The Marist College Ashgrove Big Band is visiting Jumpers and Jazz in July on Saturday 31st July for a full set of jazz and swing in Leslie Park.
A Catholic boys’ boarding and day school located in Brisbane’s inner north, Marist College Ashgrove is at the forefront of music education with a nationally recognised program, and students regularly participating in performances, competitions and international tours. The College’s educators and state-of-the-art facilities have produced artists who have gone on to garner local and international acclaim in their chosen genre.
Marist College Ashgrove understands the value of education in enabling our students to become knowledgeable, creative, thoughtful and morally responsible young men who engage actively as citizens of the world. “Music is a vital part of the holistic education Marist provides for each boy in its care along with academic, sport, social and spiritual education,” Head of College, Mr Michael Newman said.
The Marist Big Band is led by Director of Music, Dr Andrew Butt, an esteemed musician and educator who has taught at Marist College Ashgrove for over thirty years. Under Dr Butt’s leadership and guidance, the Marist music program has grown from forty students to over six hundred students making it one of the largest cohorts of classroom music in Queensland.
Dr Butt is widely recognised as a leader in the music field being awarded a Churchill Fellowship, a PhD in Music Performance from the University of Queensland, a Queensland Music Award and a Special Commendation Award at the Australian Society of Music Educators. Dr Butt also sits on the Advisory Board of the Queensland Conservatorium and the Australian Music Examinations Board (AMEB). With his wealth of experience, Dr Butt is an asset to Marist College Ashgrove and develops programs that inspire students to excel in the Arts beyond the school gates.
Marist has recently unveiled a new recording studio that will enable students to produce work to a standard beyond that of a typical high school student. Dr Butt hopes that this new recording studio will also allow students to produce work from a variety of cultures including indigenous, rural and urban. The addition of the recording studio forms part of Marist’s commitment to adapt to changing technologies and platforms in order to benefit the future careers of their students. Marist College Ashgrove students have composed music that has over 600 million streams on Spotify proving that the music program yields successful results and inspired artists.
Dr Butt believes that lifelong learning and the ability to create and adapt are some of the key benefits of the must program at Marist. Visit Dr Andrew Butt and the Marist College Ashgrove Big Band for the last day of Jumpers and Jazz in July to see the boys in action and learn more about why Marist College Ashgrove are leaders in music education.
