Community & Business
15 September, 2025
St. Stephen’s students join mass choir concert
Students from St. Stephen’s Primary School Pittsworth performed as part of a mass school ensemble at the Perfectly Imperfect concert at Oakey Cultural Centre last week.
Music teachers and stars of the show Melissa Bucholz and Julee-anne Bell started the concert, leading the children in renditions of heart-moving 1960s hits Make Your Own Kind of Music and Dusty Springfield’s I Only Want to Be with You.
Julee-anne had stunned Australian television viewers in 2021 with her rendition of Climb Ev’ry Mountain, on The Voice Australia and repeated the dose in Oakey, with some witty repartee with her partner-in-crime pianist Melissa.
The pair performed popular songs from different periods of their lives, intermingling beautiful music with personal stories about what they were doing when the tracks came out.
Julee-anne spoke movingly about the bullying she had experienced growing up as a blind person with perfect pitch at high school in Brisbane.
Melissa, originally from Grafton, by contrast had a much more comfortable upbringing but came to Toowoomba after a diagnosis of breast cancer, an event which she said changed her life direction.
The massed choir returned for a finale, singing Pink’s Cover Me in Sunshine and Guy Sebastian’s Standing With You.
Other schools that took part were Our Lady of the Southern Cross School from Dalby, Oakey State High School and St. Monica’s School in Oakey.
The concert was well received by a crowd of around 200.
