Celebrating the Arts honours talent and dedication

Thursday, 17 October offered a brisk evening and a dimly lit, beautifully decorated Elliot Hall for our Performing Arts community at the College. Part glamour and part formalities, Celebrating the Arts at its core is the Performing Arts prizegiving, but offers much to guests in entertainment. Dotted with items from each area of performance at the College, those in attendance sat at tables, engaged and enthralled at the talent emerging at our school. 

Walking into Elliot Hall would have been a pleasant surprise to any newcomer, as this was not your run-of-the-mill prizegiving. Tablescapes represented the vast array of Performing Arts disciplines on offer, and the evening was glamourous, done with flair, and offered entertainment throughout the night.

Guests were greeted by the smooth sounds of the Jazz Combo as they entered, setting the tone for a night celebrating artistic excellence. The event opened with the grandeur of the Pipes and Drums, before Director of Performing Arts, Sara Standring, extended a warm welcome. She paid special tribute to Geordan Wilcox (Head of Dance) and Mary Lin (Head of Music) for their invaluable contributions throughout the year, and introduced the new Head of Music Nate Collings and Head of Dance Dance Hana Tipa to the wider community.

The night also celebrated the contributions of this year’s Arts Prefects, Amelie Carter, Patrick Yu, and Keeley Berkovits, who gave a recap of the incredible year in the arts. Each took part in the aforementioned performances throughout the evening, including a collaboration between the Rock Band String Ensemble, the Year 13 dance piece, and a theatresports game that had the audience in stitches. 

Our Performer of the Year awards are always highly anticipated. This year, the Middle School honours went to Peter Hu and the Senior School to Charles Sang. They are two incredibly gifted instrumentalists and key personnel in a variety of our orchestras. 

As the evening drew to a close, the College community celebrated the hard work and achievements of all the students, as well as the dedication of the teachers who support their artistic growth. The current Arts Prefects passed the torch to next year’s leaders, Amy Chen and Arden Matheson, promising another year of creativity and excellence in the arts.