Origins of The Gisborne Singers
An essay by Barry Firth, on the occasion of the choir’s 35th anniversary, December 2015
In early 1980 the Victorian State Government announced that the following year would be declared “Music 81”, and funding would be available for community music programs. A relative newcomer to the area of less than one year’s standing, I volun-teered to join a committee to implement “Music 81” in Gisborne. An early proposal of the committee was to establish a Madrigal Group, and this was implemented immediately.
There were eight of us at the beginning. Among the original eight are myself, Nola, and Judy Couch, whose record of almost continuous service is truly remarkable. We started meeting at Trish McLay’s place, the noble building called “Ivyleigh” in Station Road, New Gisborne. This was a good thing for many reasons, not the least being that Trish insisted on producing and serving the biggest and most excellent scones every rehearsal night.
The Madrigal Group first appeared in public in September 1980, at the launch of the Gisborne Shire’s “Music 81” program, in the new Shire Offices building in Robertson Street. Our presentation was well received, and a good relationship with the Shire Council was established.
The 1983 Ash Wednesday fires were also an important stimulus to the early choir. The group wanted to address the issue of cheering each other up in the aftermath of the fires, and from there, we really never looked back.
Our little choir was full of people who had a quality of inspiration about what we were doing. We all believed that we were pioneering, and that our accomplishments would be of benefit to the community in which we lived. We kept on meeting and developing, even learning to sing items in Italian and French, and making appear-ances in restaurants, at church functions and weddings, and of course, carols in sea-son. The Anglican Minister, Ken Parker, began referring to us as the “Mad Wriggles”.
Inevitably, the choir members felt the need to become a bigger choir, and the ques-tion was asked, “Why don’t we sing The Messiah?” Thus it was that we ventured into the world of “big choir”, with a mid-year performance of Handel’s great work at Mechanics Hall, Gisborne. In spite of all temptations to be otherwise, we were sen-sational!
Present in the 1985 Messiah choir were Robert Blair, Brian Charter, Judy Couch, Rod-ney Warne, and Nola and me. There is a digital recording of our excellent perform-ance of the chorus, “His Yoke is Easy” (it was originally a cassette tape). I played it at the choir’s 30th anniversary.
Time does not permit me to speak in detail about our subsequent “big concert” per-formances over the next eleven years, of which there were ten – almost one per year. The community supported us by turning up, mainly because we were good, but also because we were the first classical music ensemble in the neighbourhood. Re-viewing the list of our “big concert” performances from 1985 to 1996, I am happy that the program was ambitious, innovative and varied.
Meanwhile, between the “big concerts”, the continuing choir was small, usually no more than 20. We relocated our rehearsals to a room at Gisborne Secondary College in 1988. At about that time, we advertised for a new accompanist, and found John Payne. He stayed with us and contributed substantially, including service on the Committee, until 1995.
The choir gave a series of “Pleasant Sunday Afternoon” performances at the St Paul’s Church hall in association with local musicians. We also gave memorable perform-ances in Sunbury, Kyneton, Woodend and Maldon. We made friends with a choir from Shepparton called The Lincoln Singers, and organised for ourselves a joint day-long workshop in Bendigo. Later, we gave a joint performance in Romsey. On three occasions we took part in “Carols in the Foyer” at the Victorian Arts Centre. A short video clip featuring “us” from one of these occasions was played on ABC TV, after the News.
In 1992 and ‘3 we travelled to Wagga Wagga to take part in the Community Choirs section of the National Choral Championships. We made friends with a choir from Melbourne called The Faversham Singers, an accomplished group full of young women who had graduated from the Australian Girls Choir and their equally gifted male friends. This led eventually to a collaborative production of Carl Orff’s “Car-mina Burana” in 1995, the composer’s centenary year.
I should account for my leaving the choir in 1996. Under my leadership, the choir was becoming organisationally dysfunctional – I was too much of a “one-man band”. Also at that time, I had some personal issues to sort out.
My immediate successor, Eric Willis, achieved at least one important thing; he saved the choir from integrating with the Mount Players Theatre Company.
After Eric, there was Jane McGeorge, a highly trained singer; then Bill Howard, fol-lowed by Stephen Brockman in 2008. We owe a huge debt to all of the above!
When I re-joined the choir in 2006 I found a much more self-sufficient organisation. A transformation had been achieved through the leadership of some key people, in-cluding both Robert Blair and Adrian Simpson.
In 2010 I took part in a small committee to review the choir’s constitution, and was instrumental in having the new document written to have the Musical Director ap-pointed by the Committee. This seems to me to be a much better configuration than anything that we had had before. In the beginning, the Musical Director and the President were the same thing; later, the Musical Director was given an office-bearing role in the Committee. But the new arrangement seems to offer the best model for ensuring that the MD will be able to focus on the music while leaving the administration to others.
Today, the choir is bigger, better organised and more musically competent than ever. It also continues to exist in a constructive relationship with its host community. The “pioneers” would be well pleased.
