An upright piano turned into a grand, as the New England Conservatorium of Music’s float won first prize in the Autumn Festival’s Grand Parade, and with it $1000.
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This was the first time NECOM had entered the procession – the inspiration of Russell Bauer, who took up the baton of NECOM’s director in June.
“It was our feeling that it would help promote NECOM to the broader community if we were seen to be part of the parade,” Mr Bauer said. “The whole point was not to win champion float, but to come up with a fun activity that would involve as many different families as we could.”
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More than twenty volunteers – students and families alike – worked for three weeks on the float, whether donating cardboard, cutting, painting, or helping build the float onto the truck on Saturday morning.
“Because it was our first attempt,” Mr Bauer said, “we wanted to go simple – and large cardboard boxes essentially become very large Lego blocks. We decided to go with something very box-like, as opposed to the curves of a grand piano, violin, or guitar, which would have been a harder undertaking.”
Mr Bauer wants to use the prize money to benefit as many students as possible. He plans to order music from America for the percussion ensemble, one of NECOM’s newest programmes.
“Thank you to the council for running a terrific autumn festival,” Mr Bauer said. “Council should be buoyed by the response they got last week, and should look at how to make this festival bigger and better each year.”
NECOM also performed at the marquee in Curtis Park on Friday evening, entertaining festival-goers with string, drums and jazz performances, with a Celtic twist in keeping with the St. Patrick’s Day theme.
NECOM celebrates its 15th anniversary this year. Established in late 2003, it teaches 5,500 Kindergarten – Year 12 school students in the New England region, and reached audiences of 5,000 members. It also provides services to community and music organisations, and private music teachers.
More information about NECOM’s classes and events is available online at https://necom.org.au/
