St Catherine’s School’s annual Concerto Concert offers our musicians the opportunity to perform significant works with accompaniment – including piano, small-staff ensemble, or a full orchestra.  

In addition, the Concert also offers members of our Jorgensen Orchestra a chance to experience functioning as accompanists. This is an exceedingly difficult and specific skill set. It is particularly challenging to master given the Concerto Concert occurs at the start of the school year. 

This year, our Concerto Concert was held on Thursday 30 March in The Jamie and Rebecca Gray Theatre. Occasions such as this provide a wonderful opportunity for our musicians to showcase their skills and continue to develop their performance capabilities. Throughout the Concert there was a wonderful sense of warmth, understanding, appreciation and gratitude from both our musicians and our audience.  

It was a particularly memorable Concert for Kathrina Ang, Chloe (Coco) Butterfield and Christina Wu, our three violin scholarship recipients, who displayed their violin proficiency to our audience, including special guests Mrs Sue Hayes and members of the Lloyd Family – who gifted the Lloyd Violin a Collin-Mezin Violin in honour of Old Girl, Danielle Lloyd (‘83), Lady Southey AC and Ms Lindy Shelmerdine (‘80) – who donated the Praga and Postiglione Violins to our School to inspire our most advanced students during their formative years of study. It was wonderful to see our scholarship recipients engaging in animated conversations with our violin donors at the conclusion of the Concert.  

This perfectly aligned with the Music Faculty’s focus on continuity and community for 2023. The stories that musicians make when connecting with their instruments are incredibly special. The juxtaposition of the constant struggle and striving for perfection, and the satisfaction provided by a positive experience in performance was evident.  

The gifting of the Collin-Mezin, Praga and Postiglione Violins builds community. The instruments themselves have so many stories and have passed through many hands, they are organic, living, and evolving. In this way they are no different to an enduring work of art. Our gratitude to the Lloyd Family and Ms Shelmerdine for their generous contribution to Music at St Catherine’s is enduring. 

Congratulations to all our musicians involved in the Concerto Concert. Thank you also to our staff for their expert assistance. Mrs Lisa Cook’s direction of the Jorgensen Orchestra was outstanding as was Mrs Kate Denmead’s piano accompaniment. Thank you to our Choral and Instrumental Captains, Jo-Jo Patterson, and Yifei (Angela) Tang for their guidance as emcees for the evening. 

Student performers: 

Kathrina Ang
Collin-Mezin Violin Scholarship Recipient
This Scholarship provides Kathrina the opportunity to play a Collin-Mezin Violin. This exquisite instrument was gifted to our School in 2014 by Mrs Sue Hayes, in loving memory of her daughter Danielle, our St Catherine’s Music Captain in 1983. The Collin-Mezin Violin is of French origin, and it bears the label of CH. J. B. Collin-Mezin dated 1902 in Paris. 

Isabelle Cao
Guzheng 

Maeli Davenport
Oboe 

Tiffany Shen
Violin 

Amelia Chen
Piano 

Chloe (Coco) Butterfield
Praga Violin Scholarship Recipient
The Praga was made by Eugenio Praga in 1901 and is a fine example of the Italian craft of violin making. The violin was generously donated by Ms Lindy Shelmerdine (’80).  

Christina Wu
Postiglione Violin Scholarship Recipient
Produced by the school of Vincenzo Postiglione in 1873, the violin was generously donated by Ms Lindy Shelmerdine (’80). 

Yifei (Angela) Tang
Guzheng