That’s Entertainment!

(By Geoff Rigby.)
Once again, the students of Donald  schools delighted an appreciative audience, when the 64th Annual Music Festival was held at the Donald Memorial Hall on Monday,  July 29.

After a welcome by Tony Cashin and evergreen compere Leo Tellefson, conductor, Bob Wooley, of the St Arnaud Citizen’s band, led the audience in singing “Advance Australia Fair”, with a band of twelve members. 

Their songs “I Gotta Feeling”, “Milenberg Joys”, “I Knew You Were Trouble” and “Queen On Stage” then followed. 

As always, the various instruments blended to create a harmonious sound and at times, the individual instruments could be heard as they took the lead throughout the songs. It was a great start to the night. 

High School Choir
The Donald High School Choir then took to the stage.  It was made up of fourteen vocalists and six  instrumentalists.  The choir performed three songs  “Stick Season”,  “You Belong With Me” and “Someone To You”, which were all catchy songs and the choir did a great job. All songs were sung with a lot of enthusiasm and feeling and  were enhanced by the backing instruments.  The students are all to be congratulated on their excellent performance.

Music Groups
The next performance was by the Donald High School Music Groups. The audience was treated to the fine guitar work of Elijah Mansibang who played an instrumental piece – “Pirates of the Caribbean”.  Luca Rice, Baxter Donnellon and Maya Funcke  then performed “I Remember Everything”, with Maya finishing with “Rolling in the Deep”.  Both songs were performed to a very high standard. Musicians who played instruments in the groups were Luca Rice, Baxter Donnellon, Maya Funcke, Milla Adams, Halle Rice, Victory Davis, Evie Donnellon, Alyssa Hepworth, Shanae Rotherham, Shane Mansibang, Kaillie Krause and Geoff Rigby.

St. Mary’s
After a short interval to clear the stage for the second half of the program, the St Mary’s Primary school students assembled on stage. The first song “Mary Had a Little Lamb” was performed by Grades 3-6 and was played on steel pans. Grades F-2 then played “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” also on steel pans. The whole school choir then performed “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”, followed by “I Am Australian”, which was accompanied with Auslan actions. St Mary’s staff had prepared the students well and all songs were very well executed.

Primary School Choir
The final choir to perform was from the Donald Primary School which Teagan Anderson and Brooke Thompson had organised. The choir sang “Perfect”, “Beautiful Things” and “Hippy Hippy Shake” which were great songs. 

It was clear to all, that the students enjoyed taking part and the singing was greatly appreciated by the enthusiastic audience. Very well done! The final performance was by Victor Sak, who is a very talented musician. Victor played the drums and sang “In My Place” and “We Will Rock You”, and it was a great way to finish the evening.  

The Music Festival continues to evolve to suit the schools, students and musicians taking part. After 64 years it still continues to delight the families and schools as they participate. 

Compere, Mr Leo Tellefson, was thanked by Geoff Rigby and Baxter Donnellon on behalf of Donald High School, which was the host school this year. The school would like to thank the many willing helpers who helped both set up the hall and pack up the chairs and equipment at the conclusion of the night.

 A special “thank you” to Corey Donnellon and his family for providing valuable assistance in setting up the school’s Music Room after the performance.