From 16th century Latin Christmas carols to contemporary Australian rock classics, the students at Blaxland High School have made their mark singing this year.
The school scooped the pool at all three regional eisteddfods – Bathurst, Penrith and Hawkesbury – winning a swag of awards.
Their most recent success was at the Hawkesbury Eisteddfod on September 8 where they enjoyed a clean sweep of the high school choral section, coming first (Senior Vocal Ensemble), second (Year 9 Voiceworks), third (Year 8 Voiceworks), as well as highly commended (Year 10 Voiceworks).
It was a familiar pattern of excellence.
The school’s vocal ensembles finished in the top three places in every section of every regional eisteddfod this year, with its Senior Vocal Ensemble crowned the schools choral champion in all three competitions.
Led by music teacher David Leishman, the school has a proud tradition of choral singing – as well as reputation for pushing boundaries in song choices.
The Crowded House hit, Don’t Dream It’s Over, is one of their contemporary standards while they impressed judges with another Aussie hit this year – Icehouse’s Great Southern Land.
“It’s completely different to the original. It’s still the Australian song but we’ve taken it and made it ours,” said Year 12 student Hannah Davison.
The students are just as comfortable singing in Latin, Swahili, Estonian or Basque.
Gaudete (performed in the video above) is a Latin Christmas song believed to have been written in 1582. It is now an accomplished addition to the school’s repertoire, but Mr Leishman admits it was a “slow burn” that the students didn’t like at first.
“It took us five months to get it right. We started it but it got to a point where it just wasn’t happening so we left if for a while [before returning and perfecting it].”
He credits the students’ persistence and passion for this musical pay-off.
“They will try anything… The ability of these students is pretty amazing,” he said.
For their part, the students are quick to credit their teacher for his song arrangements, which can take between four to 20 hours to come together.
“Every year at eisteddfods they go ‘Where do you get these amazing arrangements from?’ …It’s all Mr Leishman’s work,” said Hannah.
Music co-ordinator at Bathurst Eisteddfod, Donna Miller, backs this up.
"Bathurst Eisteddfod is always thrilled to have the clever students from Blaxland High join us each year for our choral sections,” she said. “They always entertain the audience with their unique take on their choral pieces. Their teacher Mr David Leishman is simply brilliant and his love of music is contagious for his students - they are so very lucky to have such a gifted teacher.”
Despite its recent run of eisteddfod acclaim, the school won’t be resting on its laurels. Girls choral group, The Corvettes, and boys choral group, The Billies, will both perform at SpecFest, an off-shoot of the high profile Schools Spectacular, in November. The Billies will also perform at the PULSE concert at the Sydney Opera House in November.
