no shortage of fervent activity on either side of ‘The Wall’ in our building. Within the first weeks of the year the Music Department was rehearsing all of their ensembles including our Junior and Senior Singing groups, String Ensemble, African Drummers, Rock Band and the Jazz Ensemble. With our younger students beginning the reformation of our Concert Band it is exciting to see many students deciding to take up a woodwind or brass instrument to begin it’s emergence once again at Damascus.

Our African Drummers were invited to play at the launch of Harmony Day, a national day of recognition and awareness of our many muliticultural communities in Australia. The performance was a real credit to their teamwork as an ensemble, professionalism and focus in performance and to Stella Savy, their director for preparing them for the day. Mayor Des Hudson was particularly impressed by the student performance and all in attendance expressed their sincere gratitude for Damascus’ involvement.

This year we welcome Ligia Lupoiou to the department as our Coordinator of Co Curricula Performance and piano tutor as part of the Instrumental Music Program. In our growing enrolments of nearing on 90 students who are learning a musical instrument at Damascus, and the reflection of this in the increase in Ensemble participation, it has been necessary to engage further support to ensure the program is running at it’s optimum and every opportunity for performance is being taken. Ligia has hit the ground running in both her organisation, enthusiasm and energy in wanting to see the further growth and development within this area of the department and we are excited to have her on board.

Within the music curriculum students at junior levels have been busy being introduced to aspects of rhythm and pitch. Year 8’s also explored the music of Indonesian Gamelan which included students composing their own piece using a pentatonic scale. Some fantastic works were produced across this unit of study. Year 9 music students have been working through an exploration of the decades of popular music from the 1950’s – 1990s and have been busy learning to work as a class band to prepare a performance of songs from these great years in an end of semester performance.

The year 11 and 12’s have also been extremely busy in their VCE studies preparing musical works on their chosen instrument, participating in ensembles and further developing their aural and written skills in music. In March these students attended the VCE Top Class Performance at the Recital Centre at Southbank. This allows VCE Music students the opportunity to witness the performances of some of the highest achievers in the Music Study from the previous year. It also allows them to ‘take notes’ about what makes these performances excellent so as to hopefully incorporate these observations into their end of year exam performances. The day also includes a visit to the Australian Music Vault and a Melbourne ‘lunch’. Who can argue with a day of great music and good food! Its fantastic to see so many of our students engaging in music at Damascus and we look forward to seeing even more join us in our experiences as the year progresses.