On the evening of Thursday 28th June NECOM held its regular end-of-term chamber music concert. An unusually special event in the routine of chamber music performances, this concert saw the debut of a new ensemble, The Crystal Notes who are a piano trio. This ensemble consists of Kyanna Ping-Kee, Jade Foster, and Myrsini Callia, who are all nine years old. The girls have been rehearsing together for four weeks and were able to perform 2 movements from Eight Little Trios by Helen Norfleet.
Another special event for the concert was the farewell for Ruby Straker, a longtime member of the Womble Ensemble. Ruby has been invited to participate in the TAS string quartet and is leaving Wombles in order to take up this opportunity. We wish Ruby well in her future chamber music endeavours and look forward to hearing her new ensemble in eisteddfods and performances to come.
The concert featured the debut of the new formation of the Rainbow Notes, now titled Rainbow Scrolls, featuring the additional member Teya Catteral. Teya joined the ensemble after the Eisteddfod, making the string trio a string quartet.
Also on show were the UNE string ensemble, led by Mr Robert Jackson. Featuring Lucy Isaacs, Georgina Sindell, Kees Grenyer, James McKay, and Randall Bollenhagen, the group performed three works. They were Teddy Bear’s Picnic, featuring Kazoos, The Centrelink Call Waiting Music (otherwise known as an excerpt from the second movement from Mozart’s Divertimenti No. 1), and a rocking piece called Strings Cut Loose as a finale.