Farewell Brindabella!

Did I mention that I’m a singer? A large part of the last eight years of my life has been spent singing acappella four part harmony as a member of Sweet Adelines, mostly in the Barbershop style. I’ve been the assistant Baritone section leader for Brindabella Chorus, Canberra’s only women’s barbershop chorus, for quite a few years now.

I’ve been very touched by all the messages of thanks and support from my fellow Brindabellans, and their fond farewells. Last week I attended my last Baritone section practice and was regaled with cake, berries and chocolates. At my last chorus practice there was a long queue of people who came to thank me and say farewell. At quartet rehearsal there was more cake, and champagne to go with it.

Brindabella baritones

On Friday night some of us went to a Karaoke night with Caz, one of our chorus members who is also leaving. She’s going a bit further away than me though – all the way to the UK. We had a whale of a time, as you can see by this photo:

 L-R: Jen J in the background, then me, Jennifer D and Lynn

This, by the way, is why Jennifer and Lynn sing in the front row and I don’t. (If you’ve ever seen a Sweet Adelines chorus performance, you’ll know that the front row does quite a lot of dancing).

We’re coming to the end of a three month quartet development program that I set up for Brindabella. It started out with an information session run by our director Glenda. I set up a mailing list and provided assistance to quartets who wanted advice or coaching. The program will finish on November 2 with performances by the quartets for chorus and as a practice run for that the quartets are getting together at Elma’s home next weekend. I’ll be coming back from Sydney for that so I’ll see lots of my friends again soon, but it still feels hard to break away from so many great people. I'll miss you, girls!