It’s clear at the end of Term 2, the long-awaited three-week break from bells and hats on the playground was on everyone’s minds. Many dream of the days waking up after 10 am, boosting the local economy with friends, skiing down way too fast in Perisher or better yet a trip to Europe in summer. However, for the students in the Symphonic Wind Ensemble, Secondary Choir and Senior Singers, their winter was going to get a whole lot colder… in Orange and Bathurst.
Any trip will always begin with big problems and ours came before we even hopped on the bus. Upon arrival, the brothers William T and James T had both forgotten to bring their College uniforms, a major mistake given the number of performances and workshops we were about to partake in. Saved by a quick trip home, we all boarded into the welcoming arms of Kevin and his tour bus.
When you fill an entire bus with music students, teachers and Mr Morris (ex-student of William Clarke), you expect nothing less but continuous singing, and yes there was a lot of Taylor Swift. But at least it made the three-hour trip much faster.
With rehearsals in the music department of Scots All Saints finished it was time for dinner and onto the activity of the evening, disco bowling. It was at this point in time that the school captain Zoe L and associate Abi FM (commonly named ‘Flop’ by music students) created a betting competition with the Head of Faculty Music himself, Mr Peachey with you guessed it, cookies. The goal, Zoe and Abi had to have a higher average than Mr Peachey’s score. Because of Abi’s lack of experience in bowling, Zoe’s leadership proved vital in bowling as well. In the end, it was down to 7 pins and Abi’s tenth bowl had managed to beat that.
Day three brought its own challenges, it was Wednesday 28th June, a day Swifties knew all too well. As the bus fell silent for the first time as a few students joined The Great War for Taylor Swift Concert Presale. Plagued by a moving tour bus and shortage of mobile signal few were successful, well except for We Are’s very own Alex S. With the mood of the bus at two completely different ends of the spectrum, we pulled up into Millthorpe Public School. A performance by all three ensembles and a demonstration of what music can do left us feeling satisfied with the impact that we have left on the Millthorpe community in terms of music, hopefully influencing many primary school students to pick up music.
In the afternoon the tour bus made it to the Orange Regional Conservatorium, a place we called home away from home. It was here we spent many hours of the afternoon in a variety of workshops with Junior Singing Ensembles, local conductors as well as for many year 11 and 12 students a time of study for upcoming exams. For dinner, a trip to Orange’s very own Anson St was filled with even more music as many of the students had the opportunity to see ex-William Clarke Teacher Mrs Waters who had graciously welcomed us into an African Drumming demonstration. It was clear by now to the students, that once on music, there was no escape from music.
The Thursday brought us back to the Orange Conservatorium (hence home for a reason) for even more workshops and interactive sessions in singing, playing and expression in music form. After a quick lunch, we were back in the auditorium, this time for a community concert. Unfortunately, word had not spread about who William Clarke College is. Hence the usual performances with 2000 audience members during Presentation Day were slightly reduced by a couple of people. However, Kevin the bus driver, who we have had the opportunity to know on the trip had ran in the freezing cold from outside Orange where he parked the bus to the conservatorium just to hear us play. We knew we had to make this a worthwhile performance for him.
After the performance we had the opportunity to boost the local Hot Chocolate (and ice cream for those who dared) industry of Orange in the few hours of free time we had before some evening workshops which included mentoring with the ‘Storm Blowers’ Junior Band (I wish we had a band with such a cool name) but was quickly humbled by the Conservatorium Symphonic Wind Ensemble. To finish the entire tour off, we had the opportunity to join the chamber choir and Conservatorium Choir.
Overall, the tour allowed us to build connections with other music students as well as the mentoring of younger students in music. I’d like to take the opportunity to thank the staff from Orange and Bathurst, William Clarke Music Staff, Kevin the bus driver and Mr Morris.
