Composition Competition 2010 Finale in Wagga Wagga

[Nigel Poole]

Wonderful Weekend in Wagga

A full weekend of music-making was enjoyed by a contingent of ACT RSCM members who attended the finalists' concert for the 2010 Composition Competition, held this year at St John's Church, Wagga Wagga, on July 17.

There were six compositions to be presented, performed by those of us who had driven down from Canberra, along with members of St John's choir.

We rehearsed the pieces from 11.00 am to 1.00pm, and the concert took place at 2.00pm to a full church, thanks to the publicising efforts of St John's choirmaster, Adrian Wintle, also a finalist in the event.

It was fascinating to experience six very different treatments of the same text ("Hymn To The Virgin"). It must have been tough for the adjudicator, Kay McLennan, former presenter of ABC's For The God Who Sings, to pick a winner from the diverse selection, each setting having its own merits.

We were also honoured by the presence of renowned composer Ann Carr-Boyd, who had been the judge for the previous two compositions. Ann attended on this occasion out of personal interest, and commended the standard of all the entries.

Finally, after all pieces had been performed, the winners were selected.

Runner-up was Ian Carrig from South Australia, whose entry Kay McLennan commended for effective use of the available forces, including the feature of a solo soprano part, beautifully sung on the day by Julia Golding.

First place went to Merideth Norman of the ACT, whose whose well-structured composition, with engaging melodic lines flowing through subtly changing tonalities, was the piece that Kay MacLennan selected as "the one you would want to sing again". And so we did! Congratulations, Merideth!

Main event over, but there was more to come...

The next morning, we joined the choir of St John's Wagga, to sing at their 8.30 am Choral Eucharist (dragging ourselves back into the church at the unholy hour of 7.45 am for a pre-service run-through!).

The music featured the Wesley anthem "Blessed Be the God and Father", featuring another beautiful soprano solo from Gemma Dashwood. Comments afterwards suggested that both we from the ACT and the local attendees from Wagga had enjoyed a wonderful weekend. St John's gifted young organist, Coby Mellor summed it up in a message he sent afterwards to the ACT contingent. He wrote:

"Just thought I’d send a brief email to say thank you again for coming to Wagga for the weekend. I certainly had a great time yesterday, and the service this morning was absolutely fabulous – the husband of a choir member said there were people in the back row with tears running down their cheeks during Gemma’s solo in Blessed be the God (tears of joy, of course). So many people, including myself, are looking forward to the next joint venture..."

Hear, hear!