13 Sep 2019
Students enjoy a day of singing at the Instrumental Music Program’s annual SingFest
ACT students participate in the 6th annual SingFest event hosted by the Instrumental Music Program.
Chanting, clapping and cheering, students sang their hearts out at the sixth annual SingFest event.
The celebration of singing took place on Monday 9 September facilitated by Instrumental Music Program Director, Naida Blackley and Executive Teacher Katharine Finlayson, and adjudicated by Canberra composer and head of Young Music Society, Stephen Leek.
This event has become a fixture on the ACT school calendar and provides an opportunity for students with a varied range of singing experience to perform in front of an audience in a professional venue.
“This event is a wonderful chance for choirs to perform, but also to see other choirs perform,” said Mr Leek.
“I also run a number of singing workshops throughout the day. That’s something unique to this event that doesn’t happen elsewhere, so it’s a great opportunity for the classroom teachers to pick up some additional strategies to use back at school. The students have a great time and just think we are playing games,” he said.
Instrumental Music Program teacher Katharine Finlayson is passionate about the benefits of singing for artistic expression and enjoyment.
“You just need to see the joy on these children’s faces to know how much they are enjoying themselves and this opportunity to perform,” said Ms Finlayson.
“These students have been learning songs as part of their Music curriculum, and SingFest gives them something big to work towards,” she said.
Singing is an important element of the Instrumental Music Program’s offering in ACT public schools and has a wide range of benefits for student learning.
“In recent years studies have shown that singing is a wonderful opportunity to reinforce literacy skills, such as sound recognition, rhythm and rhyme. We also have Choirs here singing in Japanese and Indigenous languages, which adds a dynamic element to learning additional languages,” Ms Finlayson said.
Learn more about the Instrumental Music Program and the benefits of learning music.