On the afternoon of the 9th of May I went to the Coffs Art Gallery to see a concert, presented by the Coffs Harbour Regional Conservatorium, showcasing some of the upcoming talent in the area. This program comprised mainly of choral and vocal music, with a couple of piano works thrown into the mix.
I was slightly surprised at the choice of location, due to the nature of the gallery’s size. However, there was still quite a good response from the public with the amount of people present. The response was that good that I was asked to vacate my seat, one minute before the concert commenced, for an elderly needs person. Of course I have no arguments with such a cause, since we would accommodate for the same cause on public transport, and other public entertainment venues. At the same time I was quite disappointed because there were about thirty other people without a seat as well. It wasn’t until after the first bracket of choral performers that the children were asked to bring seats to the back of the audience area in between numbers of the next set (and even during the beginning of some of the songs). Even when the chairs were brought out, there were still five to ten of us left still standing. Hopefully this issue does not arise in the future.
The performances given were good. I wouldn’t have said there was anything overly exceptional since it was more of a showcase of the upcoming talent. The Sounds Fine! Youth Choir delivered some interesting numbers in their sets of music. A combination of traditional music of Middle Eastern and African countries, along with some past and current choral numbers. I had to raise my eyebrow at the ironic choice of Money, Money, Money by ABBA with the current financial situation of the conservatorium. But then again, there were some other selections where it felt like the palm of my hand would meet the front of my face.
Hearing popular tunes and modern musical numbers in an art gallery with artwork nudes on canvas and some obscure art pieces just didn’t settle with me. Even if the performances were delivered with finesse, confidence and thought, the environment of the performance area would do it justice like vegemite on ice cream; it looks like chocolate and it appears to sit right, but at the same time we just know that the experience of consuming it will be tremendously unsettling. I have never tried vegemite on ice cream, but I am sure there would be someone out there willing to give it a go.
Program notes were very scarce. One piece of folded cardboard with a single sheet of A4 paper folded on the inside, along with a 25 year celebration sticker, was given to everyone in attendance. Page one was the title, page two a message from the director, page three the program, and page four advertising two upcoming events along with the conservatorium board. BORING! Instead of having the people talk about their pieces, when they went to perform, why didn’t they write up their own program notes? Even when people discussed the pieces they were about to perform I wasn’t convinced they even knew what they were talking about, and some of these people are approaching their HSC! I look back at the program now and can’t remember much about each of the pieces or what they were meant to be about.
Time and time again I have found that if you deliver more professional standards, then you will deliver a more professional product. This isn’t just in music, but in a lot of other industries and lines of work too. The staff at the Coffs conservatorium should know all about this with some of their backgrounds.
Just to recap, I thought the performances delivered were of a satisfactory standard that I hope the tutors of students and ensembles will be looking at expanding upon. The lack of professionalism and organisation of these concerts is still something left to be somewhat desired and I sincerely hope will be improved upon greatly with the other concerts held throughout the rest of this year.
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