By arts editor HELEN MUSA

Canberra Girls Grammar School will celebrate its centenary in grand style on August 29 with a Gala Concert at Llewellyn Hall, bringing together more than 200 current students and former students in a musical tribute to the school’s past, present and future.

Founded in 1926 with just 10 students, the school has grown alongside Canberra itself. Established by the Anglican Community of the Sisters of the Church, Canberra Girls Grammar is marking its 100th year with what organisers describe as a gift to the city, an event open to the wider Canberra community.

Under the artistic direction of Wyana O’Keeffe, the concert will span genres and generations, telling the story of the school through the voices, music and experiences of the women who have shaped it over the past century.

When CityNews caught up with O’Keeffe, a former long-serving percussion teacher who returned to the school as Music Curriculum Coordinator and Head of Bands, she told us how the concert had revealed the deep affection former students feel for their alma mater.

“When we put out a call for expressions of interest, it was amazing how many people came forward with memories of the school and ideas for its future,” she said.

The program includes Arturo Márquez’s orchestral showpiece Danzón No. 2, while former student and coloratura soprano Erika Simons will perform Elena Kats-Chernin’s Eliza Aria from the ballet Wild Swans. Another alumna, soprano Sarahlouise Owens, will sing Kats-Chernin’s To Hold the World, with words by Chris Latham, a work previously performed only once, at the 2025 Flowers of Peace concert.

A highlight of the evening will be three world premieres. Melbourne based singer songwriter and alumna Laura Ingram has composed Black Swan Theory, inspired by the school’s emblem. Acclaimed composer and former student Sally Whitwell has written Generations, a new school song commissioned for the centenary. Fellow alumna Jenny Game, a Melbourne composer, saxophonist and academic, has created Golgotha, a new work for chamber choir and jazz ensemble based on hymns attributed to the Sisters of the Church.

The scale of the event is immense. Performers will include the Centenary Orchestra, Centenary Choir, Centenary Jazz Ensemble, Head Choristers, Gabriel Singers, Gabriel Quartet, Centenary Strings, Centenary Big Band, CGGS choirs and students from the Junior School and Early Learning Centre.

The Centenary Dancers will be choreographed by Glenys Harris and Maree Cronin, while conductors include Mary Tatchell, Justin Lingard, Joel Copeland, Stephen Rabe, Sara David, Sonia Anfiloff and O’Keeffe herself.

“This concert will pull everyone’s passions together,” O’Keeffe predicts. “It’s going to be so cool.”

Canberra Girls Grammar School gala concert Llewellyn Hall, August 29, bookings here.

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