It was an afternoon of much joy, good music, and fun.

Our conductor, Iain Pole, led the orchestra superbly, nowhere more effectively than during the solo performances of three of our past scholarship winners, Jara Stinson, Abi French and Lindsay Kaul.

We were so pleased that so many of our past proteges attended to play and to wish us well - Jonathan Billingham and Don Secomb OAM deserving particular mention for giving up their own gigs.

Our long time collaborators, Kantabile Chamber Choir and Company of Voices appeared with us for performances of Verdi's Chorus of The Hebrew Slaves and The Anvil Chorus.

We even had a real anvil - pounded very professionally by one of our newest recruits, Tanya Berry.

Our inaugural president, Leigh Vaughan OAM led the orchestra and the combined choirs to a standing ovation.

No local production would be complete without the ABC's incomparable Cameron Marshall and he was indeed our compere (he would find a joke in there somewhere).

But, there was also a serious side to the festivities.

Apart from celebrating our longevity, in this time of climactic terrors and dangers, hardship and calamities, we decided we must give back to our community, not only through the gift of music, but through actual donations of hard cash.

So many have lost so much and there is no end in sight.

We set aside $10 from each ticket sold - $5 for the Rural Fire Services and $5 to drought relief.

We also set up donation buckets in the foyer of the MEC and "sold" our programs for a donation.

We were overwhelmed by people's generosity.

Even those who were stretched themselves managed to drop in a little "something".

And that "something" added up to quite a lot; ust under $4000 collected from the buckets and through ticket sales.

Where did we donate?

Rainbow Flat Rural Fire Service lost its fire station and of course all its contents to the flames so it was our choice to receive our RFS donation.

Our president, Elizabeth Berry contacted brigade captain, Robert Derbyshire to arrange the handover of the $2250 cheque.

The Rainbow Flat crew will be able to put this money to good use in restoring their rural fire station to its usual condition of fully equipped readiness.

We all know that the fires are not the only problem in our beautiful Manning Valley.

The drought is badly affecting our farmers, perhaps not quite as calamitously as in some places further west, but we at Sinfonia all believe that we must first of all support those who have supported us in the past.

Taree Lions, which has previously donated to Sinfonia, is currently co-ordinating financial (and other) donations to our local farmers, so it was obvious that we should give our cheque for $1725 to them for onwards distribution.

Our treasurer, Peter Macfarlane did the honours for this with Taree Lions president, George Greaves.

We hope all of you who attended and donated will be pleased to learn of this happy outcome.

To learn more visit the Sinfonia website.

We look forward to seeing you all again next year.

We wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy new year - with rain.

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