World acclaimed celebrity conductor Vasily Petrenko landed in Perth for his debut with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra. Our Music students were fortunate enough to watch a live rehearsal where they got a chance to gain detailed insights into Shostakovich's Symphony No.11 given by the conductor.

At the start of the morning the assistant conductor briefed the students on aspects of concert etiquette, the difficulties of the music, the meaning behind each of the four movements and other interesting bits and pieces.

Students were then seated in the choir stalls above the orchestra and could look down and watch the musicians play, mark their music scores and change and clean their instruments.

The large orchestra included some auxiliary instruments that the students were less familiar with like: a celeste, bass clarinet, cor anglais and a contrabassoon.

This excursion proved to be a fabulous learning experience and exposure to a wonderful example of symphonic writing and style.

Tammy van der Nest

Director of Music