Night of note in store for music lovers as classical collaboration pools talents

UPDATE: The Classical Concert has been postponed until Saturday 15 October at St John’s Anglican Church.

Riverina Conservatorium of Music (RCM) will this week present a Classical Collaboration Concert featuring soaring strings and magnificent brass with a bit of percussion on the side.

The concert will feature the RCM’s Riverina Youth Orchestra and the visiting ACT Youth Orchestra at St John’s Anglican Church on Saturday, 17 September, from 5.30 pm to 7 pm.

RCM head of woodwind and brass Tamara Spencer said the Canberra Girls Grammar School’s Adelaide Avenue Jazz Band would also feature on the night, performing pieces such as Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy, Bridge Over Troubled Water, Footloose and Bare Necessities.

“The Adelaide Avenue Jazz Band are coming across from the ACT to work with Australian Army Band Kapooka for the day, and they will join us for the concert in the evening,” Ms Spencer said.

“Altogether, there will be 65 musicians collaborating for the classical concert.”

Ms Spencer said it was an exciting experience for the RCM to work with ensembles from the larger centre.

“It exciting to see how our kids kind of feel playing alongside the students from Canberra.”

The concert program also includes works and great names, including Lieutenant Kije by Prokofiev and Adagio from Spartacus by Khachaturian.

RCM said these works promised to be filled with powerful emotions, scenery and wonderful imagery.

Ms Spencer said the idea for the collaborative concert had come to fruition through RCM’s head of the strings department, Jacqui Smith.

“Jacqui’s connections in Canberra reached out to us and said, ‘How about we bring our ensembles for a day?’ and we went, ‘Sure, let’s do it!’,” she said.

“We’ve been enjoying doing some concerts again this year along with collaborations with different ensembles from around the area.”

Ms Spencer said the students from the Riverina Youth Orchestra had been set a challenging task as the repertoires were reasonably demanding works.

She said the concert rehearsals were going well and the ensembles were enjoying sinking their teeth into the repertoires.

Ms Spencer said the ACT Youth Orchestra would come to Wagga for a day and work with the Riverina Youth Orchestra.

“We’ll be having a day of rehearsals, sectionals and general mingling, which will conclude with the concert in the evening,” Ms Spencer said.

She said the RCM had been lucky to undertake numerous collaborations this year, including the Junee June Jam (with Junee Town Band and Junee Community Choir) and Band Fusion (with Australian Army Band Kapooka, Wagga Wagga Community Band and Riverina Concert Band).

The Classical Collaboration Concert will be held at St John’s Anglican Church on Saturday, 17 September, from 5:30 pm to 7 pm.

Bookings are essential; click here to secure a seat.

Tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for concessions and children, and $40 for a family (two adults and two children).

Entry is free for children aged five and under.

Limited tickets are also available at the door.