NEWSLETTERS
AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2025
Dear Friends and Members,
This 60th year certainly has proved the need for what we do, and what we offer young music students in Geelong, with great success in the 60th Anniversary Dinner and the recent Scholarships last week.
​
After 19 entries last year, we were pleased to see 37 young classical musicians apply this year: covering all 5 sections and from a wider range of schools. We even had to ask 2 adjudicators to assist with the auditions, to pick the 14 students to participate in the Finals. We thank Rose Humphrey and Carmel Edwards for their stellar preliminary adjudicating.
The Finals were held at R.W. Gibson Music Performance Centre at Christian College Senior School in Highton, with Roger Heagney Adjudicating: a lovely cycle of Roger returning to Geelong, as he was the first President of the Musical Society of Geelong. We sincerely thank CCG and Fiona Gardner, and Roger for their great assistance and support. There was a very supportive audience, the standard was pleasingly quite high and the winners were:
​
String: Oscar Wang
Woodwind: Katie Gardner
Brass: Felix Stanford (Dawson Scholarship)
Vocal: Cuan Bester
Piano: Matthew Kweh
President’s Award: Alexis Meara
Onwards and upwards. Information regarding our AGM and Social evening on Thursday 20th November will follow: save the date and Bring a Friend.
​
Kristine Mellens President.
NEWSLETTER 4. May - August 2025
WELCOME to all our members who have renewed their membership and are continuing to support our great work with young musicians in Geelong. We warmly welcome new members Lex Chalmers and Felicity and Peter Spears to our organisation. We always look forward to new members joining us and any new input.
If you haven’t paid your $20 for this year and renewed your form yet, please find a Membership form in our Membership Section. We have Direct Debit: please just drop Kristine an email when you have paid. We need all types of members: passive, active and supporters. Thankyou in advance to all of you and please let us know if there is a particular area you would like to help with.
SUCCESS!! This year, as we celebrate our 60th year of work in Geelong, we decided to have a celebratory 60th Anniversary Fund-Raising Dinner. A lot of work, but what a wonderful and successful evening it was. On 23rd May, in the wonderful surrounds of Truffleduck, nearly 70 guests joined the Committee and guest artist Peter Coleman-Wright and wife Cheryl Barker, for an evening of excellent food and service, silent and main auctions, and of-course listening to the wonderful interview between Peter and Kristine. We were also delighted that Councillor Eddy Kontelj joined us and gave us positive and informed words of support. As Peter has deep connection with Geelong, it was a pleasure to follow his career paths, highs, lows, and hear wit, sensitivity and practicality in a most enjoyable repartee. An unexpected but absolute delight was Peter agreeing to sing a wonderful Schumann song, Widmung, with Wendy Rechenberg, also with links in Geelong, accompanying Peter.
We did raise enough money for 4 scholarships, just short of the 5 we award each year. Thank you so much to all the wonderful donors and those who supported us in so many ways. Nothing but positive comments and a great sense of satisfaction and friendship was relayed by all who attended, and a desire for another such event next year! Hear, hear.
SCHOLARSHIPS: We are currently busy planning for the 2025 Scholarships. The dates are: AUDITIONS: Saturday 9th August 2025 and the FINALS on SUNDAY 17th August, 2025. Both events will take place at R.W.Gibson Performance Centre, Christian College Senior Campus, Highton. Application forms can be found in our Scholarships Section and please advise any students you know who could apply.
As members, entry is free to the Finals: a wonderful way to see the main goal of our work and hear some of the upcoming young classical musicians in Geelong vie for a scholarship. If you know of any organisations or individuals who would like to donate part of, or a whole scholarship, please give them my details.
​
We are also looking at having a Social/Musical evening for our AGM in December. Keep well and safe.
Kristine Mellens, President Musical Society of Geelong Inc
kemellens3@bigpond.com 0407 392918
Humour: Why did the pirate buy a Pavarotti album?
Because he loved the high Cs.
NEWSLETTER 3 January 2025
​
Welcome to our first Newsletter for 2025.
