13 December 2014
Choir Patron Lt. Colonel Ian McLean last night presented ARC accompanist Karen Da Silva with the 2014 Patron's Award. Karen has completed 10 years with the choir and this year was also Principal Accompanist for the MCAA Festival held in November.
Part of the Citation read by Ian McLean
Karen is loyal, highly reliable and dependable; courteous and fun loving with a wonderful personality; nothing is too much for her and she is a real pleasure to work with; her dedication extends to performing willingly and frequently in difficult conditions, especially at Brumbies games where it may be damp even icy.
.........All these wonderful expressions, before we even get to her musical contribution, indicate the high personal regard in which Karen is held.
And in passing, it should not be overlooked that she has capably and faithfully worked with four ARC musical directors, each with a different style, and in addition, over very brief time spans, has also worked successfully with guest conductors of the Male Choirs Association of Australia.
Karen is an excellent, most accomplished pianist. For ten years she has shown a sustained professional commitment to the excellence of the Choir's music. A good example of this is that she has put considerable time and effort into setting-up a new electronic music tablet and software, using her January holidays to sort and scan a large volume of music. This way she avoids searching for sheet music thereby reducing delays for the choir.
Then, later in this very busy year, the Choir hosted the MCAA's "Let All Men Sing" concert. Karen's selection as principal accompanist for the concert was a well-deserved recognition of her fine musical talents, impressive qualifications and experience. She spent a lot of time and diligent hard work in mastering the programme for this very high profile concert and her contribution at rehearsals and the actual performance was outstanding. This most impressive talent underlines the great value to the Australian Rugby Choir of this "quiet achiever".