Published on: 26 June 2015




The final weeks of Term 2 are a busy time for Christ Church musicians, with opportunities to perform in the Scholars’ Recital, St George’s Cathedral’s Concerts at One, Rock Workshop Extravaganza and the Ellington Jazz Night.

On Tuesday 16 June, the Scholars’ Recital was held in the Collaborative Learning Centre (CLC) Foyer. It was a showcase of talent featuring solo items from each of the music scholarship students. Some highlights of the evening included Oliver Terry with the Brahms Clarinet Sonata, Angus McKenzie with a very soulful rendition on guitar/vocals of the Dire Straits classic Sultans and Swing and Leo Li on saxophone playing Dizzy Gillespie’s Night in Tunisia.

On Wednesday 17 June, seven talented musicians performed at St George’s Cathedral’s Concerts at One. Along with students from other schools and universities, the boys performed for city workers, shoppers, tourists, families and friends. The concert began with some excellent organ playing from Michael Lukin and concluded with Ben Anderson performing a very virtuosic Liszt/Horowitz piano piece.

On Saturday 20 June, parents and friends of the School’s Rock Workshop program enjoyed an afternoon of rock’n’roll in the Prep School undercroft. More than 70 students performed as part of twelve bands, including a spectacular drum solo from Isaiah Quintana. The afternoon finished in spectacular fashion with a performance by the Prep Rock Workshop cohort combined with the Yahoos Choir. Mr Kevin Gillam, Director of Music gave special mention to the Rock Workshop staff – Joe Grech, Warren Hall, Brendan Biddiss, Phil Bailey and Daniel Harper- for their hard work and to Jess Brunner and other Music parents for providing the sausage sizzle.

Finally, on Tuesday 23 June, Christ Church’s jazz musicians performed at Perth’s premier jazz venue, The Ellington Jazz Club. The event, in its sixth year, featured four brackets of jazz standards and contemporary repertoire from Jazz Bands I and II, the Jazz Combo and the Saxophone Quartet.

Mr Gillam said the boys performed exceptionally well, “It was a superb evening of jazz. The boys love playing at the professional venue”. Mr Paul Millard directed all of the four bands in their brackets of pieces, with some amazing work from Stuart Baxter (drums), Ashan Weerasooriya (vocals) and Leo Li (Saxophone).

Photographs from the Scholar’s Recital courtesy of Mrs Mingli Kuek.