A belated but warm welcome from The Musical Society of Geelong Inc. We wish you a healthy, happy and musically stimulating year. This year we are celebrating our 60th year as an organisation devoted to helping young music students of Geelong. Our Annual Scholarships for 2024 were very successful with 5 fine young musicians taking home $1,500 each.
This year on FRIDAY 23rd May we will be holding a 60th Anniversary Fundraising Dinner at Truffleduck to raise vital scholarship funds. We will also hold our Annual Scholarships in August: Auditions 9th August and Finals August 17th so a big year for us. PLEASE KEEP THE DINNER DATE FREE AND MAKE A TABLE or JUST COME ALONG AND SIT WITH LIKE-MINDED NEW FRIENDS. If you have any contacts for auction items for our Fundraising dinner please contact me.
​
We ask that you please renew your membership/join us. The membership rate for the 2025 calendar year is $20. This entitles you to newsletters and free entrance to the Scholarship Finals. Please see the Membership page for more details.
​
We hope to have many of our old friends join us again and please bring along new friends - lovers of music who will help support young students have performance opportunities, our Annual Scholarships and the website. We look forward to fresh ideas and welcome both passive and active members..
​
Best wishes until the next Newsletter,
Kristine Mellens - President Musical Society of Geelong Inc
What is Beethoven's favourite fruit? "Ba-na-na-naaaaa"
​
NEWSLETTER 2 September 2024
Welcome to our second Newsletter for 2024. The year has certainly sped by up till now, and last weekend we held the auditions for our Annual Scholarships.
It was hard to know what numbers we would get after a couple year’s hiatus, but after many emails to schools and word of mouth, pleasingly 19 young people applied. Martin Greet was our adjudicator for the Auditions and was a very kind, engaging and all-round musician who chose 11 finalists to appear in the Finals.
We are therefore inviting you to attend the Scholarship Finals which will take place this SUNDAY 15th SEPTEMBER, at 2pm at Belmont High School PAC. Jim Davidson will be the adjudicator for the Finals.
We hope you will come to the Finals and bring family and friends. Entry for adults is $5 and children and students are free. Your entry is free as an MSoG Inc member.
Entry is from Rotherham Street, Belmont, the gates directly next to the oval will be open and the PAC is at the top of the carpark. Parking is available in the carpark.
We wish all the finalists a positive and wonderful experience: the feedback from parents and students has been all very positive: the right time of the year to hold the Scholarships for older students to air their VCE pieces before the exam, for students to perform in front of an adjudicator in relaxed, friendly, semi-informal surroundings and to gain professional feedback.
2025 will celebrate 60 years of the Musical Society of Geelong Inc and its work in Geelong, in helping young musicians. At this point in time we plan to hold an Anniversary Scholarship Fund-Raising Dinner with Scholarship Winners participating. Any ideas and helping hands most welcome!
Our membership still needs boosting so please spread the word to like-minded friends.
Best wishes until the next Newsletter,
Kristine Mellens - President Musical Society of Geelong Inc
​
Why couldn’t the string quartet find their composer?
He was Haydn.
Welcome to our first Newsletter for 2024.
It’s been a while coming, but life has certainly changed for a lot of us with the legacies of Covid and now the difficult financial world we live in.
2025 will celebrates 60 years of the Musical Society of Geelong Inc. and its
work in Geelong, in helping musicians gain performance opportunities,
and more importantly our work in offering the Annual Scholarships to
students over many years, since 1973. We are very pleased to be able to once again offer these Annual Scholarships, for which more information can be found on the Scholarships page on our website. If you know of any potential young students, please alert them to this so they can participate and potentially gain musical and financial assistance in the process.
Our membership is steady, but ready for a boost of new faces. We
thank you all for supporting us and hope you stay with us and bring like-minded music lovers to join us. Please see membership page for forms.
If you have any ideas, musical jokes or stories we can place on our website, please forward them to me. Our email address is musicalsocietyofgeelong@gmail.com
HOORAY!!! Our website is up and running, so please
view/Google it, give us feedback, pass it on to interested friends/prospective
members and contribute if you wish to.
musicalsocietyofgeelong.org
Best wishes until the next Newsletter,
Kristine Mellens, President
Musical Society of Geelong Inc.
​
Why is a piano so hard to open?
Because the keys are on the inside!