By Daniel Honan
Bellingen Youth Orchestra’s “An Evening of Two Halves” filled out last Saturday night’s program with Vivaldi, Tchaikovsky, Mozart, Saint-Saëns and Shostakovich – and became, by the end, a tribute to one of the organisation’s founding volunteers.
The concert opened with BYO’s advanced string ensemble, Sinfonia, led by Amber Davis, performing Vivaldi and Tchaikovsky and featuring several of its own soloists. The full Bellingen Youth Orchestra took the stage for the second half, playing a program spanning Mozart, Saint-Saëns and Shostakovich.
Barb Trist, who had been with BYO since it was founded almost 20 years ago, died last week, aged 94. The evening closed with a piece played in her memory.
Trist had baked cupcakes for BYO’s afternoon teas from the very beginning. Her son Michael, who spoke at the concert, said he and his daughter had worked out she had probably made around 15,000 of them over the years.
“Even though it’s something very small, afternoon teas are a huge part of our orchestra,” Bellingen Youth Orchestra Operations Manager Rainee Herron said.
BYO now supports more than 100 players across its String School, Wind School, Sinfonia, Intermediate Cygnet Orchestra and flagship orchestra, and provides instruments to four local primary schools.
The orchestra’s next concert, on 12 December at the Bellingen Memorial Hall, will pair the full BYO with Paul Jarman’s choir. Herron said the group was also planning something special for its 20th anniversary in 2027.
