Louise Markus (Macquarie, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Shine Community Choir from Springwood in the Blue Mountains will be travelling to New York in April for the opportunity of a lifetime. The choir have been invited to perform at the prestigious Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York by Distinguished Concerts International New York and will be official ambassadors for the Blue Mountains. As a testament to the power of social media, the choir were invited after being discovered by the New York organisation on YouTube. Shine choir members will join other choirs from around the world to perform music by Sydney Guillaume, a Haitian-born composer and conductor. I congratulate the choirmaster and director, Nicole Giezekamp-Bakija, and all 25 choir members for the dedication, commitment and community spirit that led to the invitation.

Nicole, who has references from Dame Joan Sutherland and the Juilliard School of music in New York, formed the choir in 2012. The choir began singing at nursing homes in the Blue Mountains and at Blackheath Choir Festival. The invitation to perform in New York is an amazing opportunity for our talented local choir. The Australian consul general, Nick Minchin, will also be attending the performance in New York. I was pleased to attend an event on the steps of the Sydney Opera House recently in anticipation of the trip, and it was a pleasure to chat with Ms Giezekamp-Bakija and the choir members. If you would like to help raise funds for the choir to travel to the US, please visit their GoFundMe page: 'Shine Community Choir New York trip'. I wish them every success.