Eleven choristers from NECOM’s acclaimed choirs, Cantilena and New Eng-land Singers, represented Armidale in Australia’s prestigious Gondwana Choirs’ National Choral School during the January holidays in Sydney.
Eleanor Logan, Dakota Love, Torsten von Strokirch and four sets of siblings – Jonathon and Oliver Bruhl, Izzy and Mia Emanuel, Lucy and Stella Quast, and David and Jess Tan – all made the journey to Sydney for the intensive fortnight of choral training.
The Gondwana Choirs’ National Choral School is an annual event for Australia’s most talented young singers, composers and conductors, under the guidance of Lyn Williams OAM, Gondwana Choir’s Artistic Director and Founder. Lyn is well known to Armidale, as she was the guest conductor for NECOM’s New England Sings! in October last year.
“Gondwana was origin-ally established to give the opportunity to the finest young singers and musicians in the country to come together and rehearse and perform at the highest level,” Lyn Williams said.
“Although choral excel-lence remains at the core of our activities, for many, Gondwana is also the place where the strongest friendships are formed and lifelong bonds develop between participants.”
Over 400 singers audit-ioned for the 270 hotly contested places in the National Choral School in January. Out of the 40 regional NSW students selected for the school, NECOM provided 11!
“There are hundreds of singers from all over Australia who audition for this Choral School – it is an impressive achievement for so many of NECOM’s choristers to win a place,” said NECOM Director Susanne James.
Armidale’s choristers were certainly put through their paces during the School’s demanding, non-stop training that aimed for the highest quality of choral performance. Each day the singers had to keep up with robust physical movement activities, intensive singing and listening, and then memorising a minimum of six to eight works (some as long as 20 minutes) for concerts at St James Church and the Verbrugghen Hall at the Sydney Conservatorium.
Jess Tan, who sang with the Gondwana Singers says, “I loved meeting so many people from all over Australia – they were all so passionate about singing.” Her brother David, who sang with Junior Gondwana adds, “We sang a huge range of different music and learnt lots of new skills, and we had amazing conductors.”
NECOM’s Choral Pro-gram offers three choirs: Minisingers (K-Yr 2), Cant-ilena (Yrs 3-6) and New England Singers (Yrs 7-12). Contact NECOM on 02 6773 6419 for further information.
