Canada Bay Community Choir
2024
Seniors Concert, Cabarita Conservatory, 21 March, 2024
The choir performed once again during Seniors Week in the Cabarita Conservatory, part of Cabarita Park It was a beutiful, sunny day and the choir sang with joy and enthusiasm which our audience of seniors seemed to appreciate.We sang an Australian composition,Swimming with the Concord High School choir and we and the audience enjoyed the playing of the Concord HIgh School Ensemble .
The photos were taken by
Nancy Merlo from Canada Bay Council and kindly shared with us. Click here to view the photos.
Family and Friends 21 March, 2024
We followed our Seniors Concert with a performance for our family and friends in the evening. We sang with confidence knowing we were singing well very much due to our wonderful Director Brad, who we thank for his continued guidance, support and enthusiasm. As Brad said in his email to us: ' It was great that Will could perform his Scriabin, and he was encouraged by the experience. The choir really sounded great, the sound was confident and full and TOGETHER!!! No mishaps with cut offs at all. I was thrilled.'
Click here for photos from Warren Lowery
2023
Christmas service, Balmain Presbyterian Church, 10th December
Mebers of the choir taook part in a service at the church to support Brad in his thank you to the church community for his use of the church as a rehearaal space during the year.
It was a a great experience to be part of a cast of solists including Tessa hayward, trumpeter, flautist and members of another choir and of course, Brad accompanying and directing.
Click here for a video of the whole serviceon YouTube. and for a photo of our choir members
Family and Friends 16th November
Family and Friends night was a great success. The choir sang so well and from the photos it is plain to see that everyone enjoyed singing. Catherine Day was a wonderful accompanist and rose magnficnetly to the challenge of only meeting us all on the night. As ever our thanks to Brad for his excellent direction and his enthusiasm and encouragement.We were fortunate to have Spencer who played a solo on viola accompanied by Brad. It was so lovely to see and hear how Spencer has developed into such a wonderful performer over the years he has played for us. Together with Brad’s accompaniment on piano it was a magical performance. Our audience enjoyed it all.
Blackheath Choir Festival August 27
Canada Bay Community Choir was very pleased to be able to participate in the Blackheath Choir Festival for the first time since COVID brought such events to a standstill.
The Festival is always a great event with so many choirs taking part and it provides a great opportunity for our choir to demonstrate our achievements as well as listening to a range of other choirs over the weekend of the festival.
See photos here taken by the official festival photographer
Music workshop April 22nd
Thanks to a grant from Canada Bay Council the choir was able to hold a workshop on Saturday 22nd from 1.30 p.m. to 4 p.m. The workshop was led by our director Brad Gilchrist, ably assisted by Adrian Li Donni and Toby Wong. Activities included body warm ups, vocal exercise, basics of reading music, dividing into sections to learn new songs, then coming together to perform as one large group. Everyone agreed it was an excellent and enjoyable workshop.
Seniors Concert, Cabarita Conservatory, March 15th
The choir performed once again during Seniors Week in the Cabarita Conservatory, part of the beautiful Cabarita Park. Concord HIgh School Ensemble was also part of the performance as was a solo by Spencer Otnam on viola, accompanied by our Director, Brad Gilchrist. It was a lovely, sunny day and the audience seemed to really enjoy the concert. Morning coffee and cakes were enjoyed by us all.
2022
Christmas carol performances December 2022
Click here for details of our Christmas carol performances for this year.
Click here for photos of Family and Friends night, December 1, 2022
Click here for photos of carols at Breakfast Point, December 2, 2022. Thank you to Rose, a friend of the choir.
Click here for photos of carols at Fred Kelly Place, December 8, 2022
Seniors Concert, Cabarita Conservatory, March 30th
Our first performance for the year. The choir was happy to be able to perform during Seniors Week this year as the performance for 2021 had to be cancelled due to COVID. Thank you to Rob Curran for the photos.
Drummoyne Oval. Community Fun Day 12 June
We had a good turnout for the event even though it was cold and blustery as you can see from the photos. Brad led us wonderfully and everybody enjoyed taking part.
2020
Seniors Concert, Cabarita Conservatory, February 13th
Canada Bay Council invited our choir to sing during Seniors Week at the Cabarita Conservatory in Cabarita Park on Thursday February 13th.
As can be seen in the photos, many members of the choir took part and the audience of seniors loved the performance, especially Kathryn's beautiful solo from Merry Widow.
Thank you to the photographer from the Council for the photos here.
2019
Family and Friends December 12, 2019
Thank you to all, friends, family and choir members who made our final Family and Friends night for the year, such a success. Thanks also to Kathryn for another wonderful year as Director and to Brad our marvellous accompanist. Thank you also to Kathryn's son Spencer for his very accomplished violin solo and to Kathryn and Spencer for their duet. It all added up to a great night.
Ken's visit to the choir
Thanks to Mark and Meryl, Ken came to join a choir rehearsal in February. From the photos kindly supplied by Richard, Ken is obviously so pleased to be there and see everyone again.
