Thank you for the music

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We have just returned from Furnival Park where the Methodist Choir competition is still in progress. We left early because we are going to a birthday party. What a rich variety of voices we heard this morning, soloists, duets, and choirs. The winners will not be announced until perhaps tonight but I have already picked my favourites - a 12 year old girl wearing a silver dress, confident, engaging with the audience, singing like an angel, and the Hart Fellowship Choir which reminded me of the Australian Choir of Hard Knocks. (Hart refers to Housing Assistance and Relief Trust which is assistance to the very poorest of people in Fiji. The Choir of Hard Knocks was started in Australia by a Geelong singer who gathered men and women from the streets of Melbourne - the fringe dwellers, to form a choir that eventually performed concerts and made CDs. Their song 'Alleluia' has made Leonard Cohen's song well known in Australia.) Many of the Fiji singers were people with disabilities or perhaps were very poor. And the Gau choir, I hesitate to say of our tauvu , but they were really good. One photo is of the Mali Island choir because they are in the Labasa area, Macuata - that is, babasiga. We were privileged to sit right at the front of the stage in comfortable seats and a cooling breeze and we also had the very best view of the performers. I was reminded of the Adelaide Conference we attended and Esther King (Litia Daveta) and her ten points in judging a choir competition. I wrote about it on this blog on July 14th. Of course I don't really like to pitch one singer/singers against one another as they all have some kind of excellence or provide a moving experience connecting with the listener.