"An all-round incredible camp; people and activities were a highlight!"

114 music students from Mount Barker, Albany, and Denmark from our Concert Bands, Choirs, Orchestras, and Classical Guitar Ensembles spent 3 days on camp.

We departed Albany in the morning and, after a quick rehearsal at Mt Barker, were off to Kojonup DHS to perform for their primary school students. A Mt Barker student thought it "was good to perform with everyone before the festival so it was good practice. It was good hearing the orchestra, guitars and choirs to perform before us. And I think we had a good long time for lunch."

After settling in at Seaside Camp, we headed out to the Rockingham shops. A student from Denmark described it like this: "We all rushed around (like headless chickens) because we only had 30-40 minutes to go shopping and get dinner." We then watched 'Jurassic World' or 'How to Train Your Dragon' at the movies. 

Friday morning saw us split into two groups. The Concert Band had a final rehearsal to polish up our pieces for our WA Schools' Band Festival performance that afternoon. The Choir, Orchestra, and Classical Guitar Ensemble headed off to the Kwinana Senior Citizens' Centre to perform for a very welcoming audience. A student from North Albany thought the whole experience was very positive. "The audience was really quite sweet and they clapped a lot after every group performed. It was pretty nice to play for them; they looked like they enjoyed the whole morning."

We then all met up again at the WA Academy of Performing Arts for workshops and tours. A student from North Albany enjoyed being at WAAPA: "The WAAPA tour was very interesting and something I'd like to experience again. It inspired me to practice more and hopefully in the future I might go there."

Henry, Hayden, and Noah from Albany SHS said that "us Classical Guitarists were lucky enough to have Classical Guitar workshops with both Dr Jonathan Paget from WAAPA, and Dr Jonathan Fitzgerald from UWA. Both sessions were informative and engaging, and both guitarists are really inspiring."

After enjoying a sausage sizzle lunch at UWA, we participated in various workshops and tours. One of the Denmark students thought that "Libby Hammer was really good and very talented. She knew a lot about how to train your voice and she shared a lot of knowledge on how to warm up properly and how not to push or strain your voice. She was very optimistic and I really enjoyed learning from her."

William from Alban SHS felt that watching the UWA orchestra, conducted by James Ledger, was an important learning experience for the Orchestra students. "Being able to be in the room with so many wonderful musicians, under the command of one of Australia's best composers and conductors, made us all understand what we can achieve, and what we need to do to achieve it." It was also wonderful to see and/or hear from some music alumni from Albany, Denmark, and Mt Barker at WAAPA and the UWA Conservatory of Music.

The main event for the Concert Band was on Friday afternoon. Sarah from Albany SHS writes, "This year, our Albany concert bands participated in the Band Festival in Perth alongside Mount Barker and Denmark, bringing all our hard-working performers together for an unforgettable performance. As country kids, we don't always get the opportunity to perform in such large, beautiful venues with a band of such immense size, so it really was an amazing, unique experience. We played 'Into the Unknown' (not the Frozen one), a piece about tension and adventure; 'Hornpipe,' which explored ideas of uncharted seas; and 'Afterburn' to wrap things up. We then received a professional critique and a quick workshop from an adjudicator, which helped us improve our playing and gain a fresh perspective on our musical technique and group balance. The festival was one of the most valuable learning moments we had been part of in a long time, and a fantastic way to round off our band journey for the year, especially for our leavers as part of their last band camp. Hopefully, the bands will get more chances to work together and experience moments like these in the future."

The final activity on Friday was our own private concert with Aquila String Quartet and Junkadelic Brass Band back at our campsite. Daisy from Albany SHS says she "loved how we could join in with Junkadelic on the shakers; it's a great idea to use junk to create musical instruments. We could sing along with the first band because they played songs we all knew and were current. The songs were up-tempo, and it was really fun to listen to a live band after a long day playing music."

Thank you to all the staff and supervisors who looked after everyone and made camp run smoothly: Dr Anwar McHenry, Mr Dwyer, Ms Crossen, Ms Formentin, Mrs Pantall, Mrs Reynolds, Mr & Mrs Roberts, Mr & Mrs Talbot, Ms Warnock, and Mrs Webster.

Other happy campers' thoughts:

"I've said it a lot...BUT I WAS INSPIRED THE WHOLE CAMP!!! I'm very glad I went."

"Definitely wanna have more camps like this in the future."

"The Kojonup kids are adorable, and playing together in larger numbers is always amazing. I also enjoyed the bus trips."

"I think I learnt the most from the WAAPA tour, but I had a lot of fun at the movies."