Laurieton's Abigail French set for Carnegie Hall performance

Students from St Columba Anglican School’s chamber choir will perform the premiere of a major composition by international composer Paul Mealor.

“Carnegie Hall a very prestigious setting,” Abigail said. 

“It’s amazing that a small country-town choir has received the opportunity to have this experience.” 

Abigail hopes she gets the chance to meet Mr Mealor and ask him why he chose to compose a requiem. 

Traditionally a requiem is a piece of music which has been written to honour the death of a person. 

“It’s very morbid so I wanted to ask why he chose to compose it,” she said. 

In addition to being a singer, Abigail is a talented violinist and has recently returned from a Singapore tour with the Mid North Coast Youth Orchestra. 

Read more: Abigail overcomes distance barrier for music 

Abigail enjoyed participating in string workshops under the direction of the concert master of Singapore’s Symphony Orchestra. 

“It was heaps of fun and a fantastic opportunity to network with other professional players overseas,” she said. 

Abigail was concert master for the Mid North Coast Youth Orchestra and performed a solo. 

In the future Abigail would like to pursue a career in music. 

It’s her dream to perform as part of an Australian chamber group and travel the world. 

The choir were asked to perform the requiem after the school posted a video of them singing one of Mr Mealor’s pieces on YouTube. 

Read more: Angelic voices prepare for Carnegie Hall 

Concert organisers in New York were searching for choirs that could sing the challenging music and discovered the video of their performance.

School conductor Marie van Gend initially deleted the email from organisers because she thought it was a hoax.

Mr Mealor’s ‘Requiem’ which looks at ‘the beauty of sacrifice’ will be performed on November 11 for Remembrance Day.