A local event has been left in ruins by a natural force. You would never think it be possible for something such as a musical competition, traditionally being a festival, to be declared a washout. Of course you would understand if the eisteddfod was held outdoors, which would never occur. With the heavy weather of wind and rain wreaking havoc on the mid-north and far-north coast it could even be possible to waterlog a venue or prevent access from entering the building. This did not happen. So how could a six session instrumental eisteddfod in Coffs Harbour be rendered a great disappointment?
Before I present my thoughts on the eisteddfod, I want to throw in quick congratulations to my students from Coffs that took part. There were tremendous achievements made with two seconds, one first in sections and the major award of the Julie Lindsay best woodwind player 13 years and under for one of my students. Beyond the trophies, and what I feel is a greater prize, were the teachers that came forth and recognised the potential that these students do have. This was said especially for the students that did not win anything (personally I felt they did at least deserve something). From a teaching perspective these students, and I think the same can be said for the many other students taking part, have taken a massive step delivering performances in front of a public audience and being taken outside of their comfort zone. A big thank you to Ajla Hajdic for being able to take the time to accompany and work with the students and to help encourage and support them in their performances.
There were a couple of issues that arose from the eisteddfod. The first thing that came to mind immediately from session one to session six was the adjudication, and the role of the adjudicator. I’m going to leave this point of discussion for another time, but needless to say I was not impressed by the adjudication and felt the adjudicator skimmed details of feedback both verbally and on paper. Students want ideas and opinions, as well as the encouragement, on how they could improve their performance, and you will never be able to provide that in writing one sentence in what appears to be size 24 Times New Kindergarten scrawl.
The other issue that came to mind were the entrants that took part. The only sessions that essentially ran as “complete” with sufficient competitors were the Thursday evening and Sunday morning time blocks.
The secondary schools day session was the first to be axed with the majority of entrants from Bellingen. Three out of ten high schools in the mid-north coast region providing entries, with two of those schools providing one entry each. The lack of participation from schools in this local event is something of concern, and has failed to be addressed for many years. I’m sure this decade would have seen the lowest amount of participation in the history of the eisteddfod. Music and the community in general miss out greatly. We have some tutors outside of school music programs, both primary and secondary, coming in and giving music tuition to students on either an individual and/or group basis but won’t provide any opportunities of performance or even making music with other young musicians. It is a terrific opportunity being squandered.
Friday evening was the second session to be axed completely from the program. The Saturday afternoon session I didn’t bother to attend, with many students and ensembles from Bellingen absent. Saturday evening was an absolute shambles to end the eisteddfod. Of the eight sections in this last session, three were cut with no entrants. Of the twenty-four entries in all of these sections, only six entries were completed. This included three entries out of a potential ten for the Junior and Open Championships combined, with one entrant forced to play without her accompanist due to him being trapped in Bellingen. It was a real disappointing way to end the eisteddfod with two championships offering potential as listed in the program. It was a massive fall from grace compared to the eisteddfod of last year, which delivered a high standard of performance from the entrants.
One massive positive I noticed from the junior sessions were peers, classmates and friends visiting each other after performances in amazement, delight, or simply to encourage. There were no boundaries or barriers set regardless of what school you went to or who your teacher was. All the children were supportive of one another. Even tutors present got in on the act congratulating other students and their teachers for the work they have put in.
With the instrumental eisteddfod left crippled this year due to the flooding situations, it has revealed a nasty truth that our music tuition programs inside and outside of schools in Coffs Harbour; we are not doing enough to provide music students with opportunities to perform and develop as musicians regardless of solo or ensemble playing. Even when the Bellingen students were taken out of the equation, the greater majority of students left were those from the tuition programs of Bishop Druitt. When parents and tutors from regional NSW enquire about which schools offer the best music programs on the Coffs Coast, I am forced to tell them they have the choice of two schools these days because they are the only ones with evidence of encouraging and producing proactive musicians.
We need our tutors to start putting heads together and coming up with ideas for establishment and development of music in the community. If we continue to function as single entities we will ultimately be doing nothing for the community as a whole. After this eisteddfod I have a feeling that some of the tutors present will be aiming to establish some quality music projects.
We need new and fresh ideas instead of trying to build or dwell on the failures of the past. Bellingen have taken that initiative and it is taking the results of the programs to different places and rewarding them with many opportunities. In the past Bishop Druitt established great music programs and are re-establishing those now. If you want to go back further, Toormina High School used to be the most feared and revered high school for their concert band and big band programs and this was for many years. Today I look back at their program and concerts given in awe since it was built on discipline, commitment, and enjoyment in music making. I would love to see another music program established similar to the one at Toormina High School from the ‘90s.
We need to feature music more prominently in our community and provide more adequate opportunities. We also need to show that playing music provides many windows of opportunity for a music-related career.
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