The concert on Saturday afternoon was great. The massed choir, which included a contingent from Wellington, was conducted by Guy Jansen, also a New Zealander, and one of the accompanists was Bev Glover, originally from New Plymouth and a great friend of Margie and her sister.
Also on the programme was the Band of the Royal Military College, Duntroon, (which is a suburb of Canberra) and an operatic soprano won sang like a lark.
I was most impressed by the precision of the choir's performance, their cohesion and above all their great dynamic range. 400 voices canbe expected to belt out a huge sound on the fortissimos, which they did, but in contrast they were able to produce a very moving pianissimo in some of the passages of, for example "My lord, what a morning" or "the Anvil Chorus" from Il Trovatore.
When they were joined by the full band and the 1300-strong audience, in the Australian National Anthem or the finale, Cwm Rhondda, the rafters shook mightily!
The concert was held in the stadium of the Australian Institute of Sport, the only venue large enough.
Sunday afternoon and again this morning we have been getting to know two people who may be our distant cousins, April Gaze and her brother Ian. They hail originally from Auckland, but have both lived in Canberra for some years. It will be our United project in the next months to try to establish any links. Both families emigrated from London between 1850 and 1900. It was great getting to know them; we have lots in common.
This morning April took us to the National War Memorial, a most impressive memorial and museum.
Here it is in the distance, seen from the Parliament House side of the lake.
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