NEWS DATES EVENTSSCHOOL NEWS HIGHLIGHTS
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January, 2007
Orchestra tours China The Melbourne Grammar Symphony Orchestra has undertaken an international or interstate tour every year since 1982 and last December it visited Southern China and Hong Kong. "The China tour, undertaken by the Melbourne Grammar Symphony Orchestra, embodied a distinctive musical experience coupled with an education in exquisite Chinese culture," said Year 12 student Jahan Meeran. The 13 day tour involved the orchestra performing in some fine halls, including the magnificent Shanghai Concert Hall, as it travelled from Guangzhou and Hong Kong in the south of the country to Songjiang and Shanghai in the east. The orchestra accompanied two school choirs - the Choir of the English School attached to Guangdong University of Foreign Studies and the Choir of the International Christian Quality Music Secondary and Primary School in Hong Kong. All the concerts were performed to large audiences and it is estimated that a total of over 5000 people attended the five concerts. Tour manager Michael Chesterman, who is an MGS teacher and plays the double bass in the orchestra said, “The MGS Symphony Orchestra, superbly conducted by Martin Rutherford with leader Jon Ji Lim, lived up to its reputation with wonderful performances of works from composers such as Dvorak, Mendelssohn, Rachmaninov, Liszt, Weber and Zhan-Hao Ho”. “China was an awesome place to perform and the company was fantastic,” said Year 12 student Edgar Myer. “Highlights included the orchestra accompanying two excellent school choirs in Australian, Chinese and Christmas music, two local violinists who played the Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto and excellent concerto performances by four members of the orchestra – Rowan Chen, Mark Chu, Reuben Lipohar and Stuart Watson. The audiences were particularly enthusiastic and the orchestra responded well with some very fine playing,” said Director of Music Martin Rutherford. Just before the tour began the orchestra presented a Bon Voyage Concert in the Memorial Hall on 6 December which featured internationally acclaimed pianist and Old Melburnian Leslie Howard. Leslie performed Totentanz by Liszt with the orchestra and also conducted another work of Liszt – the Heroic Elegy. 
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