WAYNE JURY 2020 - 2025

THOUGHTS AND HIGHLIGHTS OF BEING A CHOIR DIRECTOR.

• 2020, in the midst of the Covid lockdowns, was a challenging time to start my directorship with the Tides of Welcome choir. As the choir members will attest, conducting a choir via zoom from 20 or more locations with varying internet speeds is not ideal. However, we made it through and here we are about to celebrate a 20th anniversary. I think the main reason we sing in choirs is because we love singing together, we love sharing the human condition, our pain our joy, our fear our excitement and sharing the beautiful sounds we make together helps us (despite our differences) to feel a part of a community and that we are not alone and are supported by those around us. It’s a privilege to be one of the facilitators contributing to this community. While the music is important, the social aspect of the Tides of Welcome Choir is the heart. To me it seems that this is the place this choir began 20 years ago (an idea from the heart) when Carolyn Williams and Jude McCudden approached Sarah Carroll to be the first director. While the quality of performance is always on my mind, I should never lose sight that the feeling of unity and social connectivity is most important to the members of the Tides of Welcome Choir.

ONE OR TWO OF THE FAVOURITE SONGS YOU DIRECTED.

• At the moment my two favourite songs are firstly “When I go away” because it’s a more complex arrangement that the choir members were prepared to work on and I know they love to perform it as it’s quite emotive. Secondly one of my songs “Paint a Picture” because I learned to just get out of the way and let the choir do their thing, the thing that they do so well.

MEMORABLE OR FAVOURITE PERFORMANCES.

• I haven’t been involved with many performances with the Choir but I think the most memorable and rewarding one was at the Uniting Church as part of the Queenscliff Music Festival 2022. The audience and the Choir were engaged and connected and the feeling in the room was very uplifting. Choir and audience left the concert hall with smiling faces and warm hearts.