Freyja performs with Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Sydney Philharmonia Choir

Last week, I was lucky enough to perform in a concert series that I know I will never forget.

I have always loved singing in a choir. And singing in the Sydney Children’s Choir has always given me amazing experiences and opportunities; much like last week where I got to stand on the Opera House Stage with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra (SSO) and the Philharmonia Choir to perform Mahler’s iconic 3rd symphony.

This whole thing felt like the equivalent of the Quidditch World Cup after months of rehearsing. Simone Young – or Maestro Young – was both terrifying and amazing. The way she conducted looked like water dancing. She was pretty fierce, but thank goodness my chorus master, Lyn Williams knew how to prepare us for the fast-paced rehearsals with the SSO.

In the long periods of time that we were waiting to sing on stage, when we couldn’t so much as scratch our heads, the music seemed to swell like a living thing before me. I felt like I could actually see the music and the energy dancing above the wide audience. The three nights I performed were packed and you could hardly see the pink of the seats. If I could put one word to the whole thing, it would be ‘inspiring’. It wasn’t the first time I had been told that it was Mahler’s symphonies were the sort of music that turned people into musicians. The classical music that young people heard and decided to devote their lives to. But actually being at the heart of the sounds, at the heart of the cymbals crashing and the French Horn solos, right there in the moment when the waves of the orchestral sound roll out over the audience, I could see it. I could feel the pull of eagerness to understand everything about the music. To know why we come back again and again for the feeling you get when you hear people who love music sing and play for you. Why the harmonies sound so juicy in the big climaxes. But most of all, to understand what music means to me.

And I think that those nights in the concert hall helped me understand myself with music a little bit more.

– Freyja Gray (Year 8)