Christmas with the Con is expecting to draw more than 4000 people to the Riverside Precinct. Photo: Supplied.
The Riverina Conservatorium of Music’s biggest show of the year is set to bring Christmas cheer to the Wagga Riveriside Precinct once again on 13 December.
More than 4500 people are expected to attend the fourth annual Christmas with the Con, with this year’s theme being ‘A White Christmas’.
With more than 200 performers, young and old, ranging from beginners learning the recorder to those with more than 50 years of experience on the violin, the free event will kick off from 7 pm with a preshow of carols by the Combined Churches of Wagga, starting at 6:15 pm.
Conservatorium CEO, Hamish Tait, said the event was a celebration of music making that allowed the community to express their musical talents.
“The Christmas with the Con is about sharing music that is deeply embedded with this time of year,” he said.
“That can be an orchestral piece of music, or it can be a piece of piano music, or it can be a song that’s somewhat connected, but it always has that seasonal draw into it.
“Christmas with the Con is one of those things that has people coming together. It’s a natural progression of all those people making music throughout the year to come together and do something really amazing.”
Mr Tait said that saying the members of the con were excited for this year’s event was an understatement.
“There’s always a level of nervous energy,” he said.
“There’s a huge amount of excitement. And I think you’ve got to put yourself into the eyes of an eight-year-old child who’s playing a musical instrument in their ensemble. For the past three months in particular, every conversation about music has been, ‘Oh, we’re getting ready for Christmas with the Con.’
“You can sense the excitement of these little kids who are really excited to come together and play music.
“In some cases, we’ve got these little kids playing in ensembles with big kids. We’ve got a little six-year-old violinist standing next to, you know, a 13- or 14-year-old violinist who’s twice their height and twice their capability in terms of playing, but these little kids feel like a million dollars because they’re getting to do something really exciting.”
More than 200 performers will take to the stage over the course of the two-hour show. Photo: Supplied.
The event’s artistic director, Tamara Spencer, revealed the amount of time that goes into planning the event to make sure it all runs smoothly.
“We lock in our date almost a year in advance so we can start doing rough, sort of sketches, outlines of what our theme might be.
“This year it’s white Christmas, which is quite funny given that it was snowing on the first day of December this year.
“We’re starting to plan repertoire often as far back as March. We try to have it all locked in by the end of August.
“By term three and term four, we really start to hook into the music and get it in front of the players and start to work on that coming together.”
With fireworks, the sounds of Christmas and carols, Ms Spencer said there would be something for everyone at this year’s show.
“There’ll be a bit of everything,” she said.
“There’s some big band music, there’s some combined strings, like our little, little violin players.
“We’ve got our rock band performing. There’s a special performance by Peter J Casey, who’s well known in the community. And then, of course, there’s the fireworks at the end of the night.
“All the boxes are ticked for what is going to be a fantastic night.”
Christmas with the Con will take place on 13 December at Wagga’s new Riverside Precinct stage from 7 to 9 pm, with the Combined Churches of Wagga performing a pre-show at 6:15 pm.
For more information, head to the Riverina Conservatorium of Music website.
