St Clare's High School Taree eNewsletter

Creative Arts News

Music

What an outstanding term it has been for the music students at St Clare’s. Between student involvement at the Taree District Eisteddfod, DioSounds and the Taree Eisteddfod Grand Concert the music department has had a colossal and jam packed few weeks which has seen some exceptional achievement realised and celebrated for many students.

Taree and District Eisteddfod

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’ efforts were outstanding and they represented the school and their families with great dignity, receiving great acclaim and wonderful adjudication reports.

On Thursday, 26 May our Year 12 music students competed in the Senior Section for the Rock/Modern/Folk Bands. The standard across this section was extremely high. The students competed against a large cohort of musicians from across the region. Their performance was energetic, captivating and showcased the exceptional talent of all the musicians involved. Our senior ensemble convincingly placed 1^st in this section and received a remarkable adjudication write up.

This success saw our students invited to perform at the prestigious Eisteddfod Grand Concert on Saturday, 11 June. This is such an outstanding achievement and wonderful opportunity for these students. 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, Nicholas Avery, Cassidy Donovan & Mrs Amanda Brooks
Front Row: Luca Dodd-McWilliams & Seren Everingham

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

Alice Godfrey in Year 7 competed in several vocal sections. She was awarded a 1^st place, a 2^nd second place and 3 highly commended awards across these sections.
Lily Miller in Year 7 also competed in the vocal sections. She was awarded a 2^ND place in the under 12 Music Theatre section.
Sam Stephens in Year 7 competed in the Song in Costume, Music Theatre and Popular Song under 14 vocal section receiving two 2^nd places and a 3^rd
Cornell Estibeiro in Year 8 competed in several Instrumental sections for both piano and violin as well as several vocal sections. He was awarded a 1^st place in his singing section. On violin Cornell was awarded 1^st place in his instrumental advancing soloist section as well as two 2^nd In his piano sections he was also awarded three 1^st places and a 2^nd place. This is such an outstanding result for Cornell.
Pippa Rogers (Year 8), Cornell Estibeiro (Year 8) & Isabella Phillips (Year 10) competed in the trio instrumental section on violin. They were awarded an incredible 1^stplace in this section.
Alex Hartup in Year 10 competed in the instrumental section of the eisteddfod on drums. He was awarded a highly commended with an outstanding result of 94/100.
Seren Everingham in Year 12 competed in two instrumental sections on the piano. Seren was awarded a highly commended with a score of 95/100 and also awarded a 1^stplace with a score of 98/100. An impressive and well deserved result.

Alice Godfrey, Year 7, Lily Miller, Year 7, Sam Stephens, Year 7, Cornell Estibeiro, Year 8, Isabella Phillips, Year 10, Pippa Rogers, Year 8 and Cornell Estibeiro, Year 8, Alex Hartup, Year 10 & Seren Everingham, Year 12

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.

DioSounds 2022

After a much anticipated return, the annual adventure to DioSounds took place on Thursday, 2 June. Our Year 12 and Year 10 Music Classes, Mr Matthew Hanlon and Mrs Amanda Brooks hopped aboard the coach before the sun had risen to destination DioSounds!

Arriving at 8:30 am at the Civic theatre in Newcastle, we went straight on stage for our sound checks. No sooner had we completed these and we were ready for the Matinee Show at 10:30 in front of an enthusiastic audience of fellow performers and primary school students. We were backstage again in the evening for the final concert.

Mr Matt Hanlon, Nicholas Avery, Cassidy Donovan, Seren Everingham & Mrs Amanda Brooks
Front: Luca Dodd-McWilliams

Year 12 students presented two outstanding items in our bracket,

Fired – Ben Folds Five
Just The Two Of Us – Bill Withers

Seren Everingham (Piano), Luca Dodd-McWilliams (Drums), Nicholas Avery (Auxiliary Percussion), Cassidy Donovan (Vocals) & Mr Matthew Hanlon (Bass Guitar)

The students were fabulous and the performances truly demonstrated musical diversity and talent. Congratulations to all who took part in DioSounds. Their commitment to preparation was admirable.

Thanks also goes to Mrs Rebecca Huett for all her assistance in organising our attendance at the event, to our Year 10 Music student who were a great support to our Year 12 performers and also Mr Matthew Hanlon for accompanying the students on the bass guitar. Thank you also to our parents who picked up and dropped off their son/daughter in the small hours of Thursday morning and evening.

Boarding the bus at the Civic Theatre at 8:30 pm we arrived back at St Clare’s at 11 pm. The curtains had closed on our amazing 2022 DioSounds adventure. A day when memories were made and a very welcome return to the DioSounds stage occurred.

It was a privilege to accompany such a wonderful group of students and staff to a very busy, exhausting and rewarding excursion.

Viva La Musica
Mrs Amanda Brooks
Music Teacher

Year 7 Visual Arts

Year 7 Visual Art are working away on their unit on sculpture and creating some amazing clay owls. We can't wait to see all your clay creations at the end of this term!