YOUNG ADELAIDE VOICES

Mrs VLAHOS (Taylor) (16:20): I rise to speak about a wonderful performance I attended last Sunday at the Adelaide Town Hall with my daughter, on behalf of the Premier and minister Hill in the arts portfolio, of Young Adelaide Voices (YAV), formerly known as the Adelaide Girls Choir. YAV have broadened their base in the last couple of years to include young boys up to the teenage years. The group involves nearly 155 families with a variety of different choristers and age groups.

The choir masters do a wonderful job. There was a performance on Sunday where they had 55 young children on stage that were being conducted to sing a variety of songs such as Quack Quack Little Duck with hand movements, and a variety of things, which was very entertaining. One person had to organise those 55 children to behave, sing, be on stage, and she does this largely on her own, with up to another 22 children each week, as they train for their performances which occur twice a year.

The group is particularly keen to secure sponsorship in the forthcoming years from the corporate sector, the community and grants. They showcased their performances to family and friends, grandparents and siblings of the people who were performing on Sunday, and they did a wonderful job. One of the most interesting things I discovered about the event, which the Hon. John Dawkins from the other place attended with me, was that Peter Combe is the patron of that organisation and has been involved with the group as a patron and parent since its formation some 27 or 30 years ago. He is equally as passionate about the group today as he was then, as Greg von Einem, their chairperson of council, was informing me.

YAV have a variety of choirs, including Aurora, which is about to leave today or tomorrow for a tour of Canada. Aurora comprises adult women who have often been with the choir since their childhoods. They were very impressive and entertaining, performing a Ben Folds' song Adelaide. Desiree Frahn of the junior choir performed a solo from Pirates of Penzance, which was very entertaining. There was an intermediate choir and a second concert choir, and joining the group on Sunday for a special performance was the Festival Statesmen Youth Choir, which is a barbershop quartet that specialise in that style of music. They were very entertaining and performed a number of songs from the musical genre, including West Side Story. That was an excellent performance as well. Next was the first concert choir and then, to conclude the event, there was the combined YAV choirs and then the combined YAV choirs with the Statesmen. This was a very impressive way to conclude the event, which went for about two hours.

If you have the opportunity to attend one of their concerts and see them perform, it is a very worthwhile thing. My daughter and I learnt a lot about the capacity of those children to perform with a very small amount of tuition once a week, and for very little cost.

At 16:24 the house adjourned until Tuesday 20 July 2010 at 11:00.