SINGERS SPREAD LIGHT AND HOPE DURING WEEK OF HOPELESSNESS
On Thursday, July 15 and Friday, July 16, when shops started to slowly open to residents, with snaking queues and limited items, some local singers and musicians took the opportunity to use their gifts to bring hope, cheer and upliftment to the stressed, tired and hungry crowds.
Renowned singer, choir director and vocal coach Judith Hawthorn serenaded the queues at Hilton Quarry with her beautiful voice and piano music on Thursday morning, calming all fear and uncertainty with beloved classics and hymns such as ‘It is well with my soul’, even compelling some shoppers to hum and sing along.
Hawthorn said the Bible story of King Jehoshaphat sending singers into battle in Chronicles chapter 20 inspired her.
“For me as an artist, I just thought, what can I do to help? I can’t stand out at the community blockades, but I can sing. I just wanted to use my art to encourage people,” she said. She added that during the course of the morning someone put a flower pot on the ground and people started throwing money in it, which she donated to the Hilton Emergency Relief fund. On Friday, local opera singer and voice coach Emma Farquharson also decided to gather some of her muso and artist friends together and put on a show for her community.
“I decided that I needed to do something, give something that was in my power to give, to my local community. So I gathered a few of my close friends, musos and artists together to freely give of our creativity in a public space and to bring some music-fuelled light back to our neck of the woods,” Farquharson shared.