Public Schools Music Festival Orchestra – reported by Erin Sales

Is your child in years 5,6 or 7? Do they play an instrument? I’m not sure if you know what the choir do, but for most of the year the Public Schools Music Festival choir works on a set of songs for this program called festival of music and the festival of music has an orchestra for the musicians. The orchestra plays all the songs that the choir are singing. There are three different orchestras, there’s the South orchestra they rehearse at Seaview high school on Thursdays at 4.20pm-6.00pm, the central orchestra they rehearse at Glenunga int high school on Wednesday at 4.20pm-600pm  and the north orchestra and they rehearse at PSMF Klemzig on Thursdays at 4.20pm-6.00pm. On a regular basis the orchestras all play with all the different schools on set days and the orchestra plays in a pit.

I said on a regular basis because this year (2020) we didn’t play there because of COVID-19 (coronavirus) but we did a recording for a movie. In orchestra your child will meet lots of new people and gain lots of new skills in playing as well as learning to play with a conductor. To get in to one of the orchestras you will need to audition, at the audition you will get a set time to audition at. At the audition you will meet two people named Micheal (the head of festival of music orchestras) and Sharon( the conductor for central orchestra).You will get to be in the orchestra starting at year five up until year ten. Now never fear if your child ins’t a musician but a dancer there is also a troupe where you dance/and(or)act. Just like orchestra you will need to do an audition.

My experience was different to normal. On the dates 3rd 4th 6th and 7th of August we went into where the Adelaide symphony orchestra rehearse called Grainger studio. Now normally we would get a big folder full of about 16 songs but this year we only played four songs and their names are somebody to love by queen, higher ground a Viking song, dance of the hours a classical song and the festival finale which is a blend of many of the songs we didn’t play this year. We recorded all week except for Wednesday which was a rest day for us. I made lots of new friends I learnt so many new skills and the most important thing (I think) is that I gained more confidence in playing my instrument. The conductors’ names are Katie (south), Sue (south), Sharon (central) and Lisa (north). The orchestra allows violin, viola, cello, double bass, trumpet, tuba, trombone, flute, percussion of all sorts,clarinet,saxophone, base guitar, electric guitar and keyboard (as far as I know). There is a festival of music website so that’s got all the details on the auditions and stuff like that. The auditions will start at round about November and end in February but next year might be a bit different so just check the website to find out when things are.

Website:

https://festivalofmusic.org.au/students/orchestra