P A G E 1

V O L U M E 1 0 I S S U E 3

S U N S H I N E C O A S T

C H O R A L S O C I E T Y I N C Resonance A U G U S T 2 0 1 7

Jenny Carr with

‘Oor Wullie’

‘Christmas in July’

Carols at Montville

Next Concert: ‘Seascapes’ From our President

The Sunshine Coast Choral Society is

celebrating OUR Sunshine Coast

through Australian Music and Art.

Conducted by musical director Adrian

King, guest artists include pianist

Natasha Koch, the newly formed

Backroads Ensemble, harpist Janita

Billingham and percussionist Mikaela

Swan.

Enjoy the music of Australians Stephen

Leek, Dulcie Holland, Malcolm

Williamson, Peter Sculthorpe, Elena

Kats-Chernin and Sunshine Coast local,

Jennifer Carr. As well as enjoying

listening to the music, the audience will

be invited to participate in Williamson's

cassation or mini opera specially

written for audience and choir.

This could be the start of your operatic

career! There will be a slide show of

beautiful coastal and hinterland views as

well as a static art display of creative

items by choir members and friends. Of

course, the ubiquitous refreshments will

be available during the interval. Tickets

will be available at the door, Adults $25,

Concession $20 and Children $10.

Jennifer Carr

The piece “Seascapes” which will be

premiered at this recital, is a

collaboration between Jennifer Barry

and Jennifer Carr, who provided this

insight into its creation:

“Our past president, Jennifer Barry,

offered her poems to me. There are five

songs in the Seascapes cycle with the

theme being the sea, the moon and

sand. Female voices jumped on to the

page together with xylophone, harp and

non-pitched percussion, all Jennifer’s

favourites, following her background of

Carl Orff’s music.

We discussed styles and instruments

and, of course, voices. Seascapes was

born.”

Tickets are also now available to

purchase online via our website :

http://suncoastchoral.org.au/

Our Next Recital

‘SEASCAPES’ 1-2

Oor Wullie 3

‘Mozart Magic’

Review 4

Bernice’s Birthday 4

Rob & Maree’s Trip 5

Editor’s Story 6-8

Montville 9

Handel’s ‘Messiah’

Christmas Recital 10

Join Us 11

I N S I D E T H I S

I S S U E :

‘Seascapes’ : Creation

P A G E 2

V O L U M E 1 0 I S S U E 3

These are words that immediately spring to mind when the Sunshine Coast Choral Society performes at Caloundra

Uniting Church on September the 2nd at 2pm. The programme is attractive, innovative and modern. Waltzing

Matilda, Rainstorm and Living Shells by the celebrated Stephen Leek commence the afternoon’s performance.

Dulcie Holland is also represented in her Adoramus Te and Celtic Prayer, as is Malcolm Williamson in his

Cassation for Audience, Choir and Piano, The Stone Wall. Natasha Koch (the Society’s exceptional accompanist)

and also the Backroads Ensemble, an excellent String Quartet, will provide the accompaniment to most of the

items, and will contribute special solo spots into the programme.

This concert will air the premier performance of ‘Seascapes’ for Female Choir, harp and percussion – specially

commissioned for the Choir and the celebration of the Sunshine Coast’s Anniversary this year. The music,

composed by Jennifer Carr (the Society’s President) and Jennifer Barry (the Society’s ex-President who has recently

moved back to her native homeland – New Zealand) features movements of a programmatic genre symptomatic

of the Sunshine Coast and will include projected photos and an art and textile display to complement the overall

afternoon’s musical programme.

This is a concert not to be missed and with a difference not seen anywhere on the coast before. The Concert is

proudly supported by the Sunshine Coast Council’s grant programme, and tickets are available for purchase from

members, from our website, and also at the door.

Thank you

Adrian King

Musical Director and Conductor

‘Amazing - Evocative’ From the Conductor’s Baton

A small section of the Sunshine Coast Choral Society

warming up in rehearsal for ‘Seascapes’.

P A G E 3

V O L U M E 1 0 I S S U E 3

Ask Maryann, Jim or

Jenny if you need

any translation...

What is the significance of this picture?

Jennifer Carr explains what this photo, seen in February’s Resonance, means to her Following the publication of my photo hugging this

character at Fort William railway station, I have

been asked to share why I love him so much. His

name in English is Our William, “our” because he

represented everyone’s child, brother and nephew

and was part of most Scottish homes every second

Sunday. His life was a full page cartoon story in that

very Scottish of publications, The Sunday Post, published in

Dundee, the city of my birth.

