Sophie Conlon
AS MOUNT Gambier / Berrin came alive for Generations in Jazz, so too did Kalangadoo, with Concordia College making a pit stop in the town on the way to the festival.
Kalangadoo Primary School hosted the community concert and Governing Council chair Naomi Denniss-Holmes said it was a great opportunity for students to hear a genre of music that was not so common.
“It’s quite interesting for the students as we don’t tend to have a dedicated music program,” she said.
“It’s not a style that a lot of young kids are exposed to either, so we field a lot of questions about the different instruments afterwards and they are generally quite fascinated with it all.”
Anyone in Kalangadoo was able to attend the concert and Ms Denniss-Holmes said it was a great to have the community come together.
“It’s nice to have an event like this, it is not something that happens around here very often,” she said.
Concordia College head of music performance (ELC – 12) Mat Noble said the school had been visiting Kalangadoo on their way to the jazz festival since 2014.
“It’s an opportunity for us to play, but also to share some music with the community that may not have an opportunity to see too much music,” he said.
With two bands and three choirs visiting, the 67 Concordia students more than tripled the number of Kalangadoo students on the campus during their performance.
Students from Nangwarry Primary School were also in attendance and Ms Denniss-Holmes estimated about 50 local students and community members were there.
Used to large audiences, Mr Noble said it did not matter how many people were in the crowd when they performed.
“I’ve been a musician for 35 years and the one thing I know is it doesn’t matter how big or small the audience is – the reason we do this, the reason we play music and the reason we work hard to get to a point where we can play to audiences is just to bring joy,” he said.
“Music is fun to do, so the size of the audience actually doesn’t matter, every time you play is a privilege and the opportunity to play in front of an audience, particularly given the last three years we haven’t been able to, is just absolutely special.”