Toowoomba Catholic Schools students participate in Arts Fest: Belief in the Arts 2023
Whether they paint, draw, sing, dance or act, here are just some of the inspiring Toowoomba students showcasing their talents at an inaugural event this month.
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Almost 1000 students from more than 30 schools across the diocese will be in the spotlight when an inaugural arts festival launches this month.
The Toowoomba Catholic Schools Arts Fest: Belief in the Arts 2023 is designed to give young people a platform to showcase their talents in singing, acting, dance, musical theatre, visual art and verse speaking.
Running across three days, the event will consist of collaborative workshops and public performances.
Students will travel hundreds of kilometres from Charleville, Cunnamulla, Quilpie, Warwick, Stanthorpe and other surrounding areas to take part.
Catholic Schools executive director Dr Pat Coughlan said events open to the public would include an art exhibition, concerts and mass among others.
“For students from some of our smaller schools, particularly those in the far west, this will be an incredible opportunity for them to participate in large scale performances,” he said.
“The arts provide a range of career opportunities and performing with others in front of an audience enhances self-confidence, creativity and self-discipline.”
The Arts Fest will be held across various Toowoomba venues from June 19 to 22.
We sat down with a selection of performers participating in the festival.
Holy Name Primary School
Lettie Codd, 7 and Sophie Knight, 7
Reciting a poem about performing arts families during Eisteddfod Week will be Lettie Codd and Sophie Knight.
The two seven-year-olds have been rehearsing and learning the words since the start of the term.
Both students said the poem was funny as it depicted how hectic and busy life is for families with children who are constantly performing.
They said their favourite part of the poem was about a mum who spends her entire time in the car and she says “something rude”.
While they have plenty of time to make career plans, both girls said they wanted to open their own bakery.
Sophie said she liked to bake cupcakes with her mum and Lettie said she enjoyed any lemon baked goods as she had two lemon trees planted at her home.
When they are not performing on stage or baking up a storm in the kitchen, both girls are likely tap dancing or swimming.
“I like that you get to make a lot of noise in tap dancing and swimming in the deep end,” Lettie said.
St Mary’s College Toowoomba
Alexander Eddie, 17
For Alexander Eddie, his love for music started unexpectedly at a young age.
The 17-year-old said he remembered signing up to his primary school choir in year 2 but never anticipated he would fall in love with singing as much as he has.
“The music teacher at my primary school went around to every classroom and convinced me to join the choir so I did,” he said.
“From that point on I’ve sung in my school choir every year.
“I listen to a lot of music but don’t really keep track of the musicians … I tend to listen to soundtracks rather than artists.”
By the time he was in year 9, Alexander was spurred on by his music teacher to play the double bass and has been playing with the school’s concert band ever since.
Set to sing Hallelujah, Sing Alleluia, Clap Your Hands, Sing To Me and I Go To the Rock at the festival, the muso will also be playing the bass with the concert, show and combination bands.
While the St Mary’s student admitted he still gets nervous, his strategy was to “just start singing” and the nerves would eventually wash away.
“I did a solo one year in front of the whole school and was terrifying,” he said.
“After seven years of performing on the eisteddfod stage you get pretty used to it.”
Alexander said he planned to join a choir after high school but hoped to become an immunologist because he believed “viruses and pathogens are cool”.
Harry Hales, 14
With dreams of following in the footsteps of his music tutor, Harry Hales hoped to one day pass his knowledge and passion of music onto others.
“That would be pretty cool,” he said.
“My tutor is great and I really look up to him.”
A member of the school’s concert and show bands, the 14-year-old plays the alto saxophone and will feature in three performances at the festival.
“My whole family have always played musical instruments – my mum plays the piano and my sister and brother play the clarinet,” he said.
“The sax was basically the only one that hadn’t been picked and it sounded cool so I started playing about five years ago.”
Harry said his favourite band was Broken Brass as the musicians played similar music to him and the school’s show band.
Ned Murry, 16
When it comes to Ned Murry, the muso is one of many talents.
The percussionist is well versed on the drum kit, marimba, xylophone and other auxiliary instruments.
Performing with the combined orchestra, as well as show and concert bands at the Arts Festival, the 16-year-old said he started playing instruments when he attended Middle Ridge Primary School.
“We had tabletop xylophones lined up against one wall and I always loved playing them,” he said.
“I started lessons seven years ago and ended up joining most of school bands at St Mary’s.”
In addition to the bands, Ned has also featured in the school musical ensemble for Big Fish, but enjoys listening to Ball Park Music and Hot Potato Band in his spare time.
While Ned plans to continue playing for fun, his ultimate career would be a software engineer after he taught himself coding a few years ago.
St Saviour’s College
Abby Kelderman, 16
Whether it’s hip-hop, ballet or contemporary, Abby Kelderman loves to dance.
The St Saviour’s College student has been dancing for the past decade and was awarded a scholarship at Dance Central five years ago.
In addition to dancing at school at the studio, Abby also performs as a local community group called Kiyua Performing Arts.
While she kept an element of surprise for her upcoming performance, she said it would be a jazz musical theatre number with a hint of contemporary.