His life was the dream of every Scottish child, male or female

as he had so much freedom, a great sense of adventure and a

never-ending curiosity which got him into trouble quite often,

not trouble as in today’s trouble of vandalism, theft, muggings,

etc., but stealing apples from the trees and using P.C.

Murdoch’s helmet for target practice were trouble enough to

keep him frequently in touch with the local bobby on the beat.

His teacher despaired of taming him and finally gave up on

trying to eliminate Wullie’s use of the vernacular. (This was

another reason for the admiration he received from so many

children – his freedom to speak the local tongue – almost a

hanging offence in the Carr household).

He was a prolific philosophiser while his black

dungaree-clad figure was seated on his upturned

bucket. His life, to the children of the 50s and 60s

was carefree, with little attention to school and the

freedom to roam where he wanted. He had a group

of lads in his gang and one lassie whom they

tolerated.

Among his favourite sayings were “Jings,” “Crivven’s” and his

closing catchphrase was, “I nivver get ony fun roond here!”

In 2016 Oor Wullie’s 80th birthday was celebrated by a major

public art project when decorated 150cm sculptures of him

were placed around Dundee and its environs with ten touring

round Scotland, hence my photo from Fort William. Each

statue has its own unique design, for instance one entitled

Oor Bowie, was inspired by David Bowie, while a

spaceman-themed statue was inspired by Tim Peake.

Seventy of the eighty sculptures

were auctioned in September

2016, raising over $1,500,000 for a

new pediatric surgical suite at

Tayside Children's Hospital,

Dundee.

I’m sure Wullie would have

approved.

“A guid fun wey tae lairn oor language”

Jennifer Carr

Oor Wullie

P A G E 4

V O L U M E 1 0 I S S U E 3

Happy ‘Significant’ Birthday

to Bernice Anderson

To the Choristers of the Sunshine Coast Choral

Society, congratulations on a magnificent performance

of Mozart's Vespers and Requiem! From the minute

choristers entered the stage they set the scene of

professionalism, excellence and dedication for the

programme of events to come.

The Vespers were first in the programme. This work

contains so many musical contrasts and ideas that to

interpret it correctly and with panache and style is

very difficult, but the choir, soloists and chamber

orchestra rose to the occasion and sang all of the

work with sheer brilliance and luminosity.

After the short interval was programmed everyone’s

favourite – Mozart’s Requiem.

This is not only difficult to sing, but as the majority of

the punters know this work very well, mistakes can be

so glaring if made, but the singing was magnificent in

every way, from the contrapuntal opening of the 1st

movement to the homophonic dramatic Dies Irae.

The choral discipline was first class, the intonation

brilliant and the choir’s attention to my interpretations

MOZART MAGIC! A Report on the Mozart Recital in April were excellent in every way and all the voices soared

above the orchestral texture. The soloists – Kathryn

O’Halloran, Naomi Bakker, Phillip Costovski

and Oliver Boyd were superb, with the orchestra

again ably and excellently supporting all. Choristers

had worked exceptionally hard in the rehearsals and I

am pleased to say that it all paid off in the end

performances. So many of the audience came up to me

at the short interval and also at the end in raptures

with the performances given, and it was so gratifying

to perform to a full, appreciative audience!

At this point I would like to publicly recognise

Natasha Koch, our highly accomplished

Accompanist. Natasha - thank you so much for all your

time and talent, accompanying the choir rehearsals and

also the soloists in their preliminary practice, we are

fortunate in having one so talented as you! I was really

very pleased with the whole proceedings, and grateful

thanks must also be extended to the Choir’s

President - Jenny Carr and all of the Committee for

your support, dedication and organisation, also Roger

Pilcher and his team of dedicated workers, and finally,

the Front of House team.

“My Facebook was alive with your excellent performances - so many super accolades”!!!

Adrian King Conductor and Director.

We celebrated Bernice’s ‘Significant’

birthday recently at Lakeshore Church

of Christ, our rehearsal venue. Lovely

cakes were in abundance, and much

enjoyment had!

P A G E 5

V O L U M E 1 0 I S S U E 3

My wife Maree and I had always wanted to go on an Alaskan

cruise, and to take the Rocky Mountaineer train trip, but we

don’t like long plane trips. So when an inexpensive trans-Pacific

cruise from Sydney to Seattle was advertised for April this

year, it seemed that all our requirements were met. The

timing also coincided with our 40th wedding anniversary - a

nice coincidence. We made all bookings in mid-2016 before

the Choral Society's 2017 program was arranged.

