Over the past few weeks, students from St Clare’s have been participating in the Instrumental, Vocal and Rock/Modern/Folk Bands Sections.  The students were outstanding and represented the school as well as themselves individually receiving great acclaim and adjudication.

On Thursday, 27 May Cassidy Donovan and Matthew Spencer competed against a strong cohort of musicians from MVAC and TCC in the Duets Open Age Section.  These two students represented St Clare’s remarkably performing a beautiful and heart-warming arrangement of Fix Me Up.  They placed 2^nd in this section with a score of 92/100.

 Cassidy Donovan & Matthew Spencer

On Friday, 28 May, some of our Year 11 and 12 students competed in the Senior Section for the Rock/Modern/Folk Bands.  The standard across this section was extremely high.  The students performed two contrasting pieces beginning with an arrangement of Just The Two Of Us and then followed by an energetic performance of Can’t Stop.  Their performance in both pieces was captivating and well received by the audience.  They were awarded 3^rdplace in this section with a mark of 90/100.  They are to be commended on how well they all worked together as an ensemble.  A big ‘shout-out’ also to Mr Matthew Hanlon for accompanying the students on the bass guitar.

Back Row:  Mr Matthew Hanlon, Luca Dodd-McWilliams, Nicholas Avery, Matthew Spencer & Mrs Amanda Brooks
Front Row:  Seren Everingham & Cassidy Donovan

At an individual level, students from St Clare’s competed in various different sections of the Eisteddfod achieving some remarkable results:

• Cornell Estibeiro in Year 7 competed in several Instrumental Sections for both Piano and Violin. He was awarded three 1^st places and one 2^nd  This is an outstanding result for Cornell.

Cornell Estibeiro on violin

• Seren Everingham in Year 11 placed 1^stand 2^ndin both of her Piano Sections and received two 1^st places, one 3^rd and a highly commended for her Instrumental Sections. Seren continued her excellent success and went on to place 2^nd in the Instrumental Championships and was also announced the 16 years and under Aggregate.  Seren received the Denva Bird Memorial Award for the Most Promising Instrumentalist in which she also received a $250 cheque.

 Seren Everingham with Adjudicator Major David Thompson

• Cassidy Donovan in Year 11 competed in several Vocal Solo and Instrumental Sections. Overall Cassidy was extremely successful receiving four 1^st places and two 2^nd places in her Vocal Sections.  She also placed 3^rd in the Vocal Championships and was the winner of the Best High School Female Vocalist.  Cassidy continued her success in the Instrumental Sections receiving two 1^st places and one 3^rd  She was also the winner of the Senior Encouragement Award and the Bass N Blues Encouragement Award.  Cassidy was invited to perform at the Taree and District Eisteddfod Grand Concert.  She performed Burn from the musical Hamilton and was quoted by Deidre Sutherland the Vocal Section Coordinator as being “a world class performer with a golden aura all about her”.

• WenYuan LimSchneider in Year 12 was also invited to perform the piano at the Grand Concert. He performed Tokkata by Khachaturian on the piano.  WenYuan was the winner of the most prestigious Roma Liggins Perpetual Scholarship Trophy, in which he also received a $1500 cheque.  He was awarded this trophy at the Taree and District Eisteddfod Grand Concert evening on Saturday, 5 June.  This is a remarkable achievement for WenYuan and reflects the fine young musician he is.

WenYuan LimSchneider recipient of the Roma Liggins Perpetual Scholarship Trophy

The Taree and District Eisteddfod is always a wonderful event and invaluable opportunity for participants to listen to and perform music for each other.  It was such an enjoyable Eisteddfod that celebrated the essence and blessing of music and particularly the opportunity to perform at and attend a live music event in our community.

Congratulations to all the competitors from St Clare’s for their exceptional effort and achievements.

Viva la Musica,
Mrs Brooks
Music Teacher