News

Lyndelle Lawrence
Public relations editorial intern

An Avondale College vocal ensemble will feature in a free concert at Sydney Opera House on June 15 and earn $2 for every ticket booked.

Avondale Singers joins the Albuquerque Youth Symphony from New Mexico, USA, the Mount Albert Grammar Orchestra from Auckland, New Zealand, and a combined choir from Fort Street School and Broughton Anglican College in Sydney and Summit High School in Frisco, Colorado, USA, in the Concert Hall performance.

"It's been 30 years since Avondale Singers has featured in a performance of this significance," says director Dr Robb Dennis, a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Arts. "God's inspiration and our preparation have led us to this opportunity." The concert is, according to Robb, the first time Avondale Singers has collaborated with non-Seventh-day Adventist musicians in a performance setting. So, the concert is also an "outreach of faith and love," as well as a "test in terms of voice production, blending and matching."

Avondale is presenting the concert with United World Concert Tours (UWCT), a Pasadena, USA-based company that organises performance tours for student musicians. The two support each other to promote fine music-one of the performance venues for UWCT has been Avondale College Seventh-day Adventist Church. Head John Schulthess invited Avondale Singers to join the Sydney Opera House bill as a replacement for another Australian-based vocal ensemble. As an incentive to accept the invitation and promote the concert, UWCT is giving $2 to the singers for every ticket booked.

Filling the 2500-seat Concert Hall on a Monday evening in June will be challenging. "[We're doing] the impossible with the unlikely at a difficult time," writes president Dr Ray Roennfeldt in a letter that appears in a promotional brochure. Examinations on the Lake Macquarie campus also begin on the day of the concert. "We think we can [fill the Concert Hall], but we'll need your help," writes Ray.

In addition to staff members and students, Avondale is promoting the concert to Seventh-day Adventist Church members in Sydney and northern New South Wales and to members of the local community in Cooranbong. Fort Street School and Broughton Anglican College are also promoting the concert through their networks.

Avondale Singers began in 1947 and, with extensive touring and release of records played on radio, soon gained national recognition for excellence: performing for the first television broadcast of a choral group in Sydney. It is the largest vocal ensemble at Avondale College. Students form the core of the ensemble, but staff and community members and some local high school students are also members. The singers have many recordings to their credit, the most recent being a DVD of a performance of Handel's Messiah in 2007.

Albuquerque Youth Symphony also appears in a free Master Works concert at Avondale College Seventh-day Adventist Church on June 13 as part of Avondale's Fine Arts Series. The symphony began in 1955-56 as a collaborative project between schools and the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. About 500 students audition each May to become members of the program.

Visit www.avondale.edu.au/events for more information about ticketing.

Credit: Ann Stafford