Fremantlebiz - Paul's Letter from Australia

And the bands played on

On Sunday morning my wife and I attended a fund-raising breakfast for the Melville High School band. Basic state government funding is never quite enough when it comes to things like running bands at public schools. It befalls the lot of parents to cover one way or another other overhead costs. I'm not complaining. I think that such parental input is a good thing. It helps to consolidate the school community. There is a long and honourable record of parents and citizens providing financial input into Western Australian state schools.

We have two kids playing at Melville. A year eight son on trumpet and a year eleven daughter on trombone. They both participate in the concert band and the swing jazz band. Some of our older children played in these bands throughout their high school years, so over time we've been to a lot of fund-raiser concerts. Here's a stylised pic I took on Sunday:

I thought both bands played better this time than in previous years. Maybe the improvement is a reflection of the new music department facilities completed a couple of years ago? It's always a hard call for the music teachers because at the end of each year they lose their most seasoned players to graduation and then receive an influx of newbies.

Instruments wax and wane in popularity too. In the concert band this year there's a record number of flutes - seventeen. The guitar ensemble, which is distinctive from the two bands, has a record number of 26 strummers. They were there on Sunday too.

The head music teacher has been at the school for eleven years. He's very popular with the kids. This year, two of his teachers are former students. They graduated from the school, went to university and obtained their music teaching degrees and have now returned. Funny thing is that all the music teachers including the department head are so young looking it's hard for outsiders to tell the teachers from the students.

It was a perfect morning on Sunday. The concert was held outdoors in a recently refurbished courtyard. The fundraiser breakfast was a barbecued sausage with fried onions in a bread roll and a cup of coffee - five bucks. Furthermore my son won the raffle - two bottles of wine and a box of chocolates. He's declared to us that he's going to keep the wine until he's 18. Bummer!

© MMVIII Paul R. Weaver.

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