Sixty years ago, I had the privilege of entering first form at Belmont High School, in Lake Macquarie. We had some great music teachers, including Miss Helen Batty, and later, Miss Denise Griffiths. They played me wonderful music I’d never heard before, and involved me in choral groups and choirs, where I learnt to fit my quite ordinary voice in beside others.
One of the first things we sang in the choral group was this chorale from Bach’s St Matthew Passion. I loved the music and found the words captivating.
As well as being introduced to music through singing and listening to recordings, we were given free tickets to about seven concerts each year in Newcastle. We would hear the Sydney Symphony Orchestra three times, have a concert by an international concert pianist or two, and also a concert by an instrumentalist and one by a singer.
The reason I’m reminiscing about all this is because in today’s Sydney Morning Herald there is an obituary for Donald Hazelwood. He had only just celebrated his 95th birthday. As part of our musical education, we were taught how orchestras work, and about conductors and the important leader of the orchestra – the chief violinist, who was called the concertmaster. Sometimes Mr Hazelwood performed a solo, accompanied by the orchestra, and he was occasionally featured in TV interviews and articles in the newspaper. We were in awe of him!
Not many people have obits in the paper these days, but I’m glad that Donald Hazelwood was honoured in this way, and am thinking about the important part he played in my musical education today.
