2020 CHRISTMAS GIVING APPEAL

I am writing in early November. It is the time of year my thoughts turn to Christmas and the celebrations that I will be sharing with my family and friends.

Since 2010, the year my son successfully auditioned for the Australian Boys Choir, I have been rounding up family and friends to attend the annual “Christmas with the Australian Boys Choir” concert. I am saddened that this year we will not be able to enjoy what has become a family tradition together.

In 2020, the Choir’s dedicated team of staff, led by the talented Mr Nick Dinopoulos and supported by a caring and creative Board of Directors, have accomplished amazing things. I have been so impressed with the switch to online learning. I have taken regular sneak-peaks at my son during weekly online singalongs and have been delighted to eavesdrop on the camaraderie shared during weekly sectionals.

I understand that boys of the Institute have made great strides with their musicianship and have continued to be promoted through the ranks in many cases. I’m sure you join with me to applaud each of them and the family behind them. However, the one thing that no one has had the power to provide these remarkable young men during 2020 is the opportunity to perform. I am not a musician but am willing to affirm that the single most important experience for members of the Choir and the training groups is the experience of performance, and lots of it.

As we start to plan for a re-emergence in 2021, I can tell you that we have survived this year thanks to Federal and State Government financial support initiatives and the generosity of donors. But government assistance is almost at an end, and to provide those sorely missed performance opportunities, we need to be able to fund venue hire and performance support. The response we have had this year has been so very encouraging. If you are yet to get involved, or can find a little more in pockets that have been stretched this year, I urge you to get behind our wonderful organisation to allow it to demonstrate proudly exactly what it has done with a year in isolation.

You can support the Board’s newly established dedicated concert fund or direct your donation toward our general operations. You might even consider the simplicity of a monthly or quarterly contribution through the choir’s Give Now platform. It would be easy to believe that the modest amount you can afford to contribute would not make a difference. Instead, your dollar will place a page of sheet music in the hands of a young singer, and its value will be returned ten-fold upon attendance of an ABCI concert in 2021.

Stay safe in the last months of 2020. Put on your ABCI Christmas CD and look forward to the live version in 2021.

Kind regards
Deb Damman
Kelly Gang parent (former Caring Team Member, Concert Team Leader and ABCI Board Member).

The Australian Boys Choral Institute/The Australian Boys Choir Fund is an endorsed Deductible Gift Recipient. Donations over $2 are tax deductible.