Our newer members were interested to see both costumes and video clips of some of our early performances. It was an opportunity to sing some of the 'old' songs from our repertoire and dress up for the occasion.
Jan and Jill ran the program and outlined the major events since the chorus beginnings. This was a great introduction to our early history and a fitting forerunner to our 20 years celebration to be held next year in 2011.
Chorus Beginnings as told by Jill…..
Betty Parsons was friends with Ruth Williams, President of Sydney Town Chorus , through musical connections. Betty booked Ruth’s Chorus to put on a Concert in February 1990 for the diggers at the Illawarra Diggers Aged & Community Care Residence.
Jann McNeill happened to work there as a physio at the time, & Betty Nicol, a friend of Jann’s, & who’s husband, Ian, helped there as a volunteer, joined Jann at the concert.
These 3 wonderful ladies are our Founding members.
The ball started to roll with the first planning meeting held in March, & roll onto the first chorus rehearsal which was held on 4th May with 18 ladies present.
The 1st director was Diana Russell, a local music teacher.
Betty P, Betty N & Jann went in June to the first Australian Convention in Geelong. It was hosted by Melbourne Chorus, the winning chorus, followed by Perth & Sydney Town. Prospective choruses Gold Coast & Adelaide evaluated that year and our 3 ladies came home very enthused.
Diana continued to guide the chorus for over 3 months, until work commitments took over. Iris Costello & Marg Sharrod stepped up to assist over the next months. In September, Sydney Town’s director, Carol Wright, brought a group of STC ladies down for a workshop with the fledgling group. Amongst the ladies was a bass, Chris Baratini. She enthusiastically offered to be the new director, and brought a new, higher level of the barbershop artform to the new chorus.
Steadily the numbers grew, & all 25 members attended the first National education weekend in June 1991 at Naarmaroo Conference Centre, Lane Cove National Park. We proudly wore T-shirts emblazoned with : “Who Says You Can’t Save The World ?”
We all ‘starred’ in the Saturday night concert, putting on a very funny skit based on "The Singing GP”. It brought the house down, & we really thought we had arrived!
Central Coast Chorus & Bathurst Chorus were the other ‘babies’ that weekend. It was a wonderful opportunity to get to know singers from other choruses and develop new friendships.
Our chorus was officially chartered in 19 November, 1991.
No comments:
Post a Comment