THERE are three completely different but equally enthralling musical styles on the triple bill program for a Grand Weekend of Music to be performed live at the Fish Creek Memorial Hall on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, September 8, 9 and 10, 2023.
The first concert, on the Friday evening, will feature very cool jazz, followed by highly entertaining comedy cabaret on the Saturday evening, then a show of uplifting opera and musical theatre on the Sunday afternoon.
The Grand Weekend of Music is being arranged and presented by the Fish Creek Memorial Hall’s committee of management, together with South Gippsland classical music appreciation and promotion group, Prom Recitals.
Music lovers of every age and taste are invited to attend one, two or all three performances by top-drawer professional musicians and singers, with tickets for the individual events priced at $40 each.
The jazz line-up from 7.30 pm on the Friday includes Foster-bred musician David Dower with the David Dower Trio, Smacka Fitzgibbon’s daughter Nichaud Fitzgibbon on vocals, and Lok Davidson on saxophone.
On the Saturday night will be a sit-down, New York-style cabaret featuring Peter Hurley “Laughing Behind the Piano”, with tables of eight and BYO food and drinks.
On the Sunday afternoon will be opera, musical theatre and Neapolitan songs, with Opera Australia mezzo soprano Genevieve Dickson, Opera Australia and Opera Victoria bass baritone Kiran Rajasingham, and Phillipa Safey on piano.
All profits from the Grand Weekend of Music after costs and fees are paid will be going towards the Memorial Hall committee’s current quest to provide the Hall with a concert-standard grand piano for the Fish Creek community to use and enjoy.
Having an instrument of such calibre always available in the Hall would also enable and encourage renowned artists, both local and visiting, to play at future concerts without the great and reoccurring expense of hiring a suitable piano.
Behind much of the organisation for the Grand Weekend of Music at Fish Creek are Prom Recitals committee members Karen Vincent and Daryl Standfield, both of whom are piano players themselves, and lifelong music aficionados.
Karen is a professional musician and music teacher, and Daryl, who is also a member of the Fish Creek Memorial Hall committee, is actually lending his own grand piano to the Hall for the three concerts of the Grand Weekend of Music.
A native of Fish Creek, Daryl played on the Memorial Hall’s old upright piano as a child and since then he has performed almost more times than he can remember during many of the special occasions that have been held in the Hall.
Daryl and Karen are looking forward to audiences hearing what a quality grand piano actually sounds like in a space the size of the Memorial Hall and are hoping it will inspire people to make donations to help buy a grand piano the Hall may call its own.
“The Fish Creek Memorial Hall has played a pivotal role in the Fish Creek community for more than 90 years and has hosted innumerable community celebrations, concerts, and events,” Daryl said.
“Adding a new grand piano will further enhance our beautifully renovated Memorial Hall, which now has the ideal environment to keep a valuable piano in, because of its new floor and sub-floor ventilation, and its improved drainage and insulation.
“We’re asking the community to invest in the Hall’s value and enrich its community contribution,” he said.
“Members of the broader South Gippsland community as well as Fish Creek locals are invited to back and to amplify music and performing arts in our area by funding a key for the new piano, either individually or as a group,” Daryl said.
“Each key is $500, with 88 keys available to fund, and should all of the keys be sold, we will raise $44,000, which is nearly all of the $50,000 we have set as our target for the ‘Grand Hall Grand Piano’.
“The existing Memorial Hall piano is be retired and its keys will be removed and engraved with donors’ names, and then they will be reassembled and framed and put on permanent display in the Memorial Hall,” he said.
“Buying tickets to the Grand Weekend of Music and to the other events that are planned for the Memorial Hall across the year are also great ways to support the Fishy Hall’s grand piano initiative.”
For more information about the Fish Memorial Hall’s grand piano and to make a donation visit https://gofund.me/9b3039e0
All details about the Grand Weekend of Music concerts may be found at https://fishcreekhall.org
Buy Grand Weekend of Music tickets, at $40 each, on the Try Booking website at https://trybooking.com/CKFDK
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