16th August 2019
Girton Grammar’s Junior School Performance Choir has been awarded the highest honour at the 2019 Victorian School Music Festival, with a Platinum performance in the Choir Section of the competition.
The Victorian School Music Festival is a prestigious event held each year at a variety of venues around the State across four weeks, with schools from all over Victoria participating in a range of competitions.
Head of Girton Grammar Junior School Music, Mrs Laura Dusseljee, said that the event adjudicators described the Junior School Performance Choir as “brilliant and almost flawless.”
“The adjudicators were very impressed with our Choir and said they had exquisite attention to detail.
“These young singers were competing in the senior school section of the competition, and they were assessed as if they were in years 10, 11 and 12 because the quality of their work was that of senior school students.
“The judges were impressed with the sound quality, diction, presentation, intonation, dynamic control and storytelling ability.
“Judges also described the choir as disciplined, which is exactly what we have encouraged from this group of wonderful young singers,” Mrs Dusseljee said.
The Victorian School Music Festival provides the opportunity for students to perform in some of Victoria’s premier performing spaces and to work with leading music educators. Over the course of the event, students are provided with feedback and analysis to improve their performance and are awarded points according to a range of criteria related to performance, rehearsal, musicality and listening skills.
The Junior School Performance Choir consists of 71 students in Years 4 to 6. They performed ‘Murraguldrie Pastorale 2’ by Australian composer Calvin Bowman, ‘God Bless this Tiny Little Boat’ by Australian composer Rosalie Bonighton with text by Michael Leunig, ‘The Click Song’ which is a traditional Xhosa song and incorporates clicking sounds made by mouth whilst singing. The final song was ‘Children’ by James Mulholland. The chief adjudicator, Christie Anderson said the repertoire was indicative of a sound choral programme.
“This is an outstanding achievement for our Junior School. It is no small feat to produce a sound of such high quality from such young singers.
“The children sang their hearts out, but it is their preparation that made the difference,” Mrs Dusseljee said.
Pictured: Junior School Performance Choir at the 2019 Girton Grammar School Junior School Ensembles Concert (14th August 2019)
