Matthew Pearce
"I first started playing the clarinet when I was 8. I am now in my second year of study for a Diploma of Music Performance, majoring in the saxophone at the Conservatorium of Music in Sydney. Next year I hope to continue my studies for a Bachelor degree and then maybe even do a Dip Ed."
In January 2003, the year of the major bushfires, Matthew along with other Cowra students, was sponsored by the Cowra Education Foundation and the Cowra Credit Union to attend an Outward Bound course in the ACT. Matthew recalls,
"We went abseiling, rock climbing and hiking. The hard thing was, every day there would be longer distances. So you would think ‘oh the first day was alright’. On the second day it got a bit harder. And as you got through, it kept getting harder and you had to put in more effort. We’d hike around with a heavy backpack and mine was full of lollies and I soon realised that I probably shouldn’t be carrying that much and the pack quickly got a bit lighter!
When the fire storm came, everyone was helping everybody. If you had your bag packed, then you were helping someone else. …. We spent the night watching the fires …. We woke up in the morning and the whole place was just one massive fire. …. As the fire got closer we all pitched in to clean up the base to make sure that the whole place didn’t go up."
Matthew’s mother Sue says,
"Matthew’s told me that although he didn’t put into practice everything he learnt at Outward Bound straight away, since he’s matured a little bit more and he’s got into the workforce and he’s had time to think about it, he’s really putting into practice the things that he learnt at Outward Bound and it’s helped him a great deal."
Matthew agrees,
"It was good for me. …. I learnt that you shouldn’t give up."
One Saturday, just before Christmas 2003, Matthew was busking with his saxophone in the main street of Cowra and by chance met a tutor from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.
“He came along as I was playing and I think he put 50 cents in. And he said to me ‘What do you want to do?’ and I said ‘I want to go to the Con’. And he said, ‘Oh that’s funny because I’m at the Con’.
Sue recalls,
"Matthew came home extremely excited saying, ‘Mum I met this saxophone tutor from the Con and he was listening to me and talking to me and said I played really well’."
Unknown to Matthew, on the same day, his music teacher visited Sue to give her a brochure about a two-day saxophone convention being held at the Conservatorium in January. Sue was determined to surprise Matthew and get him enrolled.
"Now that very Saturday they’d had a big storm in Sydney, and most of the Conservatorium’s phones had been struck by lightning. So when I rang on the following Monday, the number given on the brochure was out of order. They put me through to the only working phone regarding saxophone, the Head of Woodwind, Mark Walton. And it turned out that he was the fellow who Matthew had met when he was busking! And I started getting goose bumps and all the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. …. And then he said to me, ‘Okay, don’t bother with the application he’s in, I’ve listened to him play’."
Attending the saxophone convention cemented Matthew’s resolve to study at the conservatorium after he finished high school. Matthew received a Community Scholarship from the Cowra Education Foundation to help with his textbooks, accommodation and music tuition.
"Most students who attend the Con have done Music 2 and Music Extension at high school. Only Music 1 was available at Cowra. So there was all this theory that I didn’t know. …. That’s another thing the foundation has been helping me with is getting that extra tuition for the theory part."
Matthew is tutoring 19 young students in clarinet and saxophone.
"The best part about teaching is when they want the lesson to go for longer - that’s the best thing.
I want to be the best musician I can be, and make people ‘get’ music and love it as much as I do. I’d also like to work as a tutor or teacher in a country town because there aren’t many music teachers in these areas.
It’s really good to know that people are supporting you. When there’s heaps of people pushing you forwards you can’t go backwards."
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