Spring Youth Music Festival
AN ANNUAL CELEBRATION OF THE FOUR WINDS CREATE & INSPIRE PROGRAM
The Four Winds Spring Youth Music Festival held annually in late November, is a celebration of the 12 months before. 12 months of young people in the region having tangible and transformative opportunities to connect, create and collaborate.
The music leaders on the Sapphire Coast of NSW comprise a virtual treasure trove of talent, from professional classical musicians, composers and choir leaders, to touring singer songwriters and passionate teachers. These leaders work alongside Four Winds throughout the year to create and rehearse commissions and compositions to be performed at the Spring Youth Music Festival.
Each year, over 200 students, artists and mentors participate in the festival day, including students from Bega, Bermagui, Merimbula, Narooma, Tanja, Tathra, Tilba and beyond. The purpose of the festival day is entirely dedicated to young people, giving them unique opportunities to shine; with a full production team supporting, experiencing the joy of music together as a community with their friends and families present and exploring their performance practice in a safe space.
‘’If Four Winds only does one Festival per year, it should be this one. It feels very important to support and nurture our upcoming musicians. The thing that moved me most was seeing the care and respect with which the mentors held the youthful musicians…for me this was the standout.’’
Four Winds also engages professional artists from further afield to work alongside participants, sharing their knowledge and providing rare and priceless opportunities by way of performances, workshops, masterclasses and residencies.
Spring Youth Music Festival is generously supported by Michael and Manuela Darling.
Highlights of the Spring Youth Music Festival have included
2024:
Paul Dean composing an orchestral work (The Bega Shipwreck) with 60 performers aged 6-65.
Father and daughter act featuring singer and member of Djinama Yiliga choir Requia Campbell who teamed up with her father, the renowned Yuin hip hop artist Gabadu.
Young vocalists Kinja Katona and Harper Jessop performing Geoffrey Badger’s arrangement of The Porters Gate Centering Prayer with the Bega Valley Male Voice Choir and Acacia String Quartet.
Local death metal outfit Lilith’s Angels brought the house down and highlighted the extraordinary diversity of youth music activity in our region youth with their infectious mosh pit energy.
Sapphire Coast Anglican College primary school singer, Jorjiya Wheldon’s brought the house down in her stunning SYMF debut fronting a local professional string quartet in Andrena Gorman’s original song Child in Me.
2023:
Young pianist/violinist Henry Tharpa gave a sense of what musical future he is likely to have when he wowed audiences with his SYMF debut in 2023.
Young vocalist Harper Jessop’s moving performance of Unchained Melody with Bega Valley Male Voice Choir.
Performances of Dhurga songs featuring Djinama Yiliga joined by over 300 local school children, School kids conducted by Big Sings’s Rachel Hore, featuring Luminescence Chamber Singers and Inventi Ensemble.
Stunningly mature and assured performance of young local cellist Niah Cockle performing the Brahms Cello Sonata No.1. Niah has been featured and supported by Four Winds over several years to realise her dream of studying at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.
2022:
Local high school music students were enchanted and mesmerised in a masterclass presentation and Q&A session with phenomenal legendary Australian pianists Paul Grabowsky and Andrea Lam.
The enormous generosity of Dene Olding and the members of the Goldner String Quartet, who with deft sensitivity and patience mentored local young string players of the Bega Valley youth Orchestra to lift their performance and inspire their potential.
Ruby Newells, powerful solo taiko performance with legendary percussionist Greg Sheehan and the members of Stonewave Taiko.
In the face of the restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic the Digital SYMF of 2021 provided an important expressive platform for the mature performances of some of our leading youth performers when live performances were impossible. This online festival features stunning audio-visual capture of Sams Caravan which was developed through workshop, training and collaboration with the youth performers. The results speak for themselves with so many memorable performances including Felicity Dowd, Lillian McVeity, Nikea Hayes and a beautiful spontaneous collaboration between Jade Wilson and Hunter-Bailey Watts.
Many of our SYMF alumni such as Nyah Cockle, Lucca Ziino, Hunter Bailey -Watts, Eli Badger, Oscar Gill, Jakob Poyner, Bodhi Turner,Giaan Café, Abby May, Ruby Newell, Lillian McVeity, Felicity Dowd have gone on to tertiary studies and professional careers in music and the performing arts. They regularly return to participate in subsequent Four Winds concerts, festival events and residency projects.
“Greg Sheehan was amazing, so engaging – wish we had more time with him! Students were enthralled as were the staff.”
“It was beyond words today – simply exquisite and an absolutely amazing inspiration!”
