Andrew Piper (bass), Sally Cameron (soprano), Naomi Crellin (soprano) & Nick Begbie (tenor)


The Idea of North
www.idea.com.au

Kangaroo Valley Hall, 7.30pm Saturday July 4 2009
tickets - $30, $20 (concession) - from Kangaroo Valley Supermarket
or by mail order: download
this form and post it, with a cheque, to KVRP, PO Box 6159 Kangaroo Valley NSW 2577
enquiries: call [02] 4465 1299 or email concert organiser Martin Wesley-Smith


CHOIR PAGE
menu: choir notes | rehearsal dates | downloads | KVRP | KVRP projects | main concert website


The song we're going to sing with TION is When You Went Away (words by black American writer James Weldon Johnson, music by Danish composer Otto Mortensen). Great song! Soft, dark, gentle ... beautiful ...

I'm proposing an initial get-together from 8pm (not 7.30pm as previously advertised) to 9pm on Thursday May 28 in Kangaroo Valley Hall. On this occasion we'll sort out who sings what and learn the song. Our next get-together will be, if this suits everyone, from 8pm to 9pm on Thursday July 2 - two days before the concert - also in Kangaroo Valley Hall. This rehearsal will concentrate on interpretation (phrasing, tempo etc). Both rehearsals will follow Rose Andrews' yoga class. At 5pm on the day of the concert we'll have a half-hour rehearsal with The Idea of North to put it all together.

Everyone should learn their part off by heart! It's not a difficult song, so this will not be an onerous task.

The sheet music can be downloaded and printed here. To help you learn your part, try listening to and, when you're ready, singing along with the following MIDI files:

Since You Went Away: SATB, S, A, T, B

There will be differences between these files and the live performance in terms of tempo, dynamics etc, but these files should help you learn the notes.

If for some reason your computer doesn't play these files, let me know and I'll give you an audio CD of them. Or I can email you QuickTime versions.

I regret that we are not able to offer choir-members free entry to, or even a reduction in the ticket price for, this concert. It's a fund-raiser for projects in East Timor, but TION has to be paid as well (they are a professional group, with gigs like this their only real source of funds), so we have to maximise our income. I hope that singing with the group - and with each other - will be reward enough.

Our members so far are:

sopranos:
altos:
tenors:
basses:
Joy Batty, Nell Britton, (Sally Cameron,) Karen Cruikshank, Karen Harrison, Alex Holliday, Jennifer Williams
Janette Carter, (Naomi Crellin,) Teresa Keyser, Christine Knowles, Chris Nobel, Patsy Radic, Katrina Thomas
(Nick Begbie,) Ron Burcher, Robert Farnham, Martin Wesley-Smith, Peter Wesley-Smith, Rob Wesley-Smith
Peter Morgan, (Andrew Piper,) Bruce Rodway, Peter Stanton

Fri May 29: A promising start last night! The aim is for everyone to know the song by heart by next rehearsal (8pm Thurs July 2), so if anyone still needs a rehearsal CD, please let me know. If anyone who could not be there last night is having problems downloading the music or listening to MIDI files, ditto! We still need more men, particularly basses who can sing a low Db; if you know anyone who answers to that description who might be interested, please ask him to call [4465 1299] or email me.

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Here are three other dates for your diary (all fund-raising events for projects in East Timor sponsored by the Kangaroo Valley-Remexio Partnership):

1. 7.30pm Saturday August 15 2009 in Kangaroo Valley Hall:
The SEVENTH ANNUAL KANGAROO VALLEY BUSTER KEATON SILENT MOVIE FESTIVAL
with pianist Robert Constable

2. 2.30pm Sunday August 30 2009 in Kangaroo Valley Hall:
Annalisa Kerrigan's Ireland
singer Annalisa Kerrigan with pianist Dean Sky-Lucas and fiddler Clare O'Meara

3. Saturday September 19:
Trek for Timor
The challenge is to walk 50 kms in 24 hours. The trail is through national park & state forest in beautiful Kangaroo Valley and the Southern Highlands.

