Todd McNeal makes music.
The Caroline Chisholm Catholic College music teacher and composer will have his award-winning composition, Gifts, performed at Australia’s biggest choir festival, Choral Fest, in Melbourne later this week.
The Sunshine resident, who has composed for some of the top youth choirs in Australia, was commissioned by Brighton’s Firbank College 18 months’ ago to compose a piece that the school choir would perform in Europe.
His composition was based on a poem written by Aboriginal poet Oodgeroo Noonuccal, telling the story of a young man trying to woo a woman.
“It’s sort of funny and romantic,” McNeal said. “It’s a brilliant poem with a brilliant story.”
It was also a winner. Firbank College choir Bel Canto took out first place in the treble choir section after performing Gifts at the Summa Cum Laude International Youth Music Festival last year.
“I was very pleased that the school liked the piece and it went down well with the audience,” McNeal said.
“It’s exciting for me that it’s being done here in Melbourne.
“I wrote some operas that had a little bit of success in the UK when I was first writing music … about six or seven years ago, I found this poem in a book of nursery rhymes I’d been reading to my daughters and I thought I’d try something different and write choral music. I found a way of combining my love of pop and jazz and music with my skill in classical music.”
