The Parkes Public School Choir at the Sydney Opera House for their performance in the Festival of Choral Music last Tuesday.
Hundreds of children’s voices filled the concert hall at the Sydney Opera House last week and 19 Parkes students were part of it.
The Parkes Public School Choir joined more than 700 students from public schools across NSW for the return of the Festival of Choral Music after the annual event went silent for two years during COVID.
It has been a long build-up making the occasion very exciting and special for the Year 3 to 6 students. The Parkes Public choir has successfully auditioned for the festival since 2015.
“The last time we auditioned was in 2019 for the 2020 event,” said choir leader Colleen Leonard. “Some of the choir members were in Year 3 at the time and are now in Year 6.”
The Australis concert last Tuesday required a lot of hard work from the choir members having to learn a repertoire of 11 songs. “We had two training sessions per week from term one this year – one early morning and one over lunchtime,” said Colleen.
She said it was hard to really prepare the students for the occasion, but they were enchanted and so excited to be part of the great atmosphere. “It is quite awe-inspiring for them to be there with hundreds of other students and such a large audience.” She said every participating school’s name was called out and the audience stood up at the end calling for an encore.
For Colleen the experience is also very rewarding. “It is such an enjoyable thing to do and a real privilege to access the excellent professional training that is part of the program.” She said every time had been special and exciting. “To be there singing with the students is just a great thing to do.”
She thanked her fellow teacher Allison Wallace and the six parents who accompanied the group to Sydney.
By Maggi Barnard