Pittwater Life November 2023 Issue

of hitting high notes
NOW AND THEN: The band celebrates 50 years of making music; the huge
band in 1977; performing on ANZAC Day in 1983; 50th year performance;
Lions Festival 1977 (couldn’t do that today!); Manly Aquarium 1990.
intensive practice and tuition culminate
in a concert on the Sunday afternoon and
see a steep change in skill level.
Band alumni Trent Morgan started
with cymbals in 1981 and became
percussion section leader in 1982. He
recalls: “The highlight for me playing
these cymbals was on the back of a
flatbed truck in the Palm Beach ANZAC
Day march, standing up (no safety
precautions back then) as the truck
rolled along amongst the diggers.”
In 2007, he went on to form his own
band, which is still performing. “Playing
in the school band had a lifelong
influence on me.”
Other alumni include sisters Elena
and Laura Newlyn, who both played in
the band and are now tutoring flute,
while studying at the Australian Catholic
University. And Michael Welch, started
his musical journey here, graduated from
Barrenjoey High School in 2019, and
is now majoring in tuba at the Sydney
Conservatorium of Music. Will Cassell
is a graduate of Barrenjoey HS in 2022;
he achieved equal first in NSW for HSC
Music 1. “You need passionate teachers,
an encouraging learning environment…”
he said, when interview by the ABC after
leaving school.
“We have been blessed with some
amazing band directors, highly talented
students and a supremely supportive
parent body of volunteers without whom
our program would not exist,” says Andy
Rankin.
Wilkinson summed up the legacy
of this phenomenal school band in
his speech at the gala concert: “As we
celebrate the past 50 years, let us also
look forward to the next 50, knowing
that the music we make today will
continue to inspire generations of young
musicians, setting them on their own
journeys of creativity, expression, and
lifelong learning.”
– Rosamund Burton
News
The Local Voice Since 1991
NOVEMBER 2023 17