Old Collegian Mentors Percussionists

Over the weekend, Old Collegian, Sam Rich returned to College to mentor the musicians in our percussion sections. Sam attended both the Boys’ School and the College and is well remembered as being very active with the music ensembles at both schools during his time as a student.

After graduating from the College in 2012, Sam initially studied for a Bachelor of Music in Percussion Performance at Auckland University, while frequently performing with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra. Over the following years, Sam was awarded a mentorship with the Melbourne Symphony, was involved in the New Zealand Symphony Fellowship Programme, undertook a Bachelor of Music with Honours degree at Te Koki New Zealand School of Music, where he graduated with First Class Honours, and spent two months at the ‘Music Academy of the West’ summer festival in Santa Barbara as one of five Percussion Fellows performing with some of the USA’s best youth musicians. On his return to New Zealand, he won the Principal Timpani audition for Orchestra Wellington which he held between 2016 and 2017. In August 2017, he was accepted into the San Francisco Conservatory of Music to pursue a two-year Master’s Degree. In early 2019, he auditioned for the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and after three audition rounds, was named as the successful candidate.

Now based in Wellington as full-time percussionist with New Zealand Symphony Orchestra (NZSO), Sam happened to be back in Auckland over the weekend to perform with the NZSO/NYO (National Youth Orchestra) programme of Shostakovich's Leningrad Symphony and Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring. Current Year 13 French Horn player, Evan Metcalfe, was also on stage, playing with the National Youth Orchestra.

Sam has been offering mentoring sessions as part of the NZSO Education Outreach programme, visiting schools all over the country while the NZSO tours. With his extensive experience, we were delighted that Sam could spend time with our musicians. The percussion students in the Symphony Orchestra, Concert Band and GoodFellas Quartet (Chamber) enjoyed a three-hour session with Sam on both the technical and musical aspects of playing the various percussion instruments.

Sam has a hands-on approach which the students really appreciated. He also gave advice on how to listen and balance their percussion playing within the ensemble as a whole. For our students, learning to be ensemble-aware, painting a richer tonal palette with their orchestral percussion instruments will provide more expression and emotion to the overall sound of our ensembles. This, hopefully, will give them good advantage in the upcoming regional and national music competitions!

Our sincere thanks to Sam for spending time with our students. It’s always a pleasure to welcome him back!