Our 24 day cruise across the Pacific stopped at Noumea,

Vanuatu, Fiji and Hawaii.

We had a week to spare between arrival in Seattle and

departure for Alaska so we hired a car and drove 700km

across Washington, Idaho and Montana to visit Glacier

National Park. There was still a lot of snow around – they

were coming out of a winter with record snowfalls. We did

some magnificent walks (photo1), heard our first avalanche,

and were introduced to bear spray. Spray is normally taken as

a precaution whenever a walk is done, and is not a Canadian

version of drop bears as initially thought. Fortunately, the only

bears we saw were through the windows of a train or bus at a

later stage.

An 8 day Alaskan cruise followed, with an introduction to its

rip-roaring history in Skagway and Ketchikan. Such a beautiful

area and so much development seems to have originated

through the turbulence of the Yukon gold finds. Shipping

became more

regular, routes were

found through the

mountains, and

businesses were

established, if in the

rough.

Our return took us to Victoria, then Vancouver (visited a

niece working over there), where we embarked on a 12 day

Canadian Rockies tour, which included 2 days on the famed

Rocky Mountaineer train into the Canadian Rockies. The

lakes, rivers and snow-capped mountains were beyond

amazing. We even walked on a glacier and went on a

helicopter ride! Glaciers in the area are receding at an alarming

rate so global warming is very much on people's minds. Photos

2 and 3 are

typical of the

lovely sights.

To end our

holiday, we

then flew to

Florida staying

in Orlando to

sample the

Disney theme

parks and on to Daytona Beach.

From here it was a short drive to

the Kennedy Space Centre where

we marvelled at the work of the

space programme and the bravery

of the astronauts who put their

trust in the scientists.

This particular day ended with us

sampling a simulated space launch -

interesting and all the better for

knowing it was just pretend.

It was good to get home.

Rob and Maree

Mayer August, 2017

Rob and Maree’s Alaskan Cruise and Holiday

P A G E 6

V O L U M E 1 0 I S S U E 3

Gill’s Story Coming full circle

St James Choir photo—my mother and I are on the right

As Editor of Resonance, I have enjoyed preparing each

issue and reading the stories of our Singers. I have been

asked to write my own story, so here it is…

Music has been part of my life for as long as I can

remember! Many years ago, my mother tried to interest

me in any music other than the Beatles. They had toured

Australia in 1964 and my aunt was so besotted with them

that she bought several records which she played

seemingly continuously on her radiogram until my

Grandmother, in desperation, smashed them all. The

damage was done – I became a lifelong Beatles fan.

To try to break this accidental brainwashing, my mother

took me along, squirming and fidgeting, to various styles

of concert, until she hit paydirt with an Organ recital at

Sydney’s Town Hall. The Town Hall Organ was (and still

is) one of the best organs in Australia. Marie-Claire Alain,

at the peak of her extraordinary career, toured Australia

in the late 60’s playing the best of the Organs, and I later

thanked my mother for taking me to her concert.

Amongst other great pieces, she played the Widor

Toccata which is forever in my memory as a physical

sensation due to the nature of the pedal part. The

bottom notes shook the Town Hall and the very air, in a

way that absolutely blew me away. I am sure that it

moved me to tears then, as it does now, if I hear an

exceptional version of it.

Having started my musical reprogramming, my mother

then allowed me to travel by train into the City on a

Thursday night to meet up with her at St James Church

(King St, Sydney) where she sang Alto with the Choir. I

would play chasings in the Crypt with the choir boys,

then have dinner with the choir

in the Crypt, then sit upstairs in

the Vestry doing my homework.

Contrary to strict instructions

not to wander around, I used to

climb about in the construction

zone around the church, which was undergoing a massive

restoration at the time.

One night when the main toilets were closed for

rebuilding, I climbed over the blockwork to get to the

toilets at the rear of the church, as I was too shy to let

anyone see me walking through the church to get to the

toilets. On my way back, I came face to face with a dead

metho drinker who I had missed seeing whilst climbing

over the blockwork… An excellent education on why you

should not disobey your parents!

After that, mum persuaded Walter Sutcliffe (St James

Choirmaster and Organist for 26 years) to allow me to

sing on a Thursday night to keep me out of trouble.

