Guests gather to say thank you to Corinne - New England ...

OUTREACH PROGRAMInverell Tour ReportThis year, Nick Negerevich joined Eleanor Streatfeild andSheila Guymer to form the New England ConservatoriumTrio and continue NECOM’s outreach program in the NorthWest Region. Our first tour for 2009 was to Inverell topresent a program of chamber music for primary schoolchildren at the Ross Hill, Inverell Public and Holy Trinityschools.The tour followed-on from a highly successful In-ServiceDay for primary school classroom teachers run by DeidreRickards at NECOM’s Inverell Campus. An innovation of theNECOM outreach design is that classroom teachers are activityencouraged to collaborate with the Trio in presentingthe program. The teacher reads introductions to each of thepieces, explains musical concepts drawn from the NSW MusicSyllabus, and guides the students’ participation in somemusical activities.It’s always a pleasure for the Trio to collaborate with theclassroom teachers in this way, especially with teachers whomight not have much knowledge of classical music themselves.It’s a real strength in Deidre Rickards’s design of theprogram’s script that general classroom teachers can feel confidentabout explaining musical concepts to their studentseasily and quickly. As one teacher wrote: “Personally, I gainedsome excellent ideas for my Term 2 Music Program (which Iam definitely going to implement) – I am enthused and motivated.Thankyou!” (Narelle, Ross Hill).On June 26, the Trio will present an introductory trainingsession for Armidale primary school teachers, in associationwith PAMTA (Primary Armidale Music Teachers Association).In Term Three, the Trio will be visiting schools in and aroundArmidale, while in Term Four the Trio heads west to visit theNarrabri and Moree districts.The children at all the schools were receptive and enthusiasticto meet the trio. After each presentation, we handedout a questionnaire and invited students to make commentsto give the trio, or draw their favourite instrument. Somestudents’ comments are below:Thankyou for visiting Ross Hill. That was the best music I’veever heard.The trio were fantastic. I loved the music and I hope theyenjoyed playing as much as I did.It was cool. You have made my day!!I love listening to your lovely music.I loved the songs and the split song singing.It was beautiful.I liked it when Nick told us how much we have to practise.It was really good. We are lucky!Sheila Guymer, NECOM Music Educator Member6 NECOM NEWS JULY 2009