Guzheng students excel in International contest
Published on: 20 June 2024
The School’s Guzheng musicians recently competed in the 15th International Zheng Contest Australian Regional Qualifier held earlier this month at Presbyterian Ladies’ College.
Our students were among the 37 solo performers and 8 ensembles from various regions across Australia and we are pleased to highlight their impressive results.
- Patrick Day (Year 8) won the Second Prize in the Senior B Category of the solo competition.
- Joshua Wong (Year 8) received an Excellence Award in the same category.
- The Christ Church Grammar School Guzheng Ensemble 1 (Patrick Day and Year 7 students Hayden Chan, Raymond Moswen, and Artin Vahedi) secured the Third Prize in the ensemble category.
- Patrick Day and Raymond Moswen, as members of the WA Youth Guzheng Ensemble, were awarded the First Prize in the ensemble category.
“These remarkable achievements are a testament to their dedication and hard work. We are incredibly proud of their accomplishments and the way they represented our school”, said Christ Church Guzheng Tutor Xueyan Chen.
It’s been a big month for Patrick and Raymond, who won first place in the Open Large Ensemble category at the Fremantle Eisteddfod 2024 last month. You can view photos here. The pair performed the duet ‘Yellow River’ for Senior School staff at last week’s briefing as part of the Languages Week Celebrations.
Mr Chen added that the Guzheng is a rare instrument to be offered in schools across Australia.
“Christ Church is one of only three schools in WA that officially include Guzheng within their music department – the others are MLC and PLC. One of the reasons for this is that Guzheng is not as common as other instruments to acquire in Australia. Another reason is the scarcity of qualified Guzheng teachers. Furthermore, the offering of an instrument like Guzheng lies in a school’s dedication to fostering multicultural inclusiveness. In this regard, Christ Church stands at the forefront. Christ Church was not only the earliest boys’ school in Australia (not just WA) to introduce a Guzheng program but also remains the only one to do so within the music department. Hale School has a Guzheng Ensemble as part of its co-curriculum stream.”