13 singers from the Southern Highlands are about to embark upon the trip of a lifetime, touring France and Belgium for the final Centenary of ANZAC celebrations.
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The OZY Youth Choir Honouring Defence Service will unite music and history on a singing tour of the Western Front, performing as part of the International Peace Project.
National Peace project director OJ Rushton said some of the highlights of the trip will include joining French students to sing on some of the battlefields of WWI at Ypres and Villers Bretonneux, recreating the Christmas truce of 1914 and a visit to a peace partner school in Rouen, Normandy.
“It is an unbelievable opportunity for a bunch of young, country larrikins, like many of the Aussie kids who went off to war a hundred years ago, to stand together in peace and learn from the past,” Ms Rushton said.
“The trip will mark the end of the Centenary of ANZAC and will usher in the 2019 Centenary of the Year of Peace,” she said.
The choir will be greeted in Paris at the Palais de la Légion d'Honneur by Grand Chancellor of the Legion d’Honneur, Benoit Puga
General Puga saw the choir perform when he was in Australia for Remembrance Day celebrations in early November and extended a personal invitation for them to visit and perform for him in Paris.
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Each singer in the choir has adopted a digger or nurse they have researched and will follow their WW1 journey while they are on tour.
The trip is a self-funded endeavour and the choir is hosting a fundraiser at the Fitzroy Inn, Mittagong on December 6 to help with manage the cost of the tour.
“The kids are paying their own way over to Europe, but they do need that extra a bit of help getting over the line,” Ms Rushton said.
The evening event will include a performance and presentation from the youth choir, hors d’oeuvres, raffles and prizes.
Tickets are still available to purchase and all funds raised will go toward further travel costs not covered, such as meals, for the choir.
- OZY Youth Choir Fundraiser: 6:30pm, Thursday, December 6 at Fitzroy Inn, Mittagong, 1 Ferguson Crescent, Mittagong. To purchase tickets, visit: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/ozy-youth-choir-hds-fitzroy-inn-fundraiser-and-raffle-draw-for-western-front-tour-tickets-53000070638
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