Edition Three SRO

The Biggest Night of the Year

By Samson Hulks and Daniel Bordina

History

The annual Founders Concert has its origin in ‘Founders’ Day’, a commemoration of the opening of the College on 16 July 1863 that was first held on that date in 1971, at the suggestion of the then College Chaplain, Rev Dr Peter Swain.
 
Initially, Founders’ Day involved a commemoration service and subsequently a special school assembly. Over the following years, musical items performed by school ensembles were included in the program. In 1978 for the first time, a separate concert was held in association with Founders’ Day. From 1980, it was called the Founders’ Day Concert and, from 1985, simply the Founders Concert. It quickly became the principal concert event on the College’s musical calendar. By 1982 it was a big enough event to be put on in the Sydney Opera House. Over the years since then, the three main venues used have been the Centenary Hall, the Sydney Town Hall and the Sydney Opera House.
 
While the Concert’s connection with the celebration of the foundation of the College has largely been lost, it remains in its name and in its timing, still being held close to the 16 July anniversary.
 
Overview: 150 Years of Music at Newington College

Music as an organised activity at Newington College started in 1865 with the appointment of Mr A McManus as Music Master, along with the purchase of a piano and music books, the latter bought from Palings for £2. Our first evidence of musical performances is in the program for a ‘Mid-Winter Entertainment’ held on 13 June 1866. The program comprised a series of recitations and dialogues, several songs and duets, and two ‘drawing room scenes’. The event is described as ‘their usual Mid-Winter Entertainment’, suggesting that it had started at least the previous year. Mid-winter concerts, staged just before the mid-year holidays, remained a regular highlight of life at the College through the nineteenth century.

Our earliest evidence of a school choir performing is in a report of the 1884 Speech Day, when singing was included in the program for the first time. ‘A moderately-sized, well-balanced and carefully-trained choir … sang a selection of songs and glees with considerable sweetness and expression.’ In 1935, the school choir, already performing regularly in Chapel services and at Speech Night and other events, made several appearances on radio station 2GB. By 1951, there were both a school choir and a boarders’ choir.
Under Mr Alan Bellhouse, Head of Music from 1964 to 1973, the choir performed regularly in Assembly, as well at other events, while a madrigal group was formed for the first time.

His successor, Mrs Elizabeth Swain, persuaded prefects and leading sportsmen to join the choir, which performed in an ABC telecast of the 1974 Easter Chapel service and undertook national, and later international, tours. The building of the Chapel in 1984 provided a new setting for the choir (it was called the Chapel Choir until 2008) in worship and performance. The Chamber Choir, comprising the College’s finest vocalists, was formed in 1990.

Instrumental music groups at Newington appear to have started with a drum, fife and bugle band that formed part of the Cadet Corps by 1886. A Mr Berkley was appointed as part-time bugle instructor the following year. The Cadet Corps band played at major school events, such as the raising of the first school flag in 1899. A Cadet Brass Band was formed in 1957 and started playing regularly in Assemblies the following year. While primarily intended to serve the musical needs of the Corps, it was hoped ‘…that this enterprise will give a much-needed lift to the musical life of the school.’ Allan Bellhouse enlarged the band and it won a series of Cadet Band competitions between 1966 and 1970.

We first read of an orchestra at Newington when the College Orchestra was reported as playing selections from two operas, Bellini’s ‘Norma’ and Thomas’ ‘Mignon’, at the Speech Day of 1899. An orchestra was active again in the 1930s, as was a percussion band. Alan Bellhouse’s arrival in 1964 resulted in a revival of the orchestra, along with a recorder ensemble and several other instrumental groups. The range of instrumental ensembles and the opportunities for performance continued to grow under Elizabeth Swain’s leadership and beyond.

Founders concert is a day where families and friends came together to celebrate the perseverance, creativity and originality of the boys and staff who belong to Newington Music. With a new theme, every year the audience enjoys and immerses themselves with the new program. This concert has been taking place for many years and will take place for many years to come.

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Arguably the biggest day for all music students at Newington College is the schools annual Founders Concert. On Thursday the 27th of July, over 150 boys from the secondary school and over 50 boys from the prep school choirs came together to put on a spectacular show. Based around the theme of the Traveller we had many different types of music sourced from all around the world.

Within the music department, there was a conscious decision to perform more demanding repertoire for this year’s Founders concert. Head of Orchestra, James Rosse stated, ‘I was in Year 7 when I played at my first Founders Concert. The theme was Food and I was playing a piece called Popcorn. As you can tell by the title of the piece it wasn’t a very complex or challenging piece.’ This year the Chamber Strings group performed Finale from Tchaikovsky’s String Serenade Suite. The performance from the group was near perfect and they received a grand round of applause at the completion of the piece. The piece was by far the hardest piece played by the ensemble for an exceedingly long time thus it was a great feat.

For the first-time a centre stage was included for smaller ensembles to perform on. Some of the acts who expressed their art on the newly implemented stage were the Jazz Combo and the Celtic Ensemble, performing Road Song by Wes Montgomery and Appalachian Jig arr. by Hiroko Rossé respectively. The centre stage was used to distract the audience from ensembles setting up on the main stage at the front of the hall.

The Symphonic Winds is always a very consistent ensemble that creates great performances at every concert they play at. This year they performed two stunning pieces, On a Hymnsong of Lowell Mason by David Holsinger and El Camino Royal by Alfred Reed. The two pieces were very contrasting with the Hymnsong presenting very rich tones combine with a slow tempo while the El Camino Royal was very playful and staccato at times combined with a fast tempo. The years Symphonic Winds followed the tradition and produced two stunning performances.

Both choirs this year (the Prep School Choir and the Senior Choir) produced amazing performances of their respective pieces. The Senior Choir’s rendition of the Simon & Garfunkel song Bridge Over Troubled Water absolutely stunned the audience while the Prep choir’s performances of Abiyoyo arr. Joan Szymko and Kusimama by Jim Papoulis btought smiles to the faces of all members of the audience.

Following yet another tradition, just before the grand finale Director of Music, Mark Scott commenced the ceremony in which the departing Year 12 musicians are recognised for their contributions to the music program and the music department.

The grand finale is always somewhat of a spectacle at a Founders Concert. Always performed by the Symphony Orchestra, this year they took own Dvorak’s New World Symphony no.9 Finale. As always it was a grand and beautiful performance to round off the concert for 2017.

Or so we thought…

After the conclusion of the New World Symphony, Director of Music Mark Scott raced over to the piano and started to play the introduction of We Call Australia Home by Peter Allen. This was truly the grand finale which included the Symphony Orchestra on stage, the Senior Choir, the Prep school choir and a solo from Nico Maclean. A genuine round circle with pieces from England, Russia, Czech Republic and Africa just to name a few all being included in this concert, all the way back to a piece by an Australian, sung by Australians about Australians.