An essay by Barry Firth, on the occasion of the choir’s 35th anniversary, December 2015
In early 1980 the Victorian State Government announced that the following year would be declared “Music 81”, and funding would be available for community music programs. A relative newcomer to the area of less than one year’s standing, I volun-teered to join a committee to implement “Music 81” in Gisborne. An early proposal of the committee was to establish a Madrigal Group, and this was implemented immediately.
There were eight of us at the beginning. Among the original eight are myself, Nola, and Judy Couch, whose record of almost continuous service is truly remarkable. We started meeting at Trish McLay’s place, the noble building called “Ivyleigh” in Station Road, New Gisborne. This was a good thing for many reasons, not the least being that Trish insisted on producing and serving the biggest and most excellent scones every rehearsal night.
The Madrigal Group first appeared in public in September 1980, at the launch of the Gisborne Shire’s “Music 81” program, in the new Shire Offices building in Robertson Street. Our presentation was well received, and a good relationship with the Shire Council was established.
The 1983 Ash Wednesday fires were also an important stimulus to the early choir. The group wanted to address the issue of cheering each other up in the aftermath of the fires, and from there, we really never looked back.
Our little choir was full of people who had a quality of inspiration about what we were doing. We all believed that we were pioneering, and that our accomplishments would be of benefit to the community in which we lived. We kept on meeting and developing, even learning to sing items in Italian and French, and making appear-ances in restaurants, at church functions and weddings, and of course, carols in sea-son. The Anglican Minister, Ken Parker, began referring to us as the “Mad Wriggles”.
Inevitably, the choir members felt the need to become a bigger choir, and the ques-tion was asked, “Why don’t we sing The Messiah?” Thus it was that we ventured into the world of “big choir”, with a mid-year performance of Handel’s great work at Mechanics Hall, Gisborne. In spite of all temptations to be otherwise, we were sen-sational!
Present in the 1985 Messiah choir were Robert Blair, Brian Charter, Judy Couch, Rod-ney Warne, and Nola and me. There is a digital recording of our excellent perform-ance of the chorus, “His Yoke is Easy” (it was originally a cassette tape). I played it at the choir’s 30th anniversary.
Time does not permit me to speak in detail about our subsequent “big concert” per-formances over the next eleven years, of which there were ten – almost one per year. The community supported us by turning up, mainly because we were good, but also because we were the first classical music ensemble in the neighbourhood. Re-viewing the list of our “big concert” performances from 1985 to 1996, I am happy that the program was ambitious, innovative and varied.
Meanwhile, between the “big concerts”, the continuing choir was small, usually no more than 20. We relocated our rehearsals to a room at Gisborne Secondary College in 1988. At about that time, we advertised for a new accompanist, and found John Payne. He stayed with us and contributed substantially, including service on the Committee, until 1995.
The choir gave a series of “Pleasant Sunday Afternoon” performances at the St Paul’s Church hall in association with local musicians. We also gave memorable perform-ances in Sunbury, Kyneton, Woodend and Maldon. We made friends with a choir from Shepparton called The Lincoln Singers, and organised for ourselves a joint day-long workshop in Bendigo. Later, we gave a joint performance in Romsey. On three occasions we took part in “Carols in the Foyer” at the Victorian Arts Centre. A short video clip featuring “us” from one of these occasions was played on ABC TV, after the News.
In 1992 and ‘3 we travelled to Wagga Wagga to take part in the Community Choirs section of the National Choral Championships. We made friends with a choir from Melbourne called The Faversham Singers, an accomplished group full of young women who had graduated from the Australian Girls Choir and their equally gifted male friends. This led eventually to a collaborative production of Carl Orff’s “Car-mina Burana” in 1995, the composer’s centenary year.
I should account for my leaving the choir in 1996. Under my leadership, the choir was becoming organisationally dysfunctional – I was too much of a “one-man band”. Also at that time, I had some personal issues to sort out.
My immediate successor, Eric Willis, achieved at least one important thing; he saved the choir from integrating with the Mount Players Theatre Company.
After Eric, there was Jane McGeorge, a highly trained singer; then Bill Howard, fol-lowed by Stephen Brockman in 2008. We owe a huge debt to all of the above!
When I re-joined the choir in 2006 I found a much more self-sufficient organisation. A transformation had been achieved through the leadership of some key people, in-cluding both Robert Blair and Adrian Simpson.
In 2010 I took part in a small committee to review the choir’s constitution, and was instrumental in having the new document written to have the Musical Director ap-pointed by the Committee. This seems to me to be a much better configuration than anything that we had had before. In the beginning, the Musical Director and the President were the same thing; later, the Musical Director was given an office-bearing role in the Committee. But the new arrangement seems to offer the best model for ensuring that the MD will be able to focus on the music while leaving the administration to others.
Today, the choir is bigger, better organised and more musically competent than ever. It also continues to exist in a constructive relationship with its host community. The “pioneers” would be well pleased.