Photos
Our first ever Regional Convention!
ACW had the BEST time in Mandurah at the Region 34 Convention held in May. For 95% of us, it was our first ever taste of attending a convention, let alone competing in one! We had three quartets competing in the Quartet Competition on the Friday. No Strings Attached had never competed on national stage at all, and 3/4's of Frisson were new to the experience too. All quartets performed their very best and achieved good scores. iCappella were stunned to take the silver medal and are still on Cloud Nine about that, plus the latest news that they will now be representing the region in Seattle later this year.
ACW went into the contest with absolutely no expectations, since we had never even been officially evaluated before. However, the looks on Lindsey's, Jo's and Jen's faces when our fantastic score was announced, followed swiftly by the realisation that we had scored a solid B+ and were the 4th place overall winners were just priceless.
Lots of convention photos to follow. Watch this space.
We are just loving our fabulous new costumes!
ACW were lucky enough to have be given grants by the lovely folks at Lottery West and the City of Melville for our costumes for Convention (and no doubt for other performances too!). Our talented ladies at ACW got together to create some beautiful outfits for us with the money from Lottery West, and below is a little summary of the fun they had at the costume-making workshop on the 28th March. More photos can be found here.
Ah, the Costume Workshop...as you can see from the photos many hands truly do make light work and the time seemed to just fly by. Catherine had planned everything in advance and after safety instructions, we were soon working in teams on our allocated tasks. Memorable moments included Catherine’s comment that "We were on a roll" – 3 rolls actually; Alison’s Mum Pauline had the rest of us in serious scissor envy and Ran arrived just in time to become the tea lady and give us a welcome break. The advice for next time is don’t try to count green bits of fabric when working in 3 rooms – those little critters kept moving from room to room by themselves! Karin was so bad at counting doubts were being cast on her finance abilities. All were done in the end in record time and thanks to Catherine, Elvie, Alison, Linda, Val, Elwyn, Ran, Bethan, Nancy, Ann, Marg D, Alison’s Mum. Special thanks to Alison for letting us leave little bits of glitter all over her house, to Catherine for being so organised, and of course to Lottery West and the City of Melville without whom it would not have been possible.
Harmony Concert performance, March 2010: Celebrating Diversity in Perth
ACW were thrilled to perform at the Harmony Concert in Perth. This was a multicultural concert celebrating the diversity of people from all nations living in Perth. Due to our Irish package, we represented Ireland! It was wonderful to see the other performers in their beautiful costumes back stage, even if we missed their fabulous performances on stage. The audience seemed to love us, applauding wildly before we had even completed the tag of our final song! You can see a larger picture of our performance here.
ACW debut their first ever show and a cookbook too!
In December 2009, A Cappella West debuted their first ever show at the Nexus Theatre, Murdoch. The show was a sellout and we have had rave reviews from our delighted audience members.
The theme of the show was a performance set in a mythical backward country town. Our very own Christine Glass performed magnificently as our Lady Mayoress, and we had wonderful guests performing too in the guise of Frisson Quartet, Nexus Quartet, iCappella Quartet, Alliance and Pistachio Quartet.
It was fantastic fun and such a thrill to perform our hard work for our families and friends.
As a sideline, ACW's first cookbook was for sale at the show and it can still be purchased for a bargain price of $6 a copy. Please contact Annette Connolly by email if you are interested.
A Cappella West sing for the new Australian citizens of Fremantle!
A Cappella West were honoured to sing for the new Australian citizens at Fremantle's Citizenship Ceremony in September. We sang a range of songs, but made sure we waved the patriotic flag too by adding I Am Australian and My Country to our repertoire! We were well received and we look forward to many more performances for the City of Fremantle in the future.
Friends & Family Concert
New Members Shine!
The newest members of A Cappella West put on a wonderful show for their friends and family at the end of the 6 week course. What an amazing sound the unit make already - it's so exciting for us to be a part of their enthusiasm and help them along their new journey with us.
A Cappella West: The Next Generation
Feb 2009
What a great start to the year with 34 people attending. As this was very much a low key membership drive with advertisement in only a few places, the attendance was fantastic! It was the Season of the Baritone with almost half of those who applied testing in the Baritone Range. The first night’s registration session was the usual organised chaos, but we had learnt from last year and we managed to get all the ladies voice tested and supplied in the 30 minute time frame we allowed ourselves. First nighters were treated to immediate immersion in the chorus as well as specialised coaching on breathing and stance. This will be followed up over the weeks ahead with demonstration quartets, learning all the new songs and of course the after rehearsal wine, cheese and other social activities (generally involving singing more stuff!!) The ladies of the existing chorus came to the party with supper for the first night and a good time was had by all. Many of the participants have indicated they wish to carry on with the chorus once they complete the course.
Should you like to join, there is no need to wait for another course, as people can attend at any time during the year to see if it’s something they wish to pursue. Just go to the Learn To Sing page and send your enquiry through. Someone will get back to you and let you know what to do next.
A Cappella Unleashed - YouTube Video
This was our enthusiastic entry into the
A Cappella Unleashed contest...
Our First Night
after our first Vocal Education Lesson Feb 2008
Our
first night was fantastic. We had in excess of 130 women register their
interest. We had 20 helpers, including 7 voice testers (most from Perth
Harmony Chorus) and we ended up having 87 women – all of whom are new to
barbershop which is very exciting - plus our team which takes us to 96
members!! 14 turn up for the second week as well, so we are looking at
over 100 ladies to share the barbershop experience.
It was a very hot February so we knew we had one very keen bunch of women. The organisers were run off their feet on the first night, but the end result was truly worth it!!! The quality of singing at this stage was very good and everyone was so excited to continue. We had a wonderful ‘after glow’ – and the majority stayed and talked and were rapt. A few of us (PHC & CAL) sang a couple of songs – it hooked them all!! ‘Espionage’ sang as well – Trickle Trickle went down a treat!! In true Sweet Adeline style, we laughed, we sang, we had a ball, and our newest friends left on a huge high, after experiencing a night to remember. They were amazed at the friendship and camaraderie that was evident in the room.
If you want to learn to sing and experience this wonderful world of harmony with us, why not join us? Contact Alison Hamersley on Ph 9310 6140 or email Alison here to register your interest.