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The Kangaroo Valley-Remexio Partnership

After the destruction and killing which devastated East Timor in September 1999, a small group of KV residents felt a need to help. A partnership was discussed with an East Timorese village, Remexio (a small village in the hills about one hour's drive south of Dili) and the Kangaroo Valley - Remexio Partnership was born. Eight years on (2008), we continue to have a mix of KV locals and associates working with East Timorese in Australia and in East Timor.

The KVRP is a "bottom up" or "grass roots" approach to helping the East Timorese help themselves. We strive to assist the East Timorese achieve dignified living through health, education, justice, employment and ecologically sustainable industry. We selectively try to help in ways that may be of a low priority to the UN and other NGOs.

Rather than large single projects, we pursue small, personal and usually integrated activities. Being substantially self-funded, our material contributions are small. Instead, we rely on sharing our existing skills in projects or in day-to-day situations.

We try to foster long-term personal relationships with East Timorese people and actively encourage this approach in others. That part which is conducted in Australia is the provision of education and training to those who have appropriate interests and aptitudes for leadership and mentoring roles back in East Timor.

Much of our involvement is now outside of Remexio, in other parts of East Timor, as well as in active networking within Australia. We now enjoy ongoing relationships with numerous individuals and activities. Along the way we have tried to identify the best and worst of our respective Australian and East Timorese lifestyles, to better influence both our paths into the future.

The violent "situation" in Dili, that drastically worsened in May 2006, provided us all with significant and new challenges in safety and communication. Yet clearly, the needs of the East Timorese people became even more acute, highlighting the importance and urgency of continuing and extending our Timorese relationships.

Paul Turnock (02 4465 1357)

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donations

Remexio kids While we cover all our own expenses such as air fares, accommodation etc as well as all administration overheads, we welcome donations from others. If you can spare a few dollars - or a lot - please make your cheque payable to

KV East Timor Assistance
If you send your donation to

John George
1255 Moss Vale Road
Kangaroo Valley
NSW 2577

and include your address then we'll make sure you get a receipt from AFAP (The Australian Foundation for the Peoples of Asia and the Pacific), allowing you to claim a tax deduction. You may also donate by making a payment directly into our bank account - for details, see here.

100% of funds raised from the public go directly towards helping the East Timorese and are fully accounted for. Donors may request that their funds be directed towards particular areas of their own special interest, such as health, education etc.

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projects

scholarships

One of our current projects is the provision of scholarships for students from Remexio to the Teachers College in Baucau, East Timor. Agostinha, Eduarda, and Virginia (left) are among the first recipients of these. Their costs from October to December 2007, for example, included, for the three of them combined, college registration: US$75; fees: $180; photocopying: $45; note paper: $5; lodging ($10/person/month): $90; food: $40; gas, phone card: $15; and bus fares (for one trip home each month): $54. That's about AUD200 per student per tri-semester, or $600 per year (which is 20 concert tickets @ $30). It's more now, of course. Two generous donors are helping us with these expenses, but we need more support ...

We believe that education is one of the key areas to be developed if East Timor is to make the transition from a war-ravaged divided country to one that's peaceful and prosperous. Helping Timorese learn to teach others is one of the most useful contributions we can make.

Remexio District Village Lighting Project

Last year Brian Bailey was in Timor-Leste working with ATA (Alternative Technology Association) installing solar lighting systems. Read his report here (.pdf, 936KB, amended, from the December 2008 edition of the Kangaroo Valley Voice). An extract:

We identified approximately one hundred and twenty houses in need of lighting. The group has made the mistake in the past of contributing to selected individuals in a community, and found that this can cause more problems than it solves. The only solution is to offer solar units to every one of the hundred and twenty ...

With each household making an initial payment (plus a monthly servicing fee), the cost per unit will be more than $150. Thus we need to find more than $18,000. In fact we're aiming for $30,000 so that we can expand the project to more communities within the Remexio area.

Read more here, particularly the bit at the end about how to make a tax-deductible donation!

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The Idea of North

7.30pm Saturday 4th July 2009
Kangaroo Valley Hall
Kangaroo Valley

ticketing info


KVRP's new website (by Ian Watson)


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page last updated June 2 2009
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