Today is 6th February 2023, forty-five years to the day when the foundation was laid for what was to become the Esk Community Choir. Few would have imagined that when Alexis, and six ladies who gathered around a piano in Alexis’s lounge room to sing, they would be the spark to ignite the SATB choir now numbering well over forty: over the years, a passing parade of a multitude. These are people who have come with diverse backgrounds, myriad motives and interesting stories. It is a choir which has ridden the tides of time, floods, and fires to become a team…each member, a small part of a large and wonderous symphony of voices with a reputation that has seen them much in demand both locally and internationally. For its members, singing together has the power to evoke joy and sadness. It is the pure expression of emotion and for many, the two hours a week at choir practice tumbles past agonizingly quickly, each longing to be back for the next. Until one has been in a choir, its heart-warming hug is difficult to explain.
Which is why, 45 years on, this
time on Alexis’s veranda, it was a gaggle of 40 or more chattering, laughing, reminiscing,
members of the Esk Community Choir just shooting the breeze or taking their
trips down memory lane, supping on scones and sandwiches, sipping on tea and
coffee served from beautiful cups and saucers, all gathered to celebrate this amazing
milestone…not only for this anniversary, but also to celebrate the achievements
of Alexis, a shining soul, ridiculously
talented with a perpetual smile and monumental energy who had a dream and for all
of those 45 years has kept this choir together.
In a world of Facebook, Instagram,
and all those other social media sources, being in this choir is an opportunity
for real connection, for testing one’s limits, all else erased with a couple of
hours of singing. And when we get it
right, there is a happiness that makes us want to stay there for as long as we
can. And we will.
By: Sue Walker
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| Enjoying the party |
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| Alexis telling stories of days gone by |
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| Russell and Judith Zammit |
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