On Monday 17 February, Music staff took our three jazz choirs and two Big Bands to Nunyara for a day of rehearsing and workshops in preparation for this year’s Generations in Jazz (GiJ) festival.

Mattson and McKenzie jazz choirs joined forces in the first session to complete a short composition task and to explore their creativity, before splitting off to start learning their GiJ repertoire for 2025. Prelude, our youngest jazz choir, spent their time working on blending and sounding as one voice, while both Big Bands worked intensely on new repertoire in sectionals and as an ensemble with guest jazz musicians Alex Taylor and Jackson Mack.

After lunch, students came together for an introduction to jazz improvisation session led by Thomas Voss, while our newly established Small Jazz Combo had a chance to rehearse and get some valuable feedback from the visiting tutors.

A huge thank you to our highly skilled Music staff who made this day possible, and to Thomas Voss, Kathie Renner, Alex Taylor, Jackson Mack and Marco Callisto for giving up their valuable time to work with our ensembles and create an extraordinary experience for our students.

Kellie Rich
Head of Music Performance ELC-12