The College by the Harbour - St Aloysius

More documents

Recommendations

Info

New College Organ Excitement is beginning to grow amidst the College community, as the new chapel organ is due to arrive from Canada soon. The container with its precious cargo travelling via the Panama Canal is expected at the College in late March. The various components of the instrument will then be unpacked, littering the chapel with metal and wooden pipes, the wooden casework, bellows, two 58 note keyboards, a 32 note pedal-board, an electrical blower, lots of intricate wooden parts of the mechanical action plus numerous electrical bits and pieces. Construction will then begin. Final installation, which includes tonal balancing and adjustment of the voicing of the pipes, should be completed by early July. The blessing and dedication together with a Spring Concert Series featuring the organ alone and with choir and other instruments is currently being planned for early September. Please keep Sunday afternoon September 1 free in your diary. Our new organ was built by Orgues Letourneau of Saint- The new Chapel Organ in its former home, the Basilica of St Joseph in Edmonton, Canada Hyacinthe, Quebec, and was the 22nd organ built by that firm. Other instruments, by Letourneau, to be found in New South Wales include St Alban’s Anglican Church, Epping, SCEGGS Darlinghurst, a private residence in Turramurra, St Matthew’s Anglican Church, Albury, St Andrew’s Cathedral and St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney. This firm boasts one of the best-equipped factories in North America with state-of-the-art machinery making possible many multi-skilled operations necessary for large-scaled designs, construction and assembly. The new instrument for St Aloysius’ College chapel was originally built by Letourneau in 1989 and installed in St Joseph’s Cathedral Basilica, Edmonton, Alberta, as their second organ designed to accompany the choir in the sanctuary. It became redundant due to the major remodelling and refurbishment of the Cathedral, which is currently being undertaken. The new organ is visually quite impressive and imposing, standing 9.6 metres high - with its splendid case of North American oak and shiny façade pipes of 70% polished tin. The original organ in our chapel, built by J. P. Eagles of Sydney in 1969, boasts a mere 320 pipes. The Letourneau organ, being a larger and much more complete musical instrument, has 1,366 pipes. It therefore has the capacity for many different tonal colours and a much greater dynamic range than does the former instrument. It will provide greater animation of liturgical music and promises to be an instrument on which students can learn, practice and be examined for HSC organ music examinations. We all look forward to seeing and hearing this marvellous addition to our musical and liturgical resources. Our thanks go to Mrs Jo Lonergan and the College Council for their support in this project. To Reverend Father Smith SJ, The College Bursar, Mr Laurie Byrne and the Director of Music, Mr Michael Hissey for guiding the project to fruition. To Mr Peter Kneeshaw (principal organist at St Mary’s Cathedral) for acting as our organ consultant in a difficult process of international negotiation and to Reverend Father David Rankin SJ for inspecting the instrument in Edmonton on our behalf. David Molloy Music Department The Jazz Combo performing at The Basement St Aloysius’ College Junior Jazz Combo The Summer Jazz Festival After a lot of rehearsing and hard work on Friday 22 February 2002, the St Aloysius Jazz Combo, conducted by Miss Ruth De Rosa was ready to participate in the Summer Jazz Festival at The Basement (a popular Jazz Club at Circular Quay.) We started the weekend on Saturday with workshops by Mr Maynard Ferguson and his Big Bop Band. This famous group from the United States taught us a great deal about Jazz and certainly inspired us all. A high point of the day was when Mr Ferguson and his band gave us an exclusive show! We loved it! On Sunday the groups and ensembles who were attending gave performances before the critical ears of the visiting professionals. The St Aloysius group performed first. We presented two songs, ‘Afro Blue’ and ‘Little Sunflower’. After we played, a member from Maynard’s band came up and talked about how we performed and how we can improve our music. They seemed pretty impressed and said some really encouraging things to us. The rest of the day was great, with many superb bands playing. On behalf of all the boys I would like to thank Miss De Rosa and all the teachers involved for working so hard to make our band sound fantastic! I’m sure all the boys enjoyed the experience and learnt a lot from it. Findley Hipkin Year 8 24
