On 18 and 19 November NECOM hosted Quart-Ed from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music for two action-packed days of concerts and workshops. Quart-Ed is a string quartet of outstanding string musicians currently completing their BMusEd and brimming with initiative, imagination and the goal to bring music into the lives of school children.
The quartet is part of the Richard Pulley Outreach and Regional Engagement Program established at the Sydney Conservatorium through a generous bequest by the Pulley family to support music and education in regional NSW. Richard Pulley was born in Armidale and is remembered as an outstanding professional violinist with the Sydney Symphony, AOBO and as founding concertmaster of The Occasional Performing Sinfonia (TOPS). Richard Pulley passed away from multiple myeloma in 2014 aged 45.
The quartet was kept very busy! On Monday 18 they presented a composition workshop for 50 students at Armidale Secondary College, a concert to the Support Unit students at ASC, an afternoon concert at Newling PS and then onto a rehearsal with the New England Singers. On Tuesday they joined AYSO on a concert tour to Ben Lomond and Black Mountain Public schools during the day and then joined the string ensembles in the Foundation Ensembles Christmas Concert in the Auditorium.
Special guests at the Foundation Concert were Laurie and Christine Pulley, parents of Richard Pulley, who were able to meet the four musicians from Quart-Ed after the concert.
NECOM thanks Sydney Conservatorium for enabling this most important visit by the Richard Pulley scholars.