Edelweiss Casey Choir has celebrated the season with a special online musical extravaganza.
Due to the continuing lockdown in Melbourne, the choir had to change its initially planned stage performance to an online performance to welcome and celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival (also known as the Moon Festival or Mooncake Festival) on the evening of Sunday 19 September.
The members of the celebration party were firstly greeted by Mrs Xu, followed by an opening speech by Emily, the Director of Edelweiss Casey Choir.
The celebration party kicked off with wine toast and some heart-warming and humorous remarks by Rose, the Master of Ceremonies.
The first item on the playbill was called ‘Bragging About All Our Choir Members’, performed in a lively manner by six senior choir members.
Tenor David ‘Pavarotti’ sang a song named ‘Looking At The Moon’, which stirred up a mixture of feelings of missing family in the homeland and gratitude for being here in Melbourne.
Mr Wu gave a guitar performance accompanied by a vocal performance of ‘My Home is There’.
Edelweiss’ vocal music teacher, Kim, then performed ‘All Is Found’, a song from the 2019 Disney film Frozen 2.
Four members – Yong Mei, Eileen, Liya and Anny – recited three affectionate poems accompanied with great Chinese folk music.
Edelweiss, a show tune from the 1959 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical ‘The Sound of Music’ was subtly and intricately played by the choir’s solo flautist, Mr Huang.
Both the MC, Rose, and Sisi then performed a scene with full costume from the largest Chinese opera form, Beijing Opera.
Choir members Phyl , Weiguo, Linda, Xiaxia, Mrs Bai and Mr Zhang all gave wonderful and differently styled performances.
‘Melbourne, my Second Hometown’, a poem written by Mr Youyuan, was recited affectionately by Yingmei, Jinyan and Elma, expressing the yearning of Australian Chinese for their hometown and their gratitude for their Australian life.
The party was also interspersed with riddle games and activities such as snatching and opening red envelopes.
The party ended with cheers and laughing to the song ‘You Are My Sunshine’.
It was a meaningful and bright traditional Chinese festival that the family of Edelweiss Casey Choir spent together here in Melbourne.
