All invited for vocal group debut

NEXT week will mark the inaugural meeting of a new singing group centred around community, song, meditation, and prayer.

The group’s first session is slated for this Tuesday at St Peter’s Anglican Church, where organiser Mark Ponzi will guide attendees through traditional and more contemporary works.

“We’ll introduce Anglican hymns but my aim also is to do singing not only for church,” he said.

“There’ll be Barbara Streisand, some Grigorian chants… Who knows where the group can go? It’ll all depend on what level people are at.”

With professional experience working as a singer and dancer in Europe in his younger years, including as dance captain at Paris’ Moulin Rouge, Mr Ponzi brought a similar initiative to Fawkner’s St Peter’s parish.

Each session will see accompaniment by Kay and Dwayne Job on vocals and guitar respectively. Group singing will be preceded with meditation and prayer.

The new group will be capped at about 20 people and meet for one-hour sessions in the church’s transept. Each session will be by donation only.

Mr Ponzi said a key driver behind the initiative is to attract more people to the church.

“I’ve been with this parish since I moved to Ballarat two years ago and I’m studying to become a minister,” he said.

“Due to the church’s ageing population, my aim is to invite outside people to come into this church because it’s such a beautiful place with so much soul and history.

“We only have about 30 people coming in on a Sunday. My aim is to build this group for everyone to come in to experience community.”

Following next week’s debut, which will run from 7pm, the group will meet on the first Tuesday of every month.

Contact Mr Ponzi on 0401 063 594 to express interest.