Well, that is the Queensland Youth Music Awards done for another year! Thank you to everyone who was involved and we hope you had a rewarding season!  

Once again, this year's QYMA was a great opportunity to join as a community to celebrate music and to allow budding musicians to share their music in a supportive environment. From the young choristers and instrumentalists in primary school who gave their all in the junior competitions, to our more experienced students in high school, we hope you all had a valuable experience! 

A special thank you to the conductors for their work in preparing their students for the competition, along with accompanists, parents, supervisors and the students themselves for their dedication. Thank you also to our adjudicators, organisational and volunteer team, as well as our sponsors, donors and hosts for helping with the success of the season. 

As we aim to improve the competition each year, for the betterment of those involved, we invite your input. Click the link below to provide your feedback on a variety of aspects of QYMA. As we will soon begin planning for next year, please complete this survey by 31 July. 

Any questions or if you'd like to send feedback directly, please do so to admin@qyma.org. 

Until next time.

Julie Christiansen OAM
Voices of Birralee Founder & Artistic Director
(Managers of QYMA)
admin@qyma.org

Northside Christian College showed in their QYMA participation how music can help children overcome or navigate their fears.

Conductor Cathy Cheel had a very tall year two girl in her Northside Piccolos choir withdraw from QYMA earlier in the term, after standing on one of the choir risers for a photo.

Mrs Cheel was later informed the student had a fear of heights and because of her height, knew she'd be in the back row and didn't want to embarrass the choir during the QYMA performance.

"Between us, her mum and I worked through it with her and she stood on the floor at the end of the second row. It was really good to know that we hadn’t let her fear prevent her from doing what she loves, which is singing," Mrs Cheel said.

The student had a great time and noted after the performance: “Our songs were really fun and we did it for our parents and our grandparents and all our families who came to cheer us on.”

Fellow students also echoed their enjoyment of being involved in QYMA: 
“I really like how much fun we had and that we won." 
“I loved the songs we sang and I liked listening to other choirs singing." 

 

Previously operating for 16 years as The Pine Rivers Music Contest for Primary and Secondary Schools and prior to that as a Talent Quest run by Ashgrove/The Gap Methodist Churches, it now caters for around 200 ensembles and choirs from different schools throughout South East Queensland. This makes the competition one of the largest school music eisteddfods in our state. 

The QYMA is now managed by Voices of Birralee, a leading Australian, Brisbane-based non-profit child and youth choral organisation.

For more information on Voices of Birralee visit www.birralee.org.