PHOTOGRAPHIC EXHIBITION

Senior school choir and orchestra, 1935

Professor Henri Penn, playing the grand piano, directs the Senior Choir and Orchestra. The first violinist on the left, Mary Muirhead, became a wonderful musician and teacher as Mother Reparata.

Professor Henri Penn, playing the grand piano, directs the senior choir and orchestra in the hall during 1935. The first violinist on the left, Mary Muirhead, became a wonderful musician and teacher as Mother Reparata.

The Loreto tradition of music was very strong throughout the school, with around sixty students passing the practical and theoretical music examinations held annually at the University of Melbourne as well as those run by the Trinity College of Music, London. The Loreto community needed to be self-sufficient and the fees from individual music lessons, given outside school hours and sometimes to students from other schools, were central to their survival throughout the difficult years of the depression. With so much instrumental tuition and singing, the sounds of scales and wails in various keys could always be heard around the school.

Music teaching was in the capable hands of Mother Lua Byrne from 1932 to 1944. A gifted musician, she studied piano, violin, cello and later the organ. She entered the novitiate in 1923 and taught in Perth and Ballarat before coming to Loreto Toorak. Mother Lua took an active part in shaping and implementing the music programs, playing the organ for Mass and caring for the boarders at Loreto Toorak. Among Mother Lua’s students at Loreto Toorak was Anne Byrne, her niece, who later became Mother Louis Gonzaga and taught music in Loreto schools. She recalled that under Mother Lua there was a great happiness in making music, whether the students were playing a humble part in the orchestra or simply for the joy of learning.

Mother Lua was assisted by a fine musician in Professor Henri Penn. Professor Penn was born in Brussels and had first come to Australia in 1914 as a solo pianist with the Belgian Band. In 1915 he joined the newly established New South Wales State Conservatorium and the State Orchestra of Sydney, and became a member of the Australian Music Examination Board. At Loreto Toorak Professor Penn taught strings, conducted the orchestra and introduced the students to the works of Percy Grainger.

During her first year at Loreto Toorak, at the age of thirteen, Helen Gibson passed the equivalent of grade eight in piano examinations. The examiner wrote on her report, ‘Loyal to the Loreto spirit’. Helen found this comment puzzling, as she had only just joined the school. Later she understood that the examiners were accustomed to a high musical standard from Loreto Toorak students. Helen’s music teacher, Mother Lua Byrne, started her on the double bass as they needed one for the orchestra. Helen quickly persuaded Mother Lua that she would rather learn the cello. There was also the challenge presented by the white silk concert dresses that the girls wore for performances to consider. These had permanently pleated side panels and when the girls sat to play the double bass or the cello they had to try to drape the dress modestly around their legs, which was more graceful in idea than in reality.

Following Loreto Toorak, Helen studied piano and cello at the Conservatorium at the University of Melbourne and lived at St Mary’s Hall. She became well known in Victoria’s musical circles for her performances and entrepreneurial skills as a consultant, concert manager and project officer for the Music Board of Australia and director of music projects for the School of Music at the Victorian College of the Arts.

Margaret Evans (nee Gleeson) - music in the new school hall in 1926