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HISTORY
The Queensland Catholic Schools’
& Colleges’ Music Festival has had an exciting history since its creation
in 1991. At that time a number of staff from Villanova College Coorparoo, who
had developed their own school’s comprehensive instrumental music programme,
were lamenting the lack of opportunities for ensembles from Catholic schools.
Opportunities for Catholic schools to perform, to come together, to listen to
one another and to get good positive feedback from professional adjudicators
were few indeed. Armed with these goals and good doses of enthusiasm and
perseverance the QCMF was born.
From a small gathering of some 12
schools in its first year, which presented approximately 12 hours of music, the
festival has grown to be a major event. In 2007, the Festival staged 77 hours of
music from 81 schools and colleges from all over Queensland. It is estimated
that more than six thousand students, from ages six to seventeen were involved
in 28 sections of choral, band, string and orchestral music. In all there were
284 different ensemble performances. These figures continue to grow each
year, and 2008 was no exception. In 2002 the first visitors from overseas (New Zealand) attended the
Festival. We again had visitors from New Zealand in 2003 and 2005.
The festival is also always excited to welcome touring ensembles from
other states.
With the opening of the Augustine
Centre at Villanova College in 2006, and to fit the Festival into a three day
weekend, the Festival now runs concurrently in the Hanrahan Theatre and Goold
Hall at Villanova College, and St James Church, and St James School Hall at
Coorparoo which is a 5-10 minute walk from Villanova College.
In 2009, the festival's expansion reached some impressive numbers, including participation from 85 schools entering over 300 ensembles, featuring nearly 10,000 student performances!
The history of the QCMF Acronym: The festival first carried the name of
The Catholic Colleges’ Music Festival (CCMF), as early participants came
mostly from established Brisbane Independent Colleges, which had a tradition of
music established by their founding religious orders. Within a few years, the
growth of the festival and consequently increasing costs, lead to a search for
sponsorship. This resulted in the Festival reaching a wider audience and being
renamed the Queensland Catholic Colleges’ Music Festival (QCCMF) as schools
from outside the metropolitan area were coming in numbers to take part in the
weekend of music. A few years ago the festival the name changed to include the
word 'Schools,' to better reflect the name of all participants, thus creating
the Queensland Catholic Schools’ & Colleges’ Music Festival (which would
be QCSCMF). Whilst this
title now accurately reflects the heavy involvement in the festival of Catholic
primary and secondary systemic schools from Brisbane and beyond,
The QCMF
is now a feature event in the annual “Celebrating Catholic Education in
Queensland” activities centred around Catholic Education Week in the third
week of term 3 each year. It is
very rewarding for the organising committee that the festival is
enthusiastically supported by both Brisbane Catholic Education and the
Queensland Catholic Education Commission. Both organisations are sponsors of the
festival.
None of this could have been achieved without leadership from the staff, the music parent support group and the administration of Villanova College, which still organises and hosts the annual festival on behalf of Catholic Education in this state. May the tradition continue, as the students from Catholic schools throughout the state demonstrate increasing levels of participation and improved performances at the festival as the years roll by.
