The new Music and Performance Centre at ELTHAM College was officially opened on Friday 29 August 2014 by the Honourable Senator Scott Ryan, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Education. By the culmination of years of planning and research, the building contains state of the art recording facilities and acoustically treated rooms which enable spaces to be used for multiple purposes. This new complex provides the staff and students of ELTHAM College, as well as the wider community, with a facility that is progressive, inspiring and inducive to creativity.
ELTHAM College’s new Music and Performance Centre will ensure that all students are given the opportunity to experience and utilise first class learning spaces and technology.
Here is a snapshot of just some of the spaces:
Performance Theatre
Able to seat 268 people, it is large enough to accommodate reasonably big groups, while still maintaining an intimate atmosphere for both theatre and music.
Two Music Performance Studios
Designed to accommodate small to medium sized audiences; allowing multiple rehearsals to take place at the same time without overlapping sound problems.
Instrumental Practice Studios
To accommodate our large number of students who study instrumental music, the new centre has many Instrumental Practice Studios available.
Music Workshop Studio with Breakout Rooms
An important innovation, these rooms will promote collaborative music-making opportunities.
IT Music Computer Lab & Recording Studio
A fully equipped Recording Studio enables students to create and record their own compositions, songs, rehearsals and performances using state-of-the-art digital equipment.
Principal of ELTHAM College, Mr Simon Le Plastrier, believes that the challenge of contemporary education is to provide our young people space to engage in thinking and learning. Thinking and learning that allows the open, inquisitive and freewheeling nature of the young to carry through to adulthood.
At the opening, Mr Le Plastrier reflected that the new centre will provide “an exciting and thoughtful space, where the performing arts, music, drama, dance, ensembles and soloists, technicians and budding recording artists all have their place. Most of all it provides for engagement in the creative process.”
The focus for this centre has always been to provide what young people need to experience the power of music and theatre, in turn helping them develop as the creative entrepreneurs of the future.