THE ESK COMMUNITY CHOIR…SPREADING THE JOY OF SINGING

Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the Choir 1978-2018

In the April of 2018, this Choir’s 40^th anniversary year, the Esk Community Choir took an audience and many past and present Choir members on an unforgettable musical journey through the years.  They spread the joy of individual and small group singing with Love is In the Air in May; enthralled an appreciative group of gracious folk at the Glebe Road Uniting Church in June and later that month warmed up the wanderers with singing at the Esk Garden Club’s Market Day.

Love Pixie, Margaret, in A Knight to Remember

By August, a cast of Choir characters had audiences in Esk and Gatton ‘rolling in the aisles’ with some ad-hoc hilarity with their Theatre Restaurant performance of A Knight to Remember. Turn the page and it was a showcase of local talent who reached inside themselves to give performances beyond expectations at the Choir’s biennial event, the Somerset Music Awards.   

Though this choir may have turned 40 continuously under the direction of its founder, (long- in-the- tooth by choir standards), it is clearly not suffering from activity deficit disorder. Rather it is a fact that its values and mantra Service in Song have never changed, evidenced by the recent serendipitous events which became dates on the Choir’s busy calendar.

At a time when many rural communities have been affected by drought, it was an offering of support through prayer and thanksgiving by a large gathering of people including Mayor Lehmann and other Somerset Council representatives together with Clergy and Congregation from local Churches of every denomination who came together on Sunday, August 26^th at the Mears Pavilion, Toogoolawah Showgrounds.  It was the Esk Community Choir who were called upon to lead in song.

Ministers and Special guests at the Prayer and Thanksgiving for Drought Relief.

September 1^st and trailers laden with stage sets and sound equipment and a busload of Choristers could be seen heading down the highway - destination, The Village Redcliffe, to entertain residents and friends with the Choir’s fully costumed performances of some Gilbert and Sullivan showstoppers including the wit and whimsy of Trial by Jury.   Since the outstanding success of past G and S performances, this invitation for a rerun in Redcliffe was graciously accepted by the Choir and, by the enthusiastic audience in Redcliffe, received with equal elation. 

 

Trial by Jury at Rothwell Village, Redcliffe.

Dainty Little Fairies  (?) at Rothwell  Village, Redcliffe.

Mr Jim Hughes

Though it is not unusual for our Choir to perform for smaller audiences, numbers must have been a  little disappointing for the Brisbane Valley Apex Club who had pinned their hopes on raising much needed funds for Prostate Cancer Research through their Biggest Ever Blokes’ Lunch.  Held at the Somerset Civic Centre’s Joan Burke Room on September 8^th, it may not have been the biggest ever blokes’ lunch but what the event lacked in attendance was clearly compensated for with a sparkling performance of Australian songs by the Choir creating an atmosphere for the entertaining hours to follow.  A delicious lunch preceded an afternoon of informative and engaging discourse by guest speakers, Mr Jim Hughes from the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia and Mr ‘Bob’ Atkinson, former Police Commissioner. The Esk Community Choir was honoured to partake of this beneficial cause.

The gifts of our time and our singing are the most treasured gifts we give.

By: Sue Walker