Squawkestra swung into action on Sunday afternoon the 25th of June. Despite the wintery weather a large audience turned out to listen to our mid-year concert. Having performed at Circus Oz before, we were familiar with the bump in and out routines and appreciated playing in such a fabulous space again.

Our orchestra has grown considerably this year and features around 40 musicians split between strings, woodwind and brass. We have enjoyed seeing some familiar faces as players return and welcomed many new players. We were joined by guest artist Michael Davis on snare drum for our final piece, Ravel’s haunting Bolero. Although a shorter version than the full 14 minutes, Carl Polke’s arrangement for Squawkestra still posed plenty of challenges, requiring much practice by everyone. We recycled a few tunes and played some new ones, including Jukka Mantynen’s composition of Yaa de Yaa de Yaa; written specially for our players to channel their inner teenager. We feel that we have taken on some challenging music this year and worked hard to play it, not just as individual musicians, but also by listening to others and the group sound.

A huge thank you to our musical director Carl Polke for providing us with many opportunities to expand our musical horizons and perform for our families and friends.

Our concert is this weekend, 3pm Sunday 4th December, at Circus Oz (Entry via car park at 35 Johnson St, Collingwood). We will be performing the following pieces –

Our 2021/22 Annual General Meeting was held during rehearsal break on Thursday 20 October.

Presented were last year’s AGM minutes, the Treasurer’s, President’s and Musical Director’s reports. 

Squawkestra Office Bearers (President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer and four committee members) were elected.

A special resolution was passed to formalise Squawkestra’s rules by adopting the Model Rules as defined by Consumer Affairs Victoria and to define the purposes of Squawkestra Incorporated as below.

The purposes of the association are —

1.           to provide a community orchestra for beginning, returning or experienced adult musicians;

2.           to provide instruction, rehearsal and performance opportunities at low cost, and in an inclusive manner; and

3.           to conduct community performances to demonstrate that music participation is open and accessible to all and that playing music together is both individually beneficial and an integral part of a healthy local arts community

for the benefit of members and the general community.

It was wonderful, after so long, to gather our friends and family for a Squawkestra concert.  We shared with them the pieces we initially started in our individual lockdown studies and bedrooms, then our in-person rehearsal “Squawky Tunes” repertoire, and crowned the evening with an arrangement of George Dreyfus’ famous TV theme, Rush.   

Triumphant, we’re looking forward to a bigger and better concert for the end of the year!

We kick off 2022 with a season celebrating the music of Raymond Scott, and in particular Carl Stalling’s adaptions known and loved from the the Looney Tunes cartoons.  “Twilight in Squawky” is an arrangement by our conductor Carl Polke of the Scott tune “Twilight in Turkey” and later on in the season we’ll turn our attention to another piece of his, “Powerhouse”.  

The “Loony” theme can also be seen as a nod to the the travails of running a community orchestra into the third year of a pandemic …  only possible with the support and forbearance of our members and creative persistence from our conductor.    With the upcoming relaxing of mask rules we can’t wait to be able to all play together again in March!

What a delight it was return to Bent St for an in person rehearsal last night!  

After the hard graft of making do with zoom rehearsals (better than nothing, but hardly a satisfying musical experience!) to be able to hear and play with everyone was wonderful.  We look forward to rehearsing again together in a fortnight’s time, to be followed by a Christmas break-up meal at a local venue.

Our 2021 AGM will be held in the break of our online Zoom rehearsal on 21 October.

Presented will be last year’s AGM minutes, the Treasurer’s, President’s and Musical Director’s reports. These will also be available online, with the link to be sent in our regular Squawkestra Update email.

Please consider nominations (for yourself or others) for President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer and a minimum of four committee members as all positions will be declared vacant. If you have always wanted to contribute your energy and ideas to Squawkestra we’d love to have you involved.

If there is any other business you would like to raised, please let one of the committee know or email info@squawkestra.com.au so it can be added to the agenda.

The final night of Season Two was by necessity a quieter, online affair with our online “Chrysalis Soirée”.  Tucked up in our lockdown cocoons, individuals played solos as diverse as welsh songs, jazz and show tunes, and classical themes.  We were all lead in our first “jamming” session and enjoyed the novelty of duets when talented partners were roped in for a performance.

Here’s hoping that our third season will bring with it in-person rehearsals, and the possibility of an end-of-year concert with (dare we dream?) a real audience!