Music
Head of Music Paul Scott-Williams
Phone +6 13 8805 3826
Email scop@knox.vic.edu.au
The Knox School offers an engaging and diverse experience in Music Education and Practice. The aim of the music program is to inspire creativity through innovative curriculum design, enhanced by a rich and comprehensive extra-curricular offering. All students have the opportunity to learn an instrument within and beyond the core music program and students are encouraged to involve themselves in music ensembles.
An extensive annual performance program enables all students to participate in a wide variety of concerts and music events, often involving the school and local community. The Knox School has established a strong reputation for top quality ensemble performance standards through the on-going work of The Knox School Big Band, Concert Band and the excellent Choral Program, including the Murana Voices for Junior School students, and the award-winning Pengana Voices in the Senior School. Our ensembles tour locally, nationally and internationally, garnering critical acclaim. You are likely to find one of more of The Knox School ensembles performing at Eisteddfods, Parliament House, Community Jazz Festivals, Melbourne School Strings Festival, the ANZAC Day March, the ABODA Bands Festival, Mt Gambier 'Generations of Jazz', the ‘Rhapsody Rotorua’ International Music Competition in New Zealand and a range of other exciting events. Music at The Knox School can literally take you around the world!
The core classroom music program is delivered with energy and imagination. In the early years, we have established a comprehensive Performing Arts program which is embedded firmly in Music Educational practice with a particular focus on singing and playing. Students are encouraged to perform and involve themselves in choirs and ensemble groups. A new innovation at Years 3 and 4 offers students the opportunity to join a specialist Strings Programme from which they may lay the foundations for one day becoming a member of a Symphony Orchestra here at The Knox School! This is only one of a number of innovative new initiatives being undertaken in The Music Department.
In 2008, a unique new music curriculum has been introduced for Year 5, 6 and 7. Titled the “Music Explode” program, students undertake 280 minutes of core music education per cycle, involving practical performance, music technology, composition and creativity, and every single student gets to learn an instrument of their choice as part of this program! By virtue of a tightly limited teacher-student ratio, all students from Year 5 to 7 work with an expert instrumentalist to discover the instrument that they were meant to play! At years 8, 9 and 10, Music becomes an elective study. Even here, students are challenged to explore creative possibilities, expand their compositional skills and grow their understanding of music utilizing state-of-the-art music technology programmes. The Elective Music program is run by the students, for the students. Each student is individually assessed and is encouraged to design their own program of music research, analysis, composition and performance, all of which is underpinned by a firm grounding in the language of music. This comprehensive core and elective Music Program lays the foundation for success in VCE Music study and to that end, The Knox School offers both Music Solo and Group Performances courses across Years 11 and 12.At The Knox School, we believe that every child deserves to have music in their lives, that every child deserves the chance to find the instrument they were meant to play, and that every child deserves the right to be truly creative.
