Category Archives: Updates

Chets group arrive in Melbourne!

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We made the most of our 48 hours in Sydney, finishing our time there with a ride around the city on the monorail stopping off at Darling Harbour to look around, and then we walked all the way across the famous harbour bridge and back. Stunning city – we all felt very lucky to have had the chance to visit.

Then we flew the short hop to Melbourne and met up with Geoff Hayhow at the airport. Drove out to their place and all the students were collected by their host families. Felt very strange with everyone heading off in different directions after over a fortnight together but all new and good experiences.

Brilliant to see Geoff and Rhonda again and looking forward to spending our final few days in Australia with them. More tomorrow.

Chets in Sydney Day 2

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Chets in Sydney!!:))

Great day seeing the city and the famous landmarks. Took the ferry to Manly beach and spent a couple of hours on the ocean front there, then back to the city and a bit of time at Circular Quay and the Rocks. Then back to our apartments to change before visiting the Sydney Conservatoire. Had a tour round and listened to the rehearsal for a world premier of a piece for violin and small ensemble. Then to the Opera House for a fantastic performance of Don Giovanni. A pinch yourself to believe you were there evening!

Tomorrow a few more hours sightseeing before flying on to Melbourne. More from there!!

Farewell Australia

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So the Purcell group is just at the gate in Perth airport enjoying their final meal, it’s a lovely civilised lounge but we did come up against our first instrument flight issue and one guitar has had to go in the hold as it might be a security risk! All other instruments are going in the cabin with us!

We are very sad to be leaving not least because we are all currently enjoying the clear blue sky and high 20’s temperature!

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Day 13

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It’s hard to believe that today is our last day here, we’ve had so much fun, met so many people, taken part in far to many events to recal all of them and learnt so much from everyone.

Today has been fairly relaxed but still filled with fun and excitement.

This morning the young musicians headed off to Fremantle for didgeridoo lessons! They were all given the chance to try out this amazing instrument, whilst it’s not native to the west coast of Australia, it was still great fun!

Sharda Pattasar and friends performed on the Community Stage in the Commonwealth people’s space a real honour for them and they lived up to it spectacularly! They have been great fun to meet and we really hope to meet up with them all again soon!

Pete Banks had to take the PA back to Ashton Admor who had kindly hired it to us over the last week. Before running around the town looking after various groups of our ROSL soloists who were practising for the CHoGM Church service on Sunday morning which all the dignitaries will be attending.

In the evening, Peter Banks and Yelian He had arranged for the whole group to head down to the next door hotel to perform for their guests (in exchange for a good evening and some food!) However, as you may be seeing on the news, Qantas airlines have completely grounded every flight available and so the hotel was packed with camera crews (looking for tearful, sorrowful passengers no doubt!) and other stranded members of the public who had the chance to hear some fantastic impromptu performances from our young musicians, potentially performing together for the last time!

Our young musicians are now packing ready for their onward journey and watching a film all together! We’ve had a really fantastic week and there are so many different events that we’ve enjoyed! Some of our many highlights have included…

  • Trinity College
    • Meeting their young musicians at their BBQ on the first night
    • Performing to their juniors and year 8’s
    • Bringing together a string ensemble
    • Playing with their Jazz band!
    • Yelian He learning to play the drums!
  • Performing at Willerton Senior High
  • Visiting Fremantle
  • Performing all together at the Youth Forum Closing Ceremony
  • Learning from all the international musicians present!
    • Joseph Aquilina (Malta)
    • Cecilia De Maria (Malta)
    • Les Neish (UK)
    • Yelian He (Australia)
    • Sri Mahligai (Singapore)
    • Sharda Patasar and Friends (Trinidad and Tobago)
  • Les Neish’s Carnival of Venice
  • Visiting wildlife parks
  • Getting to know new friends
  • Learning about aboriginal culture
  • Performing as part of the Song for Perth services
  • Unveiling the tree of life sculpture
  • The Royal Over-Seas League dinner
  • Meeting the Prime Minister of Trinidad & Tobago
  • Being a part of the Carers day at the Princess Margaret children’s Hospital
  • Yelian He’s Julie – o
  • The Concerto from Yelian He with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra
  • Card Games into the night!!!
  • Mr Banks’ brilliant driving skills
  • The trip to Kalamunda
    • Meeting Tony and Faith
    • Being introduced to the Australian outback by Tony
    • Visiting the Kalamunda History Centre
    • Performing at the Kalamunda Performing Arts Centre to a full house
  • Performing at City Gate Hotel for stranded passengers!
This list is by certainly not exhaustive and there are so many more things that individuals have done, and small groups have taken part in!!

