Southern Wheatbelt talent on show at enchanting night of musical delight

The Narrogin Town Hall showcased six well-travelled and professionally trained artists originally from the Southern Wheatbelt at An Evening of Solo Instrument Delights on Saturday, March 11. Organised by Narrogin music teachers Robin Newman and Mary Martin, the event raised money for the Royal Flying Doctor Service. Following a welcome to country delivered by Raylene Storey, Ms Newman opened the evening by thanking the six musicians ahead of their performances and providing an overview of the work of the RFDS. “Thank you all for coming, and thank you to the musicians who have returned to Narrogin for this occasion.” Ms Newman said. “I want to particularly thank Ann McLeish for coming along here tonight after spending several full days at the Wagin Woolorama after walking from Narrogin to Wagin.” The first performer of the evening was Dion Gampfer, a WAAPA graduate teaching classroom and instrumental music at Narrogin Senior High School. Their moving performance of composer Ennio Morricone’s Gabriel’s Oboe transformed the hall, creating an enchanting space for coming performances to fill. Nicole Dixon followed Gampfer with her French horn and a concerto written by Mozart. “This was written around 1784, and Mozart wrote it for his friend,” Ms Dixon said. “In the original manuscript, he wrote cheeky little comments in the borders — things like ‘tricky bit coming’ and ‘don’t mess it up’ — he was quite quirky.” Anna Pollard then mesmerised the audience with a magical recital on a recorder, revealing afterwards that the instrument was a $2 recorder she purchased as a child. Newman College teacher Laura Van Rijn performed her favourite piece for flute before being joined by mezzo-soprano Sarah Sercombe and Ms Newman for a performance of Don Besig’s Flying Free. Following the intermission, Ms Newman’s grandson Hamish Newman performed a difficult and special piece, Chopin’s Ballade in G Minor by Chopin. “I played a very simple version in 2019, and I asked him to learn the proper version if he could,” Ms Newman “I’d to thank him very much for learning that piece of music ... for everybody’s sake.” Dr Newman — a skydiving neurosurgical registrar who has attained an Associate of Music, Australia (AmusA) diploma in piano — said that playing for leisure is an important downtime pursuit that also helped with his dexterity.