It is coming up to two year’s since I joined Bel Canto Singers and a year as the President. I took on this role because in my first year I felt the fellowship and community spirit within the group was something that should not be lost by the choir folding.
It has been a very steep learning curve and there is still so much to learn, especially still being relatively new to the choir and not knowing a lot of the history behind it. This is something that we are working on and a documented history should be on our website in the near future.
Our Musical Director Suzanne tripped off to Melbourne in January to attend some “Conductor’s Workshops” and she came back filled with some new fun ideas. We are all the beneficiaries of this learning each week with her quirky moves and vocal gymnastics, I personally don’t know where she gets the energy.
2019 has been a very busy year so far commencing with the Bunnings Sausage Sizzle on the 2nd of March which was a long weekend and the weather was just beautiful so our team of volunteers were kept very busy all day long. The end result was we had lots of laughs with a lot of work and raised a considerable amount for the choir. Thank you to all those volunteers for such a successful day. I think we will need to learn some BBQ songs because we got asked to sing a lot.
How proud are we all of the Knitting and Craft Group who travelled to Perth in April to donate Easter beanies to King Edward Memorial Hospital premmie baby unit. They meet on Tuesday’s at the Koombana Bay Caravan Park making wonderful teddy bears and clothing items supporting the NF (Neurofibromatosis) Group, Women’s Refuge, Grand Families Day and of course King Edward. Please keep up your great work.
Also in April, Suzanne and Louise led some of the choir members in singing for the City of Bunbury’s Grand Families Day at Big Swamp Wildlife Park. Through people’s generosity and hard work, and a few additional voices the feedback I received was that a great time was had by all and the knitted teddies were greatly appreciated by the children in attendance. It was relatively short notice and I applaud the members for doing such a great job.
In May we had the Rottnest Holiday for some of the choir members and friends. I understand “what happens on Rottnest – stays on Rottnest” so, as I could not attend I cannot tell you much about that, but if we go by the photos it looks like everyone had a fantastic time. Huge thanks to Barry and Joy for organising it and I hope it is something that continues in the future.
In 2018 we entered the Bunbury Eisteddfod and to our surprise we won. It may have had something to do with us being the only entry but I am told that the adjudicator at the time would not have awarded a place if we did not deserve it. This year on 21 June 2019 we had competition at the Eisteddfod and we won again with a wonderful score of 90/100. It was wonderful to see long time members and new members on stage together accepting the award – a very proud moment.
2019 is not over yet and we have some big things happening. Our annual concert "Beatles to Broadway" is being held on 22 September 2019 at St Augustine’s. Suzanne has our music sorted and will be working us hard between now and then and the Committee will be looking for lots of helping hands to make light work of the preparations. So please let your friends and family know that it is on and tickets will be for sale at the door.
Finally I wish to thank Suzanne and Louise for all their hard work and support, all the current Committee members for stepping up when needed and always being there when things got tough and the choir members for your assistance each week, your fellowship, your fun personalities and wonderful voices.
The AGM is over and we have a new Committee for the coming year. I am proud to be re-elected as President and look forward to working with our Committee to make the year a wonderful one.
Lorraine English
President
Bel Canto Singers Inc.
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