I have been very remiss in regard to blogging lately! The back end of any year is always busy, but this year I seem to be swamped with one thing after another. The most recent event has been a trip to Sydney for the centenary celebrations of my Alma Mater - Sydney's Conservatorium High School.

I was an incredibly lucky fourteen-year-old to get into what might be Australia's most exclusive school. To be accepted, students have to be studying with one of the wonderful music teachers at 'the Con'. My family had only recently moved to Sydney and I hated the local high school which I had been attending for a term or two. When I heard about the 'Con High' I leapt at the chance to go to a school that was more suited to my interests and abilities.

My musical ability is only one or two points above mediocre, and the fact that I didn't start taking lessons until I was eleven didn't help. However, when I auditioned before the education department's head of music, Terence Hunt, I played my old stand-by, Fur Elise, and Professor Hunt informed my mother that I showed no sign of genius but I could probably become a high school music teacher if I worked hard. (I had expressed a wish to take up music teaching to my mother, but in fact I really wanted to be a dancer - that's another blog post on its own.)


My recent visit was the first in about thirty years - a get-together for the centenary of the school. Only one of my classmates was there - Adrienne Bradney-Smith - and we had a rare old time sharing our life stories since those long ago schooldays. I don't know what has happened to most of our contemporaries, but I do know that at least two have passed away this year. (See my post 'A dear John Letter' from May 10 last for the first sad loss.)

The other death was that of the incomparable Richard Gill, whom I only knew slightly as a highly talented con student. Richard went on to become one of the country's most highly respected conductors and music educators: in fact, some twenty-odd years after I left school he auditioned me for the Musical Theatre course at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts! However, the course did not run that year due to staffing difficulties, so I was accepted in to the Dance course instead. (Photo from the ABC)

Swings and roundabouts, roundabouts and swings...