All Year 3 students at St Patrick's learn to play violin, viola or cello.
St Patrick's has a proud tradition of offering Instrumental music lessons to our students to develop their musical talents, persistence and creativity. At St Patrick's all Year 3 students are provided with a school owned violin, viola or cello and tuition for one year at no cost to families. All of our Year 3 students make their public debut performance at our annual Cultural Night held at the magnificent Shalom Performing Arts Precinct. Many of our students choose to continue with their instrument beyond Year 3 and then form our Junior and ultimately Senior String Ensembles.
Students in our String Ensembles perform each year at the Bundaberg Eisteddfod, Queensland Catholic Schools and Colleges Music Festival in Brisbane and our annual Cultural Night. Each year our string ensembles travel to retirement and nursing homes to spread Christmas joy through music for the elderly residents.
Students also have the opportunity to learn guitar from Year 4. Students who choose this instrument have the chance to perform in one of two guitar ensembles at our Cultural Night each year.
All instrumental music lessons are held during school time in small groups or individually. Our strings tutors provide students with the opportunity to further their studies by participating in an Australian Music Examinations Board exam.