Simon McConnell agreed to be President in 2006 when the Orchestra was in danger of folding as it had been without a Chair for 5½ months after an AGM. He concentrated at first on building up the finances as he saw how lack of money limited the Orchestra. The first major sponsor to come onboard was Queensland Nickel whose ...
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Wyana is a vibrant and versatile Percussionist, Educator and Conductor with a passion for sharing her love of music and music making.
Wyana began her musical journey, learning piano as a young child. She started playing percussion in high school and went on to study the instrument at the University of Western Australia ...
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Award winning vocalist Emma Pask has firmly established herself as one of Australia’s favourite voices in Jazz.
Her talent was first spotted by multi instrumentalist James Morrison during one of his regular visits to high schools when she was just 16 years old. Emma first sang with James’ band that night and their ...
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Sean O’Boyle is a composer, arranger and conductor with a particular interest ...
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Professor John Hopkins OBE was involved with the Orchestra from its earliest days and in its March 2005 Newsletter, North Queensland Ensembles announced that he had agreed to be Founding Patron of the Orchestra. He is a very distinguished musician who is enthusiastic, indeed passionate, about working with community ...
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Emily writes: “I was honoured to be one of the recipients of the Barrier Reef Orchestra Encouragement Award last year, it came as a big surprise! This past year I have spent the total amount of the award on a variety of musical equipment. These include an instrument microphone and cable for use at church, as I play in ...
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Ruby writes: At the end of 2015, the Barrier Reef Orchestra very generously awarded me with the encouragement award for my involvement throughout the year as a percussion player. It was quite a surprise considering I spend most of my time sitting back and counting bars until I have maybe one triangle beat before continuing ...
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Bianca writes: I would like to thank the Barrier Reef Orchestra for giving me this Encouragement Award. The Encouragement award was very helpful for me because it allowed me to travel and meet wonderful musicians and also to make friends with similar interests.
The Barrier Reef Orchestra has been not only a great way ...
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Olivia writes: I am very grateful to have received this Encouragement Award from BRO, and am keen to put the money to good use. As I don’t currently own my own instrument (I play double bass), I have been saving up for a number of years to purchase my own, and this $500 will go towards the cost of buying a double bass. ...
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