Tomorrow the onward journey commences for the group, Chethams are off to Sydney and Melbourne, Purcell are heading back to London and on Sunday Cecilia De Maria and Joseph Aquilina are both heading home with Sharda Patasar and our ROSL soloists are continuing their tours of Australia on Sunday.

Whilst I have a chance…

This will most likely be my final major diary post, I hope you’ve enjoyed my ramblings or found them in some way useful!! Thankyou for reading and do check back for the final pictures and fundraising events when we return to the UK!

Many thanks & Goodnight

Peter

Day 11 from the other side…

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The group not involved in the CHOGM Youth Forum closing ceremony went on a fabulous day trip to Yanchep National Park, about an hour’s drive north of Perth city. This was a great opportunity for all involved to see something of the bushland and indigenous wildlife. The Chets staff hired a minibus for the day and we all set off up Waneroo Road in search of koalas and kangaroos! We were all delighted to see a beautiful day begin to emerge out of a fairly grey start as we ventured northwards and by the time we arrived at Yanchep, the weather was warm and sunny.

We headed straight for koala boardwalk, where 11 koalas are to be found – usually asleep up trees (a diet of purely eucalyptus leaves contains no carbohydrate so they have zero energy and sleep for 20-21 hours a day!), although Mr Oliver managed to film an unusually active little chap darting up a tree!

After a leisurely picnic by the lake taking in the wonderful array of colourful birds all around, we headed over to the crystal caves and had a great guided tour through the glistening caverns only discovered relatively recently as the native aboriginal Nyoongar people believed that evil spirits dwelt in caves and therefore left them well alone.

The 3pm koala talk drew us back over to the boardwalk and Bruce (!) our ranger was informative and entertaining – a few gross koala facts thrown in! We then walked around the wetlands trail, a bush walk which took us through some extraordinary native landscapes, in which we saw snakes and spiders and a very friendly grey kangaroo!

At the end of the trail we found the green area by the lake where we had earlier had our picnic overtaken with families of kangaroos, including several who had joeys in their pouches and a very little fellow clearly only just up to hopping!

On our way home we took a detour over to the ocean at Burns beach and spent half an hour or so until sunset enjoying the white beach and coast path alongside the shore.

We got back just in time for takeaway pizza and Singaporean entertainment – all much-needed after a brilliant long day out!

Pictures on the way…

Day 11

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One of the highlights of the Perth trip was today’s Commonwealth Youth Forum in Fremantle. This morning, a small contingent of our young musicians along with all of our groups, Maltese Harpist Cecilia De Maria and ROSL cello soloist Yelian He went across to Fremantle a really delightful seaside town at the mouth of the Swan River which we visited on Day 3

Sri Mahgli, our Singaporean group had taught the group a folk song which the rest of the musicians arranged to fit the instrumentation of Harp, Violin, Cello, Flute, Guitar, Sri Mahgli and Sharda Pattasar & Band. The piece was arranged specially for the closing ceremony of the Commonwealth Youth Forum 2011. The closing ceremony was attended by the Commonwealth deputy secretary, MP for western Australia, many delegates and nearly 100 delegates.

It was a very exciting and colourful event and was fun to perform at.

The members of the The Commonwealth Resounds! who weren’t involved with the Youth Forum went on a bit of a road trip! More details to be announced by Sarah Noon soon…

This evening saw our Singaporean group, Sri Mahligai give a farewell performance at our City Stay apartments to the Singaporeans of Perth. They gave us the opportunity to sample Singaporean food and enjoy their company before they fly back home tomorrow.

Its been lovely to get to work with Sri Mahligai over the last week and hear their music.