At the end of 2009, we bade farewell to Miss Tracey Kendall, who became Mrs Niesmann in the December holidays and then departed to live in Nigeria for a period of three years. She has recently been appointed as a class teacher in one of the Primary Schools there. She proved her competence, whilst at Victoria Park with her excellent achievements in both her vocal and woodwind pupils. At the beginning of this year, we welcomed Mr Wicus Janse Van Rensburg, in a full-time position teaching vocal pupils, Subject Music (Theory) for Grade 10’s and Head of Arts and Culture for Grade eights. We are privileged to have a member of the popular “Escape” Boys Vocal Group on board and we wish Mr J., as he is known to us all in the Music Department, all the very best and may his stay be a pleasant one. \

Filling a Woodwind post is not easy in Port Elizabeth and we were fortunate enough to employ one of our ex-matriculants, Miss Justine Wessels, who recently completed a Bachelor of Music degree at N.M.M.U, in an itinerant capacity for the time being. She is a valuable asset to the department and we also wish her a very happy stay at V.P.

Mr Marlon Louis is to be congratulated on reaching his “ten year milestone” in the Music Department. To think that he was an extremely talented young trumpet pupil at V.P. a decade ago and now he can be seen as Port Elizabeth’s famous Louis Armstrong at a matured age. The Music Department is extremely proud to have Mr Louis on the music teaching staff and we wish him all the best for the next decade.

One of the highlights in the Department was when five of our vocal pupils, Cayce Fielding, Janice Prince, Melikhaya Xotyeni, Charles Smit and Masinga Rune went to Tsitsikamma to participate in the High School section of the Elvis Presley International three day festival. Cayce Fielding obtained first place, winning R2 000. Charles Smit was awarded second place and won R1 000 and Melikhaya Xotyeni was placed third, winning R500. These pupils had the pleasure of meeting Elvis Tribute Artists from all over the world. What an experience for them! They are all to be congratulated on their wonderful performances.

In September, Cayce did us proud when she entered the Bay FM/Die Burger singing competition and achieved first place in her age group (15 – 18 years) with her rendition of the song “Have You Ever Been in Love?”

Finally she went on to audition for the national competition “Yamaha seeks Young Talent” and will be performing at the grand finale at Carnival City in Johannesburg on the 16 October. She is hoping to do very well and secure a prize of a grand piano for the V.P. Music Department as well as other amazing prizes sponsored by Yamaha. We are extremely proud of Cayce and know that she will be rewarded for all her hard work in the very near future.

In the second term, the V.P. Arts and Culture festival was held and once again it was a wonderful

opportunity for many of our musicians to display their talents in a non-threatening environment to a very appreciate audience at the art display in the library.

A number of our pupils participated in the Despatch Kunsfees from 4 – 7 May.

Our consistently exceptional results are evidence that all our music teachers and pupils have been working very hard throughout the year.

To conclude 2010 with a bang, the Music Department will present the Spring “Extravaganza” concert on 8 October in the Blake Hall and will consist of the Steelbands (Junior and Senior), the Jazz Band, Choir and Wind Band.

To the matrics of 2010, we bid you farewell and thank you most sincerely for your valuable contribution musically to the department. We wish you all the very best of luck for the future. To all teachers a very big thank you for their invaluable contributions that each one has made in uplifting our department throughout 2010. Finally to all music pupils, our sincere thanks for all your invaluable input in making the music department such a special place, a place where each and every pupil is given the opportunity to compose, improvise, perform and most of all, to succeed at what they love doing most: making music. We look forward to continued growth and success in 2011.

A. CHEETHAM