The Creative Industries is the home of Music, Drama, Multimedia and Art. In this edition, we reflect on the tremendous success of our Music Department's most recent concerts, Year 8 Drama's performance of 'Fantastic Mr Fox' and see what our Artist in Residence has been up to.

Music

It has been an incredibly busy fortnight in the Music Department. Our musicians have performed at four events, including one of our favourite events for the year, Jazz at The Gov, last night. It was a wonderful event full of live music, with arguably two of the worlds’ best jazz musician’s, Jo Lawry and Will Vinson joining Wilderness School students onstage.

Festival of Strings

We said goodbye to autumn and hello to winter on Monday 31 May with our annual Festival of Strings concert. After COVID struck in 2020 and many of our music concerts were cancelled, it was exciting to finally perform for a live audience again and to have our music community back together in person, but not without a few hiccups. Unfortunately, our Director of Strings, Ms Jacqui Finlay, and our Ensemble Coordinator, Ms Vanessa Abela, were both unable to make it last minute due to illness. Still, we were lucky to have Ms Louise Beaston step in to conduct many of the groups. We are very thankful for all the other staff in the Music Department who also helped make sure the concert went on. The evening showcased the Wilderness Strings Department, featuring talented students from all year levels in an exciting programme.

Along with beautiful performances from our three core ensembles; the Junior String Ensemble, Intermediate String Orchestra and Senior String Orchestra, we also had the opportunity to showcase some of our highly advanced musicians in the Piano Trio, Intermediate String Quartet and Senior String Quartet, which are ensembles you can only join by invitation.

The Festival of Strings also provided an opportunity to highlight a few of the extremely talented musicians in our school, who don’t often get the chance to play solos in a school concert. We were treated to an expressive viola solo from Annika Ganesh, playing ‘Sicilienne’ by French composer Gabriel Fauré.

I was also lucky enough to have the opportunity to perform ‘Legende Op. 17’, a virtuosic violin solo piece by Henryk Wieniawski.

Isabelle Yu, who has the Best Performance for Certificate Level on Cello, gave a hauntingly beautiful rendition of ‘Elegie’, also composed by Fauré, accompanied by the Senior String Orchestra.

To conclude the evening, all the string ensembles combined for a thrilling finale piece, collaborating to perform ‘Excalibur’ by Stephen Chin. It was inspiring to see students from as young as Year 2 playing alongside senior girls, and together, we left the audience sensing the grandeur of King Arthur’s sword, Excalibur, the sound of strings resonating through Hender Hall.

Annecy Cheung
Senior Orchestra Leader, Year 11

Rotary Concert

On Sunday 6 June, six of our smaller music ensembles had the opportunity to perform at the Walkerville Town Hall as part of the Rotary Concert Series. I fondly remembered the Rotary concerts as one of my first performances as part of the Wilderness Music Department and was grateful to return to this venue.

This performance was an enjoyable experience for many girls, as for most, it was one of our first live performances in over a year. For myself, it was also my second assessment for SACE Stage 2 Ensemble Performance. I was extremely proud of my ensemble for providing so much support to me onstage, as well as the overall quality of playing by everyone. Unlike in most concerts, we also had the opportunity to sit and watch the other girls perform, which created a warm atmosphere for us to share all of our hard work!

It was amazing to perform to such a lovely, appreciative audience. In particular, the Rotary staff of Walkerville should be thanked for their hard work and catering, with lots of sweet treats provided for everyone afterwards.

Jacinta Chronowski-Wong, Year 11

75^th Italian Republic Celebration

Every year, June 2 is commemorated by the Italian community with official ceremonies and celebrations. Festa della Repubblica, or Italian Republic Day, remembers the historical day of the institutional referendum of 1946 when Italians were called to take a vote and decided to form their own government after World War II.

2021 was the 75^th anniversary and thus a big celebration for the Italian community. The Wilderness School Piano Trio was invited to provide occasional music before the Adelaide celebration at Fogular Furlan. The girls were also provided with the opportunity to meet Premier Steven Marshall, the Minister for Education John Gardner and the Italian Consul, Mr Adriano Stendardo.

The girls represented the School at the highest level and provided some beautiful European music by Elgar, Haydn and Mozart.

Anna Lenartowicz
Head of Music

Drama

Fantastic Mr Fox

Well done to our Year 8 Drama girls on their brilliant performance of Fantastic Mr Fox last Thursday night. We loved joining Mr Fox and his team of furry friends as they bounced, burrowed and bewildered their way to safety from those greedy farmers. There were indeed lots of laughs as the cast and crew did a fantastic job taking this classic Roald Dahl tale to the stage.

Aldo Longobardi
Head of Drama

Visual Art

Artist in Residence

Rosina Possingham’s generous approach to sharing her ideas and expertise has resulted in a very productive and engaging experience for art students this term.

Her proficiency in facilitating collaborative art-making opportunities has resulted in the creation of a variety of diverse artworks and rich learning for students from Reception to Year 12.

Among the many works created, our Year 7 and 8 Art students collaborated to create an aerial map of Wilderness School in its surroundings. They used Adobe Fresco, iPads and Apple Pencils to carefully match colours and shapes to re-represent the School using data from Google Maps and drone shots. Each section has been reassembled together to create one visually interesting and abstracted artwork.

Additionally, Year 3 Art classes experienced creating Cyanotypes, a photographic process invented in 1842. Paper is coated with a light-sensitive solution that is created using a mixture of two chemicals. It is prepared and dried in the dark.

A print is created by placing a negative (to produce a photograph) or objects (to make a photogram) in contact with the paper, sandwiched behind a piece of glass and exposed to UV light. By gently washing the chemicals from the paper, the resultant print can be seen.

Using fresh cuttings from the School gardens and photographic imagery captured by Rosina, students developed many beautiful cyan-blue prints. The photographic imagery included pressed flowers and handwriting captured by Rosina from the notebooks of one of our founding sisters, Miss Mamie Brown.

Rosina digitally collaged the individual prints to create a cohesive artwork that visually captures our school from past to present through its plant life.

We continue to celebrate Rosina’s contribution to our arts learning through an exhibition of the work created as part of her residency. The work can be viewed in the Art Centre Gallery and Junior School Art Room until the end of this term.

Brooke Porter
Head of Art