Music

Music Forms and Events can be found on Redlands Pulse

The Music Department would like to welcome all members of the Music community back after the summer holidays. We look forward to meeting with your children over the coming days and guiding them on their next musical journey. Partnerships with families are important to us in Music, where together, we all play important roles in fostering, encouraging and creating rich learning environments in which each individual is able to develop and extend their creativity and musical skills.

As a department, we believe that learning to sing and play a musical instrument, along with the habits of mind that are attributed to these learning experiences, is one of the many incredible opportunities that our school provides. In pursuing a music learning journey, each child is provided with broad musical experiences that foster personal curiosity, encourages persistence and patience over time, builds resilience when facing new challenges, and ultimately cultivates grit and determination through the learning of new skills.

Connections between home and school are paramount, and we believe that students, parents and teachers all play vital roles within this learning process. In achieving these developmental goals, the department values partnerships that support regular practice routines in order to develop, enhance and extend students’ skills.

Senior Music Lockers

Music instrument lockers are in the process of being processed and assigned. Please ensure you have completed the Music locker form and submitted it to the Secondary School Music Office by Monday 1 February. This form can be found on Redlands Pulse.

Key Dates

Jazz In The Garden (Under Review) – Saturday 13 March
Battle of the Bands (Under Review) – Monday 29 March
Red Factor (Under Review) – Friday 1 April
Junior and Senior Piano Competitions – Friday 30 April
Composition Competition – Friday 3 September
Vocal Competition – Monday 7 June
Instrumental Competition – Monday 13 September

Welcome New Staff to the Music Team

In recognition of the ongoing growth and change within our Academic, Cocurricular and Extra Subjects Music programs, we are thrilled with Mrs Amy Richardson’s recent appointment as the Head of Junior Campus Music (P-6). Amy is an exceptional teacher and leader and already in a short time, has had a positive impact on our Junior Campus Music team. We are also pleased to introduce second generation Redlander Mr Joseph Montz, who has been employed as our new Head of Bands. Mr Montz will teach Secondary School Music and take a lead role in overseeing the Band program across the Junior and Senior Campuses. Joseph will bring with him a wealth of experience having recently spent the last 16 years working at St Augustine’s, directing a broad range of musical ensembles and leading various programs. To our team of Music tutors, we welcome new Specialist Music tutors, Ms Lorissa Brink (Voice) and Ms Bridget Patterson (Voice and Choral program), who will work in our Cocurricular and Extra Subjects programs.

Planning Ahead

In order to assist you with planning the next few weeks ahead with your child, listed below is a summary of dates as to when various programs commence. Here is a weekly overview of the Music Ensemble program on the Junior and Senior Campuses:

Week 1 – Administration (registration, enrolments, Music locker organisation)
Week 2 – Commencement of Extra Subjects Music Tuition (Individual and Group lessons)
Week 3 – Commencement of Cocurricular Music Ensembles

Extra Subjects Private and Group Music Tuition

The Extra Subjects Music Tuition program provides specialist lessons in private singing and instrumental tuition. This program is primarily to provide tuition during school hours, where students leave a curriculum lesson for 30 minutes per week to attend their private music lesson. Music tutors rotate the lesson times on a four weekly cycle to ensure that students only miss 30 minutes of the same curriculum lesson two to three times each term. Only in special circumstances, and if possible, within individual teaching timetables, will Music tutors be able to organise for lessons to be made during free periods, lunch, before or after school hours.

All enrolments for Extra Subjects Voice and Instrumental tuition must be submitted by Friday 12 February for lessons to commence in Term 1. Any forms received after this date will commence lessons in Term 2. Parents and guardians are advised that students who are requesting a change to their current Extra Subject Music tuition will need to submit a Notification of Change Form four weeks prior to the end of Semester 1. Please note that once term has commenced, lessons will NOT be able to be terminated. The Notification of Change form can be downloaded from Redlands Pulse and emailed to Music Administrators.

The Private and Group tuition commences next week in Week 2. Please note that Music specialists will be in direct contact with parents to issue the Studio Teaching timetables for Term 1.

Junior and Secondary Cocurricular Music Ensembles

Cocurricular Music ensembles commence in Week 3, providing students with a wide variety of ensembles in which to participate. The ensemble program is based on participation in the CORE experiences of Band, Choral, Guitar and Strings. The Music Department invites any interested students to sign-up to CORE Music Ensembles by Friday 12 February. Days and times of rehearsals can be found on Redlands Pulse.

Music Competition Series

Students are encouraged to begin selecting and preparing repertoire for the upcoming auditions for the various Music competitions. The process in selecting finalists will require students to present one work that demonstrates musical competency. For information on audition requirements please download forms from Redlands Pulse.

Junior Campus Music Instrumental Program (MIP)

MIP commenced today for Yrs 4 and 5. In allocating instruments, parents are required to have logged into Redlands Pulse to give consent for Instrument Hire if you are wishing to hire from the school. A reminder that all students in Yr 4 will be billed $20 for the accompanying text for the program. It is an expectation that all students complete a minimum of 3 x 15 minute practices a week. For any enquiries regarding the MIP program, please contact Mrs Amy Richardson, Head of Music Junior Campus.

Friends of Music

As part of this partnership and, in further building community and collaboration, we extend the invitation to all parents to consider joining the Friends of Music (FOM) association, as we value the benefits of parents working together actively within this parent group and in association with our teachers. If you would like more information on the Friends of Music, please contact our President Ms Emma McLaren at g_e_mclaren@hotmail.com. To commence the year ahead, our first FOM meeting will be held on Friday 12 February commencing at 8.30am in P1.1 of the Parkes Building on the Junior Campus.

COVID-19 Safe Plan for Music Ensembles

The Music Department is pleased to announce that we will be resuming our ensembles within the Redlands Music program offerings from Week 3 (Term 1). The organisation of the Music program in commencing a new year, has been guided by the advice of the Australian Government, NSW Health, and School Leadership, along with recommendations that have emerged through online discussions with leading Conductors and Epidemiologists at local, national and international levels.

The planning of our modified format for rehearsals has considered, first and foremost, the safety of all students who are currently enrolled in the Music program and the staff who are responsible for leading these groups each week. In particular, the Choral program will see students participate in a variety of different learning experiences and rehearsal approaches, with more information issued to students in Week 2.

Hygiene in the Music Setting and Student Expectations

As part of our return to group settings, this continues to be a well-considered aspect of our planning, and students involved in group instruction will follow the guidelines through the appropriate spacing of students in rehearsals, utilising larger areas and rehearsal spaces to promote distancing, where possible. Regular cleaning and disinfecting of musical equipment and resources will be undertaken daily. In rehearsals, all students are expected to adhere to the recommendations pertaining to social distancing expectations. In consideration of these guidelines, all students are required to:

Sit in designated areas as determined by the teachers.
Bring individual repertoire that will be issued in Week 3 in a clearly named Music folder.

HSC and IB Results

At the conclusion of the Higher School Certificate and International Baccalaureate courses, the department celebrated the outstanding achievements of the Yr 12 graduates, who all obtained exceptional results in their Music studies across all courses of study.

Mr Darren Kuilenburg
Coordinator of Music
seniormusic@redlands.nsw.edu.au
9968 9820