The Trentham District Primary School choir will sing as part of a 300 strong choir at The Melbourne Town Hall this Wednesday.
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The children will perform as part of the Boîte Schools Chorus: Missions Songs Project.
The school was invited to be part of the esteemed choir after their choir leader Allison Walsh attended a Missions Songs Project concert in May, where she met Boîte choir director Jesse Hitchcock. Hitchcock has worked with the Australian Opera and Short Black Theatre Company.
Since 1979, the Boîte has celebrated Australia’s cultural diversity through a range of different festivals, events, radio programs, music releases and publications.
Each year, songs are collected from a different country. The choir learns these songs and performs them so they are not lost when elders pass on.
This year the choir is focusing on indigenous Australians. Songs have been collected from elders from all over the nation by a team of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander singers, including Hitchcock.
These songs, including stories about life in the missions and the stolen generation, have been collected from places as far and wide as Palm Island and Cape Barren Island.
The Trenthamites look forward to performing the songs they have learnt in the community in coming months.
As part of their excursion to Melbourne, the group will meet the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and attend a Music in Education Programme at the Melbourne Recital Centre.