Photo: Supplied.
BY JAN NARY
David Webster’s career as a musician was probably destined by both nature and nurture.
The child of two accomplished musicians who had met in a choir, he attended and sang in choirs from childhood. He started at the University of Queensland as an engineering student and promptly enrolled in seven choirs. Through a series of happenchances in the UQ Musical Society, he advanced from backrow bass to vice-president, then to president, and to conductor.
“I thought, I’ve been in choirs long enough to know what to do, I’ll just start us off, look after the first month while we find our footing. That month turned into ten years,” he says.
That was the first of the many achievements that this talented musician has to his credit. He is currently Musical Director of the Bach Society of Queensland, Director of Music at Holy Trinity Anglican Church, Fortitude Valley, and Conductor of the Senior Choir of the Blackstone-Ipswich Cambrian Choir, as well as having worked with many esteemed Australian and overseas musical societies. His repertoire is as wide as his experience; baroque and classical, contemporary popular music – all is grist to the mill of this thorough-going musical talent. He’s also tackled pieces that are outside the usual genres.
“I heard David Fanshawe’s African Sanctus in 2006 and fell in love with it; it has to be one of my favourite works to conduct. I first conducted it in 2006 when I was too young to know that I should be scared of it; in 2022, I took a year to prepare for it.”
David’s engineering ability to fit things together and make them work is useful with the organisational and managerial side of his work.
“I enjoy the management, involvement with the committees and event planning and production, as much as the conducting and singing,” he says. “Then, when you’ve done the production work and rehearsals and you get to the point where you’re really making music, lifting the baton and being in charge of that whole choir is incredible. It’s magic.”
David and the Redland City Choir are in the exciting process of shaping future programs; David enjoys working with a variety of classical and contemporary music.
“We have a range of abilities in the Redland choir, so I set a target for each rehearsal and adjust as necessary. One of the reasons I love choirs so much is that people literally come in off the street with little belief in their own ability to sing – but singing is the one musical art form where you can come in and start wherever you are.”
For singers and audiences, there are exciting times ahead.
Tuesday evening rehearsals will resume at RPAC on July 14. For more information, email [email protected].
