On Saturday 28 October, we presented our annual Gala Concert in partnership with the Ashgrove/ The Gap Lions Club. This has been a very successful partnership with audiences enjoying a broad repertoire of songs we have been practising for months, along with a refreshing afternoon tea. All proceeds are shared with Serenata Singers and the Lions Medical Research Foundation.

This year we had a theme of “Music from the Heart” and covered some classics with medleys from “Phantom of the Opera”, “Les Misérables” and Cole Porter’s “True Love”. To open the concert, we sang a couple of church classics in Vivaldi’s “Gloria In Excelsis” and Bach’s “Joy to Man’s Desiring” followed by two foreign language tunes in “Harere Ra” (a Maori favourite) and “Siyahamba” (a Zulu song of freedom and rejoicing).

Our two guest performers were Alison Siemon playing the theme from “On Golder Pond” and Ray Wiseman who engaged the audience in a rousing round of “Wandering the King’s Highway”.  We concluded with Rutter’s “For the Beauty of the Earth” and a crowd pleasing “I Am Australian” which always goes down well.

Enormous thanks to the organising Committee, helpers and Lions volunteers for all the work necessary to bring the whole event together.