SIXTEEN-YEAR-OLD local soprano Stella Hannock will be flying the flag for the Hastings Choristers at the Sydney Eisteddfod tomorrow.
The talented young Port Macquarie singer will complete in three classical voice sections at the Eisteddfod tomorrow under the adjudication of well-known Australian baritone John Bolton Wood.
Stella is in year 11 at St Columba Anglican School and has spent thousands of hours pursuing her love for singing. With a grandmother and great grandmother both trained as classical singers, she is keen to follow in their footsteps and applies herself diligently to her vocal studies with the goal of gaining a place at a music conservatorium on completion of her HSC. Stella is currently preparing for her Grade 8 AMEB Singing Examination.
Stella has been a member of the selective national choir Gondwana Voices for a number of years which has given her the opportunity to develop her musicianship, work with professional conductors and musicians as well as make friendships and connections with like-minded music lovers from around Australia. She will be touring in Taiwan with Gondwana later this month.
The teenager has been rewarded for her hard work and dedication with significant success in local eisteddfods. At the recent Taree Eisteddfod, she was awarded a Smile Scholarship as well as the scholarship for outstanding performer in the vocal sections. This week she headed off to Sydney to experience some of the treats that a “big city” has to offer to an aspiring singer. She will be taking a master class with a teacher from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, watching one of her idols, Emma Matthews, perform in Rigoletto at the Opera House and to top it all off compete in three classical voice sections at Sydney Eisteddfod tomorrow.
Stella had a last-minute rehearsal of some of the pieces she will perform at the Hastings Choristers’ concert last Friday at the Glasshouse, where she performed four solos, including Dear Delight by Michael Head and The Trees They Grow So High, an English folk song, both of which she will sing in Sydney tomorrow. The other piece she did not perform last Friday but will sing tomorrow is an Australian art song called Mopoke.
Proud mother Heather said they had been told that the standard at the Eisteddfod was extremely high because many of the competitors were from specialist music and performing arts schools, so they were going with no expectations other than that of experience.