Eventually I learned enough to be allowed to sing in

services. A novel way to commence singing in life!

This was still the era when women were not accepted as

singers in major church choirs, and Walter had broken

with tradition by allowing several women to sing full time

with the choir. One was his wife Ann Sutcliffe, so I

suspect with hindsight that she was the driving force for

this innovation. The women sang from the unused Vestry

facing the organ (and out of sight of the Congregation).

This vestry was known to all as the Dog Box. Many jokes

Sydney Town Hall Organ

St James Church, Sydney

P A G E 7

V O L U M E 1 0 I S S U E 3

were made about this as can be imagined!

Around the time I started singing in services, the decision

was made to bring the women out of the Dog Box and

into the choir stalls (at the end closest to the altar and

furthest away from the congregation).

My mother made the robes for the women to wear, and I

still have mine and the pattern for making them. They

were a smart royal blue to match the boys’ and men’s

robes, with a white lined hood. We did not wear the

white surplis that the rest of the choir wore over their

cassocks, so we were much cooler in summer than the

males.

My most vivid memory of this time was listening to

Walter play the organ at the end of the service. My

mother often turned pages for

him, particularly in the Widor

Toccata, while I would sit,

watching his feet on the

pedals. Over time, my musical

skills grew until I developed a

very powerful Soprano voice, and could easily hold a

second soprano part by myself against the first. Women

sang 2nd soprano, boys sang 1st.

We had some exceptional singers at this time, many going

on to fame, and Walter had some exceptional Organ

students, one of whom is Andrej Kouznetsov who is

currently the Organist at St John’s Anglican Cathedral in

Brisbane. Many overseas choirs would join us during their

Australian tours, including Kings and St Johns choirs, and

we were once asked to substitute for ‘Carols from Kings’

when the BBC was on strike. The ABC’s process of

recording was very interesting and took 4 full days to film

and record audio for the Carol service. Unfortunately we

were singing when it was broadcast, so we never saw it –

this was before the days of VCR recorders!

Another vivid memory was once a year, we would sing

from the Convict Gallery at the back of the church. This is

the last remaining gallery of the Francis Greenway design

of the church that was originally intended to be law

courts. I used to record our recitals from there on a huge

‘ghetto blaster’, and playing one of them back recently, I

came across Walter playing the Widor Toccata.

After my mother died in 1981, I could not cope with

singing at St James without hearing her rich Alto, so I left. I

didn’t sing again for many years, until I found out that

Walter had left St James, and had formed the Jacobean

Singers. They had a recital back at St James, and socializing

after the recital, Walter persuaded me to start singing

again. My huge voice that I had taken for granted had long

gone, but it was still tolerable, even if I no longer had the

soprano range up to and past a top C. Over the next few

years, what was left of my voice continued to improve,

and I now have an acceptable range again.

I became the Jacobean’s Secretary and Librarian, and

enjoyed my time indexing their music archive – it brought

back many wonderful memories of St James. Also at this

time, I was an occasional singer at All Saints Church at

Woollahra, and was invited to sing in a recital at Sydney

Town Hall (my first and only) with several other choirs,

and featuring Jane Rutter, an exceptional Flautist who

performs regularly in Queensland.

After many more enjoyable years singing, I joined the

Joubert Singers after I had seen an ad for an upcoming

concert of Britten’s Ceremony of Carols, including the

Vivaldi Gloria, Haydn’s Little Organ Mass and other pieces

right up there in my top 10 favourites. The Ceremony of

Carols had long been on my musical “bucket list”. Rachelle

Elliott is a brilliant music director, whom I learned a lot

from. I consider this concert to be the peak of my singing

St James Interior with location of The Dog Box

Organ Console

P A G E 8

V O L U M E 1 0 I S S U E 3

come full circle! My first year with the Cathedral was

daunting – even with my extensive Church Music

background, I had to learn almost all the music sung

there, and I now had to wear a heavy cassock and

surplice in the Queensland summer heat!

My highlight here (so far) was singing Lauridsen’s Lux

Aeterna under the baton of Heather Buchanan, who used

her fingers while conducting to talk to the singers. This

made watching her closely essential, with only quick

glances at the music. Another highlight was the surprise

inclusion of a descant I wrote for the hymn ‘All Hail the

Power of Jesu’s Name’ in the RSCM Festival of Great

Hymns at the Cathedral in June this year, which was

performed by the massed choirs. A huge honour!

