About 100 students from 14 schools across regional South Australia came together at Peterborough Town Hall for a one-day concert with the Adelaide Youth Orchestra, Ng reported. For many students, it was their first in-person music lesson and ensemble experience in five years.
Music students from the Mid North and Southern Flinders Ranges converged for the annual concert, with some performing in an ensemble of that scale for the first time after honing their craft in remote classrooms. The event was organized by music teacher Kate Mawson, who previously taught instrumental music online to students at nine different schools in the region.
Mawson said learning instruments remotely required creative communication methods, such as placing colorful dots on instruments and instructing students to press specific colors. Orroroo Area School students regained access to in-person music lessons this year through the Department for Education’s Instrumental Music program.
Program leader David Hopgood said the school could not staff the program for a period, and only found two in-person staff at the end of last year to deliver weekly lessons. The concert gives students the chance to see the Adelaide Youth Orchestra at work and play alongside peers doing the same thing, which Hopgood said was really important.
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