On Monday, 20th May – Rose Bay Secondary College Percussion Ensemble performed in the Sydney Eisteddfod at the Concourse Hall in Chatswood. As we approached the venue the students looked in awe and disbelief at the enormity of the building they were about to perform in. We dropped off our gear, went and grabbed some lunch and then watched the other schools’ performances for inspiration and ideas. Once the school that was on before us went on stage, we went to the backstage area to warm up and here we sang/played our parts on the floor.
We then got called to the stage and played Caravan by Duke Ellington first and it went very well. Some of the adjudicator’s comments were; “nice arrangement”, “consider mallet choices” and “keep listening to each other”. “Shock Factor” was our second piece and we didn’t play it as well as we could have, mainly because we weren’t listening to each other. Some of the comments were “good use of dynamics”, “good sense of rhythm and ensemble” and “well done on the demi-semi quavers”.
Overall, I was very pleased with our performance and our mark of 85% was a great result. It was an amazing experience for the students to perform in such a lovely new venue with great acoustics.
Ali Foster, Percussion Ensemble Conductor
RBSC Music Ensemble Program 