Before School Activities Swimming: Mr Steve Badger and Damien Pasfield It’s 5.30 am and still dark. Boys are dozing in the front seats of cars, towels wrapped around their necks, their Speedos on underneath their tracksuits. The North Sydney Olympic Pool is already alight and alive, and the first trains carry early commuters to work on the Bridge above. Luna Park is merely dark shadows. Our swimming team, all goggle-eyed plunge like dolphins into the rectangle of blue and commence their first set of the several kilometres they will each swim this morning. They are a remarkably friendly and likeable group who have chosen this sport because they love it despite the early rising and the arduousness of the training. They all swim evenly and with grace under the tuition of the College Swimming Coach, Mr Steve Badger. Back at school from its depths comes the belting sound of a ghetto blaster; its pulsing, percussive music urging a group of over 40 boys through their routines on a fitness circuit in the College Gym. Mr Ben Gavan, one of the PDHPE teachers, has designed the course and is in the thick of it with the boys as they climb ropes, pump light weights, jump, do sit-ups, roll on large inflated balls, run up fifteen flights of stairs. The boys are all ages, sizes and levels of fitness. No one is excluded. In the weights’ room, surrounded by mirrors, older boys do the heavy stuff. Biceps bulge, pectorals swell, thighs thicken. It is too glib to dismiss all this as mere vanity. These boys have discovered the sense of well-being and confidence which being fit bestows. They are relaxed and sociable even at this hour. Mime, left to right: Matthew Perkes, Jean-Paul Bell (Famous Australian Mime), Joseph Crews From the heights on the fourth and fifth floors come much more melodic sounds. Already, a very different group of boys have ported their violins and cellos and trumpets and saxophones and trombones and violins and violas and double bass up the steep 84 steps to the music rooms for early rehearsals. Teachers having quickly gulped cups of bracing coffee conduct, hum tunes and urge their pupils Music: Angus Ryan- Cello on. The concentration and focus command reverence. At 7.45 am tables are being laid in the large room off the playground with mega-sized bowls, mega-containers of milk and huge boxes of Nutragrain. Soon the swimmers will file in, their bleached hair still smelling of chlorine, to quell their ravenousness. Next door, Mr Des Sheehan and Mr Michael Donohoe (SAC 1967), two lawyer-parents, sit in a circle, the Bridge arcing through the windows in front of them leading boys through the rules of our trial system for the inter-school Mock Trial competition. These are the intelligentsia, the future advocates and prosecutors in our legal system, the would-be politicians. They have already eaten, no Nutragrain for them. Anyway, it is not on grain alone that man lives. In the corner of the quadrangle boys are pushing and shoving to gain access to the St Aloysius’ equivalent of the soup kitchen. Here Student Representative Council members serve bread and jam to those who have left home without breakfast. This will see them through to recess when the Canteen will be open. Fitness Training: Harry Grace Finally, Mr John Caillard’s jogging squad are arriving back from their run across the Bridge and around the Rocks. They have taken in the rising sun above the Heads across the waters of the Harbour, been vibrated by the buses, trucks and cars heading across beside them to the metropolis and journeyed around the old and relatively quiet back streets of Walsh Bay. The runners are flushed, perspiring and eager for a shower. They’ll have to be quick. Soon the bell will ring and classes commence. They will join the others for six hours of lessons. For all of these boys, though, the day’s work began much earlier. They enter the remainder refreshed, relaxed and feeling good. Mens sana in corpore sano (a healthy mind in a healthy body). Mr Robert Schneider (SAC 1958) Senior School Staff 25
Page 1 and 2: Autumn 2002 ALOYSIAD The Magazine o
Page 3 and 4: St. Aloysius’ College 47 UPPER PI
Page 5 and 6: Ad Majora Society Following the pub
Page 7 and 8: The completed Visual Arts Centre Th
Page 9 and 10: Mr J Edstein Mr & Mrs D Effeney Mr
Page 11 and 12: New Academic Staff For 2002 we welc
Page 13 and 14: Parents & Friends Parents and Frien
Page 15 and 16: Junior School Junior School Wrap Up
Page 17 and 18: CAS Swimming Championships Aloys go
Page 19 and 20: Annual Camp All Staff and Students
Page 21 and 22: Jesuit Cricket Week During the last
Page 23: The next two days were packed with
Page 27 and 28: School is located. It is a chance t
Page 29 and 30: Senior School Sport Cricket This se
Page 31 and 32: Honour the past … Invest in the f
Page 33 and 34: But their best bat was still there.
Page 35 and 36: March 2001 Sean has been working in

The College by the Harbour - St Aloysius

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?