IT was Patterson River Secondary College’s turn to host the annual Singfest that sees choirs from schools across the South Eastern Region meet, learn and perform choral music under the leadership of a guest conductor.
Conductor Dr Kathleen McGuire, co-artistic director of the School of Hard Knocks, took up the baton in Carrum last Wednesday (16 March) to lead about 200 students from ten schools across the south east this year.
Dr McGuire’s career as a conductor, composer and educator spans more than three decades and five countries. She has earned multiple degrees including the Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Colorado at Boulder.
A variety of choral music was composed and arranged by Dr McGuire to help students improve their musicality, intonation and sight reading abilities.
Since the guest conductor was also the composer and arranger of this year’s music at Singfest it gave students a greater insight into the music learned and performed.
Nineteen Patterson River Secondary students from years 7 to 12 took part in Singfest.
“The day ran very smoothly with students very happy to go out of their way to meet and help students from other schools,” principal Maree Vinocuroff said.
Dr McGuire was assisted over the course of the day by accompanist Yollette Stewart.
First published in the Chelsea Mordialloc Mentone News – 23 March 2016