Jazz + Birthday “Boy” = the Music Connection

Musical instruction deepens our boys' engagement with academic content, develops an appreciation of the musical genres both instrumental and vocal, stimulates the mind and awakens an appetite to enrich the daily learning experience.

Teaching and learning as is the case with music, is interactive and fluid. It has a sense of wild, free-moving passionate motion within structure. There is give and take and change. There is start and stop and in-between there is the timing. There is rhythm and collaborative communication. There are tempo changes, tone changes and with boys most definitely volume and energy changes.

Jazz music at the hands of a master has its own "live" part to it. There is no expectation that it will sound the same, from one boy to another. Instead, the expectation is for surprise and delight and joy. As we have seen at the prep, jazz music played by our boys has been inventive, entertaining and reflective of a positive relationship between teacher and music student.

Our own jazz teacher Mr Francois Conradie is indeed a fine example to us as to the success that can be achieved when passion, music and teaching collide. Since Mr Conradie joined us at Saints in 1997, his passion for jazz music and sharing the joys of teaching jazz music with our boys has highlighted the gift that he has been to us all.

As we celebrated his 80th birthday this week, we can reflect on a jazz teacher who has shown empathy and energy, humour and resilience; constant passion for his music. Mr Conradie has the ability to 'read' an audience and together with his boy's preparatory "boy bands", instantly converts One and All to a new appreciation of jazz music.
Mr Conradie has been an inspirational colleague and musician who has used jazz music as a means to awaken the music in us, "different teachers create jazz in different ways in the classroom" but Saints teachers always create it.

The Saints teachers even at the young age of 80 refuse to settle for less than shaping boys minds in a way that makes them more passionate humans, passionate Saints Boys.

Thank you Mr Conradie for your gentleness, humorous personality and the gift of jazz you give to our boys.

Happy birthday Mr Conradie, May you be blessed with many more years of improvisational jazz teaching.