Earle Page College Choir hits top note

June 13, 2007

The University of New England is celebrating the success of singers from one of its residential colleges in the recent Armidale Eisteddfod. Earle Page College Choir won first place in the Open Vocal Ensemble section (for groups of 10-20 singers), and third place in the Open Choral Championship.

The College attributes this unprecedented success to its acquisition, this year, of an expert conductor – the well-known Armidale music educator and conductor Deidre Rickards.

Mrs Rickards (pictured here) has been working with the choir since March this year. She said she had chosen the choir's eisteddfod repertoire of four songs – "Unter den Liebenden" (Mozart), "The Lord Bless You and Keep You" (Rutter), "For Once in My Life" and "Fly Me to the Moon" – to allow the students to work in four different styles. "Their performance was sensational," she said. "I felt very proud to be conducting a university choir wearing academic gowns in front of a packed audience in Lazenby Hall."

The adjudicator – Owen Nelson, President of the Australian National Choral Association – confirmed that the choir had demonstrated its "ability to successfully change style", and said that it had sung with "good attention to balance and choral blend". He concluded his comments by saying that the choir's performance had been "a convincing musical statement".

One of the Earle Page College singers, Gabriella Couto, said: "The whole choir would like to thank Deidre Rickards; we are so proud of our achievement, and we couldn't have done it without her." The choir won prize money of $100, and a trophy for the College.

The Master of Earle Page College, David Ward, said that Earle Page was "the only UNE college to have a proud choral tradition", and that the choir had participated in the eisteddfod – with student directors – for many years. "This year," he said, "under the direction of Deidre Rickards, the singers have been very excited to take the choir to a new level. I was delighted when Deidre approached me with the desire to take on this role in the life of the College and the University, and accepted her offer immediately."

He said the choir performed not only at all the College's formal dinners, but at civic events such as Senior Citizens' Week. "As UNE's only choir," he continued, "we would like it to participate further in the life of the University – at events such as Graduation. (The choir already performs for graduands and their families at our annual College Graduation cocktail parties.)"

The members of Earle Page College Choir will join about 500 other singers for a concert – with orchestra – in Sydney Town Hall in October.

Posted by Jim Scanlan at June 13, 2007 03:18 PM