Last weekend 59 Senior School students participated in the annual Generations in Jazz music festival in Mount Gambier. With over 5,000 high school musicians from across the country and New Zealand, Generations in Jazz was another highly competitive festival.
Saints were represented in five ensembles in five different divisions, with students who worked incredibly hard over the past five months. This year, Saints improved our successes from last year, with the Jazz band and Stage band coming 16th and 13th in their respective divisions, and the large vocal ensemble achieving 8th place in Division 1. The small vocal ensemble placed 4th in the top division and the Big Band placed 7th nationally. This is an improvement from last year; the small vocal ensemble, looking to improve their 5th place last year (in their first year in the competition), came 4th out of 13 choirs, narrowly missing out on a podium placement by a single point.
The Big Band came first in Division 2 last year, and, amongst the top high school bands in the country were able to hold their own and beat some well-established bands this year, coming 7th out of 11. Year 9 student Charlie Wells was awarded the ‘Most Promising Vocalist’ award at the competition this year – out of every vocalist at the competition, Charlie placed highest.
Over the past few years, Saints have continually improved at Generations in Jazz, and, for all our bands, the sky is the limit.
Kush Goyal (Year 12), Henry Allen (Year 12) , Josh Dunstan (Year 12)
Photo credit, Paul Dunstan