Mountains schools are involved in the fundraising concert for the Music Therapy Unit at Westmead Children’s Hospital.
Six hundred singers aged from 7 to over 70 will join forces in Sydney Town Hall at 7pm on Sunday, October 30 to sing great choral music and raise funds for the Music Therapy Unit at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead.
They will be accompanied by an orchestra of 90 and the mighty Town Hall organ, said one of the Blue Mountains organisers, Mal Hewitt.
Today, music therapy is a vital component in the recovery of very sick children, especially those under long-term treatment in oncology wards, but receives no government funding in NSW, he said.
All performers are giving their time and talent as musicians because they recognise the healing power of music.
Primary and secondary students from schools as far afield as Coonabarabran and Armidale will be joined by singers from adult community choirs in music by Haydn (The Heavens are Telling from The Creation), Parry (I Was Glad and Jerusalem), Puccini (Nessun Dorma and the Finale from Turandot, performed on Sydney Harbour in January), Bernstein (favourites from West Side Story including Tonight, Somewhere and America), and O Come All Ye Faithful, in which the audience will be invited to join with the choir.
“Students from Wentworth Falls, Faulconbridge and Penrith Public Schools will be part of the combined choir, and have been learning and rehearsing for many months,” Mr Hewitt, said.
The orchestra will include around 15 musicians from the Mountains, all of whom give their services for this concert. Gwen Blackwell from Wentworth Falls Public conducts the primary choir, and Mal Hewitt from Faulconbridge directs the concert.
“We have in the concert messages from children and parents benefiting from music therapy, and I always involve children in the presentation of a cheque at the hospital.”
The orchestra comprises professional players as well as teachers and students, and the organ will be played by Peter Kneeshaw AM, one of Australia’s finest organists.
Celebration Sing Out has been an annual event since 1993, and in 23 concerts has raised more than $400,000 for various children’s medical programs across NSW.
For the past five years the focus has been on music therapy at Westmead in recognition of the enormous value of therapy in recovery and rehabilitation.
To book tickets, go to tickets4me.com.au or phone 02 4730 6932
