Early days

The path to becoming a musician is a long and demanding one and it's one that never reach the end, at least not until you do.  You are always learning.  But it's interesting to go back, to see and hear young musicians taking relatively early steps.  Often these steps are big ones but either way they are interesting.  Today at Wesley we saw a concert from the Music Academy of Canberra Girls Grammar School.  The music was madly varied; there were stronger and less strong parts and instruments.  Intonation, tentativeness were common early problems.  It's easy to understand.  I can still be tentative after many years.  On the other hand, dynamics were strong (they very obviously teach that!), technique, approach.  Timing sometimes was unstable with quick lines just not keeping up.  But I loved some cello playing; the bass clarinet sounded a dream; the take on Debussy was  both challenging and fascinating and nicely played; again, the dynamics were ever-present.  And just the breadth of the music was astounding.  Lickl (classical era Austrian) and Mozart, through Debussy (yes! String quartet Gmin op.10 mvt.3) on to early jazz, Chattanooga Choo Choo and Svoboda Bongil Bongil Blues through to Lennon McCartney Eleanor Rigby and Freddie Mercury Bohemian rhapsody, no less, with parts written for accompanying trio (piano, e-bass, drums).  And various combinations of Wind quintet, String quartet, Flute ensemble, Flute & Clarinet ensemble, Clarinet ensemble, Guitar ensemble and that Sax ensemble with the trio accompaniment.  Total players?  I counted 28.  Nice outing and fun.  My faves?  Debussy and Bohemian rhapsody.

Various groups from the Music Academy at Canberra Grammar Girls School performed at Wesley.