Forward July 2015 | Page 35

SENIOR SCHOOL Simon conquers the ‘king of instruments’ – scholarship leads to music awards Year 9 student Simon McDowell joined the School in 2013, as one of our outstanding scholarship recipients – awarded both an academic and a music scholarship, with a focus on the organ. Fast forward just two years, and Simon is not only the School’s Senior Organ Scholar, but he is also winning competitions for his talent. small local church outside of school so that I could gain some church service experience.” “I must admit that learning the ‘king of instruments’ is extremely hard, but all of the long hours of practice are paying off. Sometimes it feels like I am constantly surrounded by the sound of organ music! It is hard work but I also find a great deal of joy in the music and I feel it will always be a part of my life.” Simon’s interest in music started when he was five years old, when he started taking piano lessons, soon adding percussion and clarinet lessons to his program. Simon was introduced to the organ initially by the Headmaster, Mr Stephen Webber, when he was given a tour of the Chapel during his scholarship interview in 2012. “I was very curious and keen to find out how the stops, pedals and manuals worked together on this instrument, all at the same time. A few days later, the Organ Scholarship was offered to me by Mr Webber. My lessons were to start in a few months, under the tutelage of respected organist, Alessandro Pittorino.” more difficult repertoire, such as Bach and Messiaen. “I use all my school holidays and weekends to study music theory and do as much as practice as I can. In 2015, my organ teacher placed me as the organ scholar in a In May 2015, Simon was awarded first prize in the Classical Pipe Organ Competitions, for both Baroque music and non-Baroque music in the under-15 section at Fremantle Eisteddfod. He is now challenging himself with a new repertoire in preparation for the upcoming Sydney Organ Competition. As a member of WA Organ Society for Young Organists, in 2014 Simon was invited to attend the Sydney Conservatorium of Music Organ Academy Improvising Workshop and the Sydney Organ Competition. Inspired on his return, Simon’s commitment to working hard and practicing regularly were reinforced, as was his commitment to receiving advanced AMEB grades in both theory and practice to enable him to play some of the Year 7 Camp Photo Competition To raise the bar on the quality of the photographs taken on school camps, Mr Ashby held a photography competition for the boys on the Year 7 camp. Congratulations to the following boys for their winning entries: • Winner – People category – Cooper Anspach • Winner – Non-people category – Jakson Bowran The boys were each awarded a gift voucher from Getaway Outdoors in Midland and had their photos displayed in the Hamilton Library. 35