A Great Start to 2021

Although we’ve had a couple of bumps in the road this year due to COVID-19, Blue Sky Harmony has had a fantastic 2021 so far! 

In mid-January, our leadership teams attended the Sweet Adelines Australia Directors’ School. This educational event is run each year to support Musical Directors from around Australia, and this year the event was held online. It had a general leadership focus, as well as including a musical education stream, so our Management Team and Music Team members were able to be involved in the various classes. The theme of the weekend was 'Revive and Thrive', with a wide range of interesting content presented.

Shortly after, we announced the appointment of Karen Magno to the position of Assistant Director, joining our directing team of Julie Edwards and Jessica Harriden. Karen has been a member of Sweet Adelines International for 21 years, and we are thrilled that she has taken on the role of Assistant Director at Blue Sky Harmony. You can read Karen’s full biography on our Directors’ page.

Over the past few months, we have continued to work on a competition package, with the goal of competing at the Barbershop Harmony Australia Sunshine Region Convention in May. Since travel has been a bit unpredictable, it has been challenging to organise in-person coaching to assist us with contest preparations. However, on the 11th of March, we were joined via Zoom by Vicki Dwyer – Regional Education Faculty member and Master Director of Circular Keys Chorus in Sydney. 

Vicki’s visit was even more successful than we had envisioned, with no tech disasters, and now we have some fantastic interpretation ideas from Vicki for one of our contest songs. We finished the night with a drink at our local with some lovely prospective members of our choir. It would have been even better if Vicki could have been there for that part - hopefully sometime in future! We are looking forward to another visit from Vicki in the near future.

Another highlight of the year so far has been Sequins and Songs. This event made its return after taking a year off due to the pandemic. It was a social and singing opportunity, which brought together members of eight choruses, from the Sunshine Coast to Ballina, and it was a joy to catch up with so many barbershop-lovers.