The Queenstown Jazz Orchestra will have a spring in its step this Saturday night.
The 16-piece line-up will be performing big-band and swing dance classics from the 1920s to the ’40s at the Arrowtown Athenaeum Hall as an Arrowtown Community Preschool fundraiser.
Also on the bill at the ‘Bayleys Arrowtown Spring Swing’ is a local collective of singers called ‘The Barber Anns’.
Including Emma Pullar and Rozy Winstone, they’ll be singing a mix of a capella, barbershop and jazz.
The Queenstown Jazz Orchestra, formed by local musical maestro and drummer Peter Doyle in 2011, has played at many functions and
social events over the years.
Doyle’s own children attended the preschool, so he didn’t need a second invitation to bring his big band back after last year’s successful gig — their tunes will include Fascinating Rhythm, Sweet Georgia Brown, All of Me, Take the A Train and Shiny Stockings.
‘‘We had such a blast last year, and the band just love getting together to perform for a great cause,’’ he says.
‘‘Plus, having the mums from the preschool take the lead on organising this event and securing sponsors is invaluable, as it means we can focus on the music and entertainment.’’
Doyle’s son Tim has also stepped in to create marketing material for the event.
‘‘Happy to help,’’ he says.
‘‘It’s nice to do something for my old preschool and the wider community.’’
For the tamariki: Surrounded by Arrowtown Community Preschool young’uns are, from left, The Barber Anns’ Rozy Winstone, jazz orchestra founder Peter Doyle, mum/concert organiser Emily O’Leary, preschool matriarch Jane Foster and mum/co-organiser Jess Kilkenny
Event organiser Emily O’Leary says: ‘‘We have so much talent in our region so it’s great to show case it, enjoy it, and create a positive impact with it.
‘‘The goal of the evening is to get our local community together, enjoy some world-class music and raise some funds for the much-needed Durham St campus refurbishments and improvements.’’
She says the preschool’s been providing ‘‘quality’’ early childhood education to local tamariki for more than 30 years, however it
continually needs to fundraise