“I love the range of styles and all the different things you can do with dance,” she said.
“Dance has always been one of my main interests but I don’t want to make it my career because when you give everything to it, it takes the fun out of it.”
Keen to continue dancing as a hobby, Abby said she first planned to become a nurse and work while studying medicine.
Alby Darnell (they/them), 16
A person of many talents is Alby Darnell who not only sings but acts too.
While the 16-year-old student has never gained professional training, they have been singing for as long as they can remember and began performing in school musicals last year.
This included two productions presented by St Saviour’s and St Mary’s including Shrek and Big Fish.
“Singing is all about expressing yourself but acting is all about becoming a different person so it’s interesting to see how the two mould together,” Alby said.
“Adrenaline is very useful but I only really get nervous when performing a solo because there’s less pressure when you’re working together as a group.”
Alby said they will be performing in the choir and musical theatre group at the Arts Festival.
Despite their love for performing on stage and connecting with the audience, Alby said they dreamt of becoming an archaeologist.
“To be honest I like the idea of not having to talk to people,” they said.
“I think finding out about the past and using it to help people now would be interesting too.
“You need confidence to get on stage so performing has helped me in a lot of ways and I believe that will help me in my profession.”
Amelia Claxton, 17
Piano player Amelia Claxton will be performing on the keys alongside the St Saviour’s College school band The Midnight Mercy Girls.
While admitting she wasn’t immediately fond of the piano, her love for the instrument has grown over the past decade.
“I have a feeling my parents forced me to start playing when I was six or seven, but I really enjoy it now,” she said.
“This sounds so basic but I love playing anything that sounds pretty and transcends you.”
When Amelia graduates from high school, she hoped to continue playing gigs and busking while she studied pharmacy at university.
“I’ve always wanted to help people in a medical fashion without doing the gory side of it,” she said.
“So as a pharmacist I can give people advice but don’t have to deal with the blood – it’s a win-win.”
Amelia said her favourite musician was Taylor Swift.
St Saviour’s Primary School
Abby Phillips, 11, Claudia Shoebridge, 11 and Sia Luck, 11
Taking to the stage as a trio will be Abby Phillips, Claudia Shoebridge and Sia Luck when they perform improvisational theatre.
The year 6 students will be provided with a verb and an object and have 45 minutes to prepare a performance which incorporates the two words in some way.
“You need to bend a basic object with your imagination and use it in any way, shape or form,” Abby said.
“We obviously don’t have a script so it can be quite unpredictable so the audience is either laughing or keen to see what happens next.”
Each scene will run for just under three minutes and be showcased at the Callaghan Centre at St Saviour’s College.
While planning a concept on the spot seems nerve-racking to most, all three girls said they were eager to take on the challenge.
“We have a really collaborative drama class so we always bounce ideas off each other which helps us build creativity,” Sia said.
“But it’s not necessarily even about being creative – it’s all about how you can think around your object, so if you’re given a sponge, you need to look at it as something other than a sponge.
“The sky is the limit.”
While Abby and Sia have their sights set on Broadway as a career, Claudia has a different idea but hopes to continue with the performing arts as a hobby.
“I want to be a forensic scientist because I love to write stories and base them off real life events,” she said.
“Drama is so important because it helps us to understand what others are thinking and opens our eyes up to the world around us.
Alistair Scotts, 11
Singing up a storm in the St Saviour’s Primary School production of The Little Mermaid is Alistair Scotts.
The 11-year-old student said he was excited to perform five songs for the musical at the Empire Theatre including his personal favourite – Positoovity.
“I like (that song) the most because it’s a tongue twister and has been hard to learn, but once you’ve got it it’s so much fun,” he said.
“Seeing the show come together and how it’s been set out is just awesome.”
Alistair said when he graduates from high school he wants to sing professionally because it allowed him to be creative.
Event schedule
Student Art Show
Date: June 20 – 22
Time: 10am – 4pm (closes at 1pm on June 22)
Venue: Micah Centre – Toowoomba Catholic Schools Office – 29-33 Lawrence St, Toowoomba
Bookings not required.
Verse speaking concert
Date: June 20
Time: 3pm – 5pm
Venue: Empire Theatre – Neil St, Toowoomba
Bookings required. Visit twb.catholic.edu.au
Primary Drama Improvisation Performances
Date: June 21
Time: 1.30pm – 4pm
Venue: Callaghan Centre – St Saviour’s College – Neil Street, Toowoomba
Bookings required. Visit twb.catholic.edu.au
Belief in the Arts Celebration (orchestra and musical theatre performances)
Date: June 21
Time: 6pm – 9pm
Venue: Empire Theatre – Neil St, Toowoomba
Bookings required. Visit twb.catholic.edu.au
Sing For Joy (concert)
Date: June 22
Time: 10.30am – 11.45am
Venue: St Patrick’s Cathedral – James Street, Toowoomba
Bookings required. Visit twb.catholic.edu.au
Mass
Date: June 22
Time: Midday – 1pm
Venue: St Patrick’s Cathedral – James Street, Toowoomba
Bookings required. Visit twb.catholic.edu.au
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