Loving school, with songs of joy
YEAR two is in full swing for the Drakondale Girls’ Choir School, where 20 girls take singing very seriously in between their Grade 8 and 9 studies.
“Next year, we’ll be going up to Grade 10 and we also expect our first international student from Angola,” the co-founder of the school, Wendy Clarke, told The Independent on Saturday during a visit to the school this week.
The school will also expand its creative offerings with further art courses in dance and drama.
It is housed in a former Roman Catholic seminary in the Midlands, off a dust road on the opposite side of the N3 to Cedara Agriculture College.
Youthful sounds in the classical, pop, sacred, traditional and showbiz genres replace the chanting of monks that would have filled the arched passageways in years gone by.
The pupils are now preparing for their recital concert at the Presbyterian Church in nearby Howick on August 23 at which an album will be recorded, said Clarke.
However, they are also settling down after winning a gold certificate and first place in the children’s choir category, along with silvers at the World Choir Games held in Pretoria last month.
“We asked a lot of our girls,” said Clarke.
“We had our choir director walk out on us the week before, but we had (conductor) Ronel Laidlaw-Perks come in and help us, as did our incoming new principal, Botes Gresse.
“They put in seven to eight hours practice a day for a week and we did it on such a small budget, they had no hot water at their accommodation on the first night.”
Gresse, who enters the hot seat in October after winding up at a school in Joubertina in the Western Cape, is a former teacher at the Drakensberg Boys’ Choir School. He also started The Arts Academy at Lady Grey in the Eastern Cape.
“Drakondale must become the top art school in KZN,” he said on the phone from Joubertina. “It must become the place where pupils would like to come to prepare for a career in arts and it must have high academic standards.”
Today, class sizes at Drakondale are as small as five and the policy is that they should not exceed 16. Academics were taken seriously in case pupils decided to pursue careers outside of the arts, said Clarke.
They are also offered survival skills needed by artists.
“They must know the legalities, contracts.”
She said most of the girls dreamed of being in the field of performing arts but they were practical enough to understand that they needed more than that.
“So we had equal emphasis on academics to ensure that at the end of the journey, they could go for diverse fields,” she said.
Applying for the Drakondale Girls’ Choir Schools involves writing entrance exams in maths and English as well as an audition.
“If we take take people who are too slow academically, they are not going to be able to keep up with the pace.”
The pace includes a fair amount of physical exercise, especially dancing. This makes up for having to focus on sport, which is limited to fun activities as well as inter-house hockey and netball.
In the music room, as Nonala Zondi conducted a group singing a pop song, Chile Con Carne, she was putting leadership skills to the test, said Clarke.
“When a person learns to conduct, they become the best leaders in the world, bringing people in at the right time,” said Clarke.
With the added accolade of being academic dux, that made her the equivalent of a head girl at Drakondale.
Nanala, who is Grade 8 and a boarder from Hillcrest, said she hoped to have a future in music. “This school has helped a lot. Before I didn’t know you had to read music. I’ve learned quite a few things,” she said.
Grade 9 pupil Nokuthula Ndlovu, from Howick, said that through the school she could “see my future”.
“When I am at this school, I just see myself in another place,” she said.
Rufaro Nyathi, who is in the same grade and from Underberg, said it was apt for her to be at the school because her love of music had always made her different from anyone else.
“It will be part of my future but I do have other choices I could pursue.”
Tickets to the August 23 recital in Howick cost R100.
For more information, visit https://www.drakondale.co.za