On Tuesday 20 August, Eastwinds blew into St Joseph's Hall with their unique brand of fusion music for our Primary students. This group of four musicians are part of the Musica Viva initiative whose cultural backgrounds and instruments hailed from all around the world: Australia, Japan, Estonia and Iran.
Eastwinds aimed to demonstrate the joy of improvising with musical instruments, as our Primary students prepare to write their own music this semester. The band regularly use musical stories for inspiration, and gave the students plenty of great improvisation ideas. They told stories about birds in cages, scary forest walks and Christmas gifts - and then expressed their stories with a range of beautiful instruments.
From the voice to percussion to a rare collection of wind instruments, Eastwinds showcased music and imagination at their most creative. Students had a go at a rainstick as well as plastic ‘singing tubes’, sang along, made up their own lyrics and were treated to the unusual sounds of a PVC pipe flute and a ‘rubber glove’ bagpipe.
During the program, the band also invited the audience to suggest their own story. Our students’ ideas had them creating songs about the beach, a rainbow and a snake stalking its prey. It was very easy to picture these scenarios as the instruments played.
Primary Music Teacher, Mrs Janine Milicich said the students loved this incursion and were mesmerised throughout each session. “Eastwinds sparked many imaginations and have inspired interesting musical stories for our lessons. They were an absolute breath of fresh air!”
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