A GREAT NIGHT WAS HAD AT GATTON’S COLONIAL CAFÉ IN CELEBRATION OF 2024

 

There is something wonderful about becoming a member of the Esk Community Choir.  You come along to your first rehearsal a relative stranger and leave it as part of a Choir family.   And so it was on Tuesday 10^th of December that this amazing Choir family gathered at Gatton’s Colonial Café to kick back and celebrate having made it to the end of another wonderful year of making music together. 

Should one do a quick rehash over the many events during 2024 one would be forgiven for feeling the saturation effects of a very busy year.  However, this evening was not a time to be clocking out and with everyone seated around the tables decorated as tastefully as the Christmas fare served, the high spirits soon surfaced.  With Grace steering the entertainment with her innate flare and joie de vivre, so many took to the microphone with all the confidence of a pro, inhibitions out the window, all a nod to the versatility and talents apparent in this choir.

To Ruth Sk. whose contributions to choir are far too extensive to fit on this page …but we all know…and to Alexis, the beating heart of our choir who has brought us all along for the ride for the past 46 years;  for her love and belief in her choir; her kindly spirit which shines through at rehearsals making us all feel that this choir business is a whole lot of fun and not hard work,  we give our utmost thanks.  

Another year gone…a new year approaching with already a showcase of wonderful events to enjoy.  Bring it on I say!!!!  

By: Sue Walker   

Stay in touch with what's coming up next on our Website   https://www.eskcommunitychoir.com.au/performances

A HARMONY OF HUMAN CREATIVITY IN GATTON

A wise person once said ‘creativity is intelligence having fun’ and so it was when a group of Esk Community Choir members came together at the home of renowned Gatton artist, Elizabeth Browne, for a tutorial workshop on the pleasures of creating the visual arts, followed later by their own contribution to the performing arts; songs sung by the handful of choir members in the surrounds of the beautiful paintings on display at the Gatton Cultural Centre  on Saturday 14^th January …a harmony of cultural expressions reflecting human creativity. 

It was earlier that day, seated around tables set up with painters’ easels, brushes, parchment and a plethora of watercolour paints, under the guidance of Elizabeth, Alexis’s analytical gaze, and fortified by lashing of tea, coffee and cakes, when the ladies and Eric squirted, squished, soaked, swirled, swished and finally set out to dry some beautiful lakescape and falling leaf watercolour paintings, each one surprising its creator, each one unique to the other.

A quick trip down Lake Apex Drive to the Gatton Cultural Centre where Elizabeth's framed and unframed paintings of Australiana botanical, abstract, floral and landscapes in colours both bright and muted enhanced the gallery walls, and where the choir members gathered to perform a trio of songs to anyone who cared to listen, just for the joys of singing. 

Sated by a scrumptious lunch at the Centre's Colonial Restaurant, all later made their way home, grateful for a fulfilling day of connection and creation. 

By: Sue Walker

Listen to the choir - click here

TUNES ON A TUESDAY FOR TWO:

Esk Community Choir at Regis Valley Views Gatton

There were some songs old, some new, some kind of borrowed but there was nothing blue about the atmosphere at Gatton's Regis Valley View and Laidley's Tabeel, two homes for the Aged, when the ESK COMMUNITY CHOIR brought their legendary brand of "Service in Song" and smiles to the faces of the delightful groups of predominantly elderly people on Tuesday 18th June.

Not even the declaration of a misplaced hearing device, in the case of one kindly old cove, could deter the enthusiasm of both these wonderfully appreciative audiences for the music of the Choir as Alexis FitzGerald and her Choristers served up a taste of nostalgia with some of the old celebrated tunes many of the residents were sure to have sung around someone else's piano more than half a century ago. 

There was music from the Musicals, songs to stir the heart strings and Nursery Rhymes unlike any most would have heard before with,  amongst others, "Tommy Stout" coming to the rescue of a well-bedraggled moggy and any pacemakers present were surely superfluous when Miss Muffet's nemesis, the spider,  managed to scare the living daylights out of everyone, including the Choir!!!  With apologies to Bach, the finalé had feet a'tapping to the beat of "Bach-a-Rock" and then it was time to go.

There is power in an appreciative audience.  It's enough to make a Choir want to come back!!

by: Sue Walker

Regis Views  GattonAudience

Tabeel Laidley Audience

John Caffin solo 'Perhaps Love'

Hamming it up with 'Pussy from the Well'