QSO Performance, St George

Balonne Shire Council Mayor, Councillor Samantha O’Toole and Acting CEO, Mr Graeme Kanofski PSM; Queensland Symphony Orchestra Chair, Mr Rob Pilbeam; members of the Balonne Shire community; welcome.

I begin by acknowledging the Traditional Owners of the lands around St George and pay my respects to Elders past, present and emerging, and to all First Nations people with us this evening.

Thank for your warm welcome.

This is my first official visit to St George since I was appointed as governor almost three years ago, and Graeme and I, as joint patrons of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, are delighted that our visit coincides with the orchestra’s first ever performance here.

QSO has been committed to touring from the very beginning – their first regional performances were in 1947, the year they were established. But transporting a full symphony orchestra of anything up to a hundred musicians to the more remote areas of our State has simply not been possible – until now.

Today, thanks to grant programs and the generous support of the Frazer Family Foundation, it has been possible to bring the orchestra’s Connect ensemble of 21 musicians to St George for this historic concert.

But the visit to St George for the Connect ensemble is much more than just a ‘fly in fly out’ exercise – there has been a full program of workshops and activities including the student performance that Graeme and I attended earlier this afternoon, and tonight, the program includes works by four very young Queenslanders who are just beginning to explore the art and craft of composing music.

It's part of the Orchestra’s annual Compose program which introduces secondary school students to the techniques of composing for orchestral instruments. This year, students were asked to submit compositions based on the theme of ‘home’, and 29 young musicians from all over Queensland were then given the opportunity to refine their work through workshops and face-to-face contact with mentors who are composers themselves.

At the end of the process, they also had the joy of hearing an orchestral performance of their compositions for the first time in a special concert for family and friends at the Orchestra’s home studio in Brisbane. Yes, there were 29 world premieres in one concert!

Compose is a truly extraordinary initiative and I congratulate the orchestra on launching and supporting it. I also congratulate the four young composers whose works will be performed tonight: George Lawrence from Toowoomba, Natalie Deveson and Matthew Beasley from Brisbane and Jonathan Platz from Atherton.

Other works in the program include a piece by one of the Compose program’s mentors, Craig Allister Young, and one by another young Queenslander, John Rotar, who composed his first work at the age of nine.

Other composers in tonight’s program also began their careers early – Mozart wrote his first piece of music at the age of just five and Brahms at the age of 11. Fortunately, the less musically gifted among us can take encouragement from Bizet who waited until he was 17 before launching his career as a composer.

All in all, we are in for a wonderful night of music and I once again congratulate and thank everyone who has made it possible. Enjoy the concert!