Old Collegians Melba Music Concert

It was with great relief that the longplanned OCA concert took place on Saturday 21 March this year. Originally intended as a fundraiser for the Dame Nellie Melba Memorial Music Scholarships, the event became one in which there was no physical audience but it was livestreamed around the world. Amongst those watching was Concert Patron, Peter Ross, a former Director of Music (1987-2007), who recommended many of the performers at the time the concert was first proposed.

Following the formal opening by Dur-è Dara (1962), a Director of the Victorian Women Trust, nine musical items were presented. The first, by soprano Ivanna Cheng (2000), was an aria by Giuseppe Verdi, accompanied by pianist Hui-Ling Yeo (1983). This was followed by an alto saxophone solo played by the 2019 Melba Scholar, Cheryl Tsui, now in Year 11.

The work, by Paul Creston, an Italian American, was followed by ‘I Know It’s Today’ from Shrek the Musical sung by the Clapperton sisters, Emily (2018), Alice (2015) and Lucy, currently in Year 11. Cellist Josephine Vains (1991) then performed the ‘Prelude from JS Bach’s Suite in C major’.

The next five items were new Australian works, four of them composed within the last five years. ‘Cloudscape’ by Clare Strong (2010) was dedicated to her late friend, Morgan Mansell (2010), daughter of PLC Staff member Peter Mansell, a moving work performed by pianist Edith Ellis (1973), flautist Janine Hanrahan (1984) and violinist Vivian Wong (2019). This was followed by a composition for three steel pans titled ‘Rain Aroma’, played by Sharon Ross (1974), sister of former Director of Music Peter Ross, and her son Jesse Brown. Next was a piece by Katy Abbott (1988) titled ‘Re-echo’, performed by Carmen Chan Schoenborn (1997) on marimba and cellist Josephine Vains. A piece titled ‘Bioluminescence’ composed by Liza Lim (1984) followed, performed by guest flautist Paula Rae. To complete the concert, 13 musicians played an arrangement of Brian Brown’s ‘Wildflowers’, originally written for his jazz group but specially arranged for PLC in 1979. It was first performed at that year’s Speech Night as a tribute to the retired VicePrincipal, Mrs Donalda Crofts.

Throughout the entire concert an extraordinary frisson was experienced by everyone involved. For the musicians, it was the oddest feeling to bow to an empty auditorium. While Lisa Leong used her experience as an ABC radio presenter to compère with great panache, she too admitted that it was a slightly unnerving experience to talk to an invisible audience. An audio-visual team plus stage hands working almost in silence ensured that everything would appear as normal in the live-stream.

Heartfelt thanks are due to the musicians and PLC staff who donated their time and expertise as well as the guest artists who ensured that the items that were planned for so long could be performed. Particular thanks should go to

PLC Development Manager, Antony Hankin, who ensured that the concert would go ahead, albeit with the strictest observation of government health regulations.

To have succeeded in presenting a concert of the highest musical standard, under the most unusual circumstances, is testament to the spirit and goodwill of everyone involved.

A concert recording of the event is currently being edited and enhanced which will see the concert permanently hosted on the PLC website at www.plc.vic.edu.au/ about/old-collegians/news-events

Ros McMillan (1959) Former Director of Music (1974–1987)