The learning curve for all of this new music has been

very steep, but has been worth it. I have found the

learning process has been very enriching, as my

sight-reading ability has increased greatly, and I enjoy the

challenge of performing new or complex Evensong music

settings on one rehearsal.

The Sunshine Coast Choral Society has been a joy to sing

with, and we rehearse in the (very welcome) air

conditioned comfort of Lakeshore Church of Christ at

North Buderim. I have taken on the job of Librarian here

also, and I have enjoyed ‘re-discovering’ the beautiful and

challenging music in our extensive archive. As well as this,

I have taken on the creation of learning CDs for the

singers, maintaining the Sunshine Coast Choral Society’s

Website and this Resonance Newsletter. It is a labour of

love, which I greatly enjoy.

Adrian King is an exceptional music director who has led

us in singing some very great works in our recitals, by

many of the classical composers (Mozart and Haydn are

my favourites) as well as many modern composers that I

have enjoyed just as much as the classics. Recently I have

been able to flex my Tenor voice in Mozart’s Vespers

and Requiem, and will return to singing Soprano in

Handel’s Messiah at the end of the year. I am so looking

forward to it. We will be accompanied by the Sunshine

Coast Orchestra as well as other guest choirs. This will

be huge, and we will have a terrific time!

Editor — Gill Davies

Joubert Singers performing the Ceremony of Carols with Harp

experiences up to then, and certainly in my top 5 now.

I designed the program for this recital, and other

programmes, until house prices in Sydney peaked and

Queensland house prices dropped at the same time,

enabling me to sell up and move from my tiny Sydney unit

into my Beerwah house with good land size for gardens. I

have family at Buderim and Kawana.

Since moving to Queensland, I have been volunteering at

Landsborough Museum and find it most enjoyable, as I am

reading through documents that relate to the first settlers

in the Sunshine Coast region. A lot of these documents

are not on public display and have never been published. I

am part of the team that is digitizing these records and

early photos to make them available on the Museum’s

Website. It is a project that will take many years and will

be worth the time and effort involved.

This is a long way from my Sydney life where I was

employed for 20 years by Chubb Security in various roles

including running Contracts, and finishing up as the

Compliance Officer for 2 states. I also worked as a

successful franchise manager for Royal Doulton, at the

same time as helping to run the Harbour View Hotel at

The Rocks – a varied employment career that can be

summarized in one paragraph, whereas my musical life

takes up pages!

As well as recording many of the recitals that I have been

involved with, I enjoy the process of mixing and burning

the disks and designing the CD cases. Whilst I was in

Sydney, I discovered a program that allowed me to

re-score some of the original manuscripts in the Jacobean

music library archive. Then I discovered Sibelius, and I

have been using that ever since.

I looked around for choirs to join and found the Sunshine

Coast Choral Society which I joined, and then St John’s

Cathedral, where Andrej Kouznetsov is the organist! I had

P A G E 9

V O L U M E 1 0 I S S U E 3

“Christmas in July” at the Montville Café Bar and Grill

Perhaps this little girl is a budding

Conductor? She certainly did a good

job helping Adrian to conduct!

This interesting montage of

photos gives an idea of how

we stand when we sing

Carols at Montville (on Friday

and Saturday nights in July

each year), to the diners on

the ground AND first floors!

Many of the diners dress up

in Christmas themes, and the

restaurant is decked out in

Christmas decorations, and

Santa pays a visit each year.

Adrian conducts from the

top, we stand on the stairs in

a carefully arranged order,

and the diners on both levels

can hear us.

P A G E 1 0

V O L U M E 1 0 I S S U E 3

P A G E 1 1

V O L U M E 1 0 I S S U E 3

Sunshine Coast Choral Society Inc.

P.O. Box 496 Buderim QLD 4556

Website: www.suncoastchoral.org.au

Phone: 07 5456 2667

e-mail: maryannk27@live.com.au

Music Matters

Concerts, 2017

SEASCAPES

2nd September 2017, 2.00pm

Caloundra Uniting Church

Handel’s Messiah

10th December 2017, 2.00pm

Sienna College, Sippy Downs

New members are most welcome.

Come along and sing with us while we are rehearsing. Rehearsals are held

at the Lakeshore Community Church of Christ (which is air conditioned)

on Wednesday evenings between 6.45 and 9.30 pm (with a tea break).

Contact Maryann on phone (07) 5456 2667 if you are interested in

attending.

Our Sponsors: