The Performing Arts

Music and Drama

Music

At Cathedral College Wangaratta, we encourage the musical abilities of our students. Music Education is an integral part of our school curriculum with the college offering Music for all ages. Students from Prep to Year Six undergo compulsory musical study, catering towards fun and interactive learning, whilst Years Seven to Ten have Music offered as part of their curriculum with a variety of electives available for the interested learner. Classes are effective, modernised and hands-on, encouraging participation at all year levels. Students explore and use musical elements, principles and techniques through the mediums of body percussion, singing, instrumentation, kinesthetic movement, visual/aural instruction as well as inner-game learning. Students perform both individually and in a class ensemble setting, expressing music through modern-day repertoire. The musical elements of pitch, melody, rhythm and beat are developed throughout the curriculum with a strong focus on rhythmic and melodic dictation and singing. Students also develop teamwork skills in fostering their own creativity through song composition in the lower levels.

Music at Cathedral College Wangaratta is not only offered in the classroom with students participating in ensembles and in Kool Skools, Generations In Jazz, The Wangaratta Jazz Festival, the ASC Concert in Perth and more. Another valued musical opportunity is the House Music Festival. Held annually, this involves the entire student body in performing music from Bach to Beyoncé and builds a strong sense of community and House pride within the College.

Music Technology

A key component of the Music Program for all students at Cathedral College Wangaratta is an introduction to the wonders of music technology. This course focuses on the creative application of technology, with pathways to professional music, sound, broadcast and multimedia and research contexts. Students develop creative and music technology skills within new media, composition, recording and performance creative industries such as sound engineering, computer music, audio-visual production and post-production, mastering, scoring for film and multimedia, audio for games, software development, and multimedia production. We often welcome leading artists and engineers as guest lecturers, to provide insights into professional workflows and creative practices.

Music technology fuses the exploration and use of technology through creative approaches to music and sound and promotes creative outcomes through current technologies.

Drama

All students from Year Seven to Year Ten are presented with the opportunity to study Drama. Drama is also offered as a VCE subject. Drama at Cathedral College is about freedom and knowing that students can leap and fall without breaking anything. They develop trust that whatever they perform, matters.

Each year, Cathedral presents a Senior School Musical which has proved to be a real asset for both the College and students involved.

Private Music Tuition

Instrumental Music

Instrumental Music Application 2023

Learning a musical instrument has well-documented benefits for students and is a great source of creativity, confidence and achievement. The College offers individual tuition across a broad range of instruments including; voice, strings, woodwind, brass, percussion, guitar and bass, and piano. Please download an Instrumental Application Form or contact the Head of Music, Ben Hedderman at: bhedderman@cathedralcollege.vic.edu.au