Family and Friends night. 27th June, 2019
Family and Friends night was a great success, thanks to Kathryn and Brad and an enthusiastic and well rehearsed choir. Tessa Haywood, who has a beautiful soprano voice and who is about to compete in the finals of the Sydney Eisteddfod, entertained us in the break.
Sing for the joy of it. Marrickville Golf Club. 26 July, 2019
Wlith thanks to Kathryn and Brad, the choir had a very successful night at Marrickville Golf Club where we were one of four choirs performing. We were a small group as many choir members were unable to make it but from the audience applause, we were appreciated. We particularly impressed with our Italian songs
We wore our new blue scarves for the first time and they were greatly admired both by the choir members and the audience.
See some photos here. Apologies but the lighting made photography difficult.
Ferragosto
The choirexcelled itself this year. We had a good time slot - 12.30, weather was sunny and warm, which all made for a great peerformance to an appreciative audience.
2018
Canada Bay Club grant
We are very grateful to the Canada Bay Club which has recently made a generous donation to the choir. You can see a photo of Jan accepting the giant cheque on behalf of the choir. See photo here.
Events
Turning on the Christmas lights
The choir was invitedby the Concord Chamber of Commerce to sing carols on November 27 to celebrate the Christmas season when the lights of the Christmas tree were turned on in Majors Bay Rd, Concord.
See photos here.
Family and Friends - we have held a mid-year F & F night as well as December
o Thursday July 5 for the mid-year F&F
o Thursday December 6 for the end of year F&F
see photos from December 6 here
· Singing at Parkview Nursing Home Five Dock (Ken's residence)
o Saturday 16 June - sometime late morning
o
Saturday 8th December.
see photos here.
Carols at Frank Kelly Place, Five Dock. 13 December
see photos here.
Carols at the Riverview Pub. 14 December
see photos here
· Ferragosto
o Sunday 19 August - time 3.10 p m
· Blackheath Choir Festival
o Weekend of 24 - 26 August. We have requested a Saturday (25th) time slot so we need to wait to hear back to confirm our attendance and performance time slot.
· Christmas Carols at Riverview Hotel Balmain
o We have requested a Friday night, 14 December, for this year to move it away from a normal rehearsal night.
Event |
Date & Time |
Comments |
Family & Friends |
Thursday 5 July |
Mid-Year F&F |
Family & Friends |
Thursday 13 December |
Christmas F&F |
Parkview Nursing Home |
Saturday 16 June |
Ken’s Home |
Ferragosta |
Sunday 19 August |
Time TBA |
Blackheath Choir Festival |
Saturday 25 August |
Acceptance and time TBA |
Christmas Carols at Riverview Hotel Balmain |
Friday 14 December |
6:30-7:00 start time |
2017
Our choir recorded
Kathryn arranged for our repetoire for Ferragosto to be recorded so we could have a backing of our own singing and be properly heard when we sing outdoors. Brad - accompaniest and Paul - audio recorder, did a great job and it was quite exciting to be singing with such a wonderful piano accompaniment.
The recordings have been added to each of Kathryn's recordings of our parts and can be heard all together here.
Marrickville Sing for the joy of it
We sang in the Marrickville Golf Club night Sing for the joy of it on Friday August 18. We have taken part on two previous occasions and it was good to be part of an activity which involved other choirs, giving us a chance to hear others and to perform ourselves in front of an audience of family, friends and other choristers. It was a very successful night and everyone said we sounded wonderful. It was also great to hear three other very different community choirs sing.
Thank you to those who took photos. See a selection here.
Ferragosto
Our Canta con noi workshops have paid off and we sang Me compare Giacometta and O sole mio in Italian and Corner in the Sky, Over the Rainbow and Fields of Gold in the Ferragosto Italian street festival on Sunday August 20.
See a selection of photos here.
See videos here of Me Compare Giacometo and O Sole Mio
Term 2 Workshops
Our two Canta con noi (sing with us) workshops were a great success. Most of the choir members plus a couple of visitors attended. We made a good start on learning two Italian songs, Me compare Giacometta and O sole mio. Grateful thanks to Tina for her help with our Italian pronounciation. David, music teacher at Haberfield Public, who has had a long history of involvement in choirs both here and overseas, took the first workshop. We enjoyed his direction, sense of humour and encouragement.
Kathryn took the second workshop and we enjoyed improving our Italian and singing the rollicking Me compare Giacometta and the more soulful O sole mio.
We hope we may be able to perform these songs at Ferragosto in August. We are able to fund these workshops because of the generous grant we received from Canada Bay Council.
 |
 |
Celebrating Sue Prell's golfing achievement
Welcome back
Welcome back everyone to 2017. Choir starts again on Thursday February 2 at 7 pm at Drummoyne Community Centre. Looking forward to another great year of singing. Check here for our calendar of choir nights for the year.
We are happy to announce that Kathryn Zerk has agreed to be our Director after Lindsay Gilroy-Peddings felt that she wanted to spend more time with her new baby.
