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Congratulations Chelsea Witham

Chelsea Witham who is in Year 12 at Roseville College and was one of our Finalists for the Rotary Club of Chatswood Gordon Waterhouse Music Scholarship in both 2009 and 2010. Chelsea played brilliantly in the NSW Flute Championships to become NSW Flute Champion in her age division. This is the fifth time that Chelsea has been NSW Champion in her age group.  A truly outstanding achievement.

Congratulations to Chelsea who has achieved a very high distinction being awarded 3rd place in the NSW 2010 HSC Music Extension course.

Postcards from Shanghai and Paris

Louise Peake, winner of the Gordon Waterhouse Memorial Music Scholarship 2008, writes:-

I had such a wonderful time playing in Shanghai, expo was amazing and the sights we saw around town were just amazing. We even got to play on a festival size stage! A Sax Quartet!

Paris was as beautiful as ever and I bought a lot of music (thank you). Gap, incredibly beautiful, was the highlight. I've never seen mountains like that or heard saxophones so good or met as many lovely and inspiring people!!!

I was so sad to leave, so much that I've decided I must go back next year.

Thank you Chatswood Rotary again.

The Rotary Club of Chatswood congratulates Louise on her latest achievement and wishes her many more musical adventures.

Photo by Bill Forsyth

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Gordon Waterhouse Memorial Music Scholarship

Misa Yamamoto from Willoughby Girls’ High School is studying music for the HSC and is already showing great promise as a teacher/tutor which augurs well for her intended career in music education. She plays in the school ensemble, is a prefect and House vice captain. In her performance she treated us to two compositions for tenor saxophone (accompanied by Margaret Greenwood). The first was called ‘Aria’ by Eugene Bozza, while the second was an adventurous modern piece by Stewart Greenbaum entitled ‘Noyz in th’ ‘Hood. It included an entrée and finale where the only sound was the musician tapping the keys.

Chelsea Witham, an accomplished flautist from the Roseville College who had already been the age flute champion of NSW on 3 occasions. She plays solo and with the school orchestra, and would like to incorporate music into her future career. She demonstrated her skills by playing part 1 of the ‘Hungarian Pastoral Fantasie’ by Franz Doppler (himself a flautist), followed by ‘ Bossa Merengova from Sonata Latino, composer Mike Mower (accompanied by Christian Lilli-crap).

The winner, Michael Augenicos, is from Chatswood High School and plays tenor saxophone. Read more about Michael

Hugo Lee, the third saxophonist was from Glenaeon Rudolf Steiner School where he is a multi-instrumentalist (on cello, bass, piano and harmonica as well as saxophone), playing in both the school band and outside at community fund raisers. He played three pieces: the first movement of Vivaldi’s ‘Sonata no 3’ (originally composed for cello and rearranged for saxophone, accompanied by William Hoffman); ‘Etude 12- Theme and Variations’ by Eugene Bozza again; and the jazz classic, ‘Summertime’ by George Gershwin with his colleagues, William Hoffman (piano), Alessio Colli (bass) and Oliver Fuller (drums).

  The final participant was vocalist, Aviva Payne from Mercy Catholic College Chatswood. She studies music and drama, specialising in singing. She participates in all College music activities including liturgical and in the future has her sights on music theatre at NIDA. On this occasion she sang ‘These Roses’ by Gin Wigmore (accompanied by Matthew Robertson, guitar) and ‘I could have danced all night ‘ from My Fair Lady (accompanied by Glenn Amer), a fitting finale to what had been a fine display of young musical talent- one could almost imagine Gordon Waterhouse smiling with pleasure.

The award was presented by the President of Chatswood Rotary 2009-2010, Alan Hall-Watson, who said, “What was particularly impressive this year was the remarkable diversity of the programmes selected by the participants each of whom clearly met the criteria for nomination by their schools of musical talent and participation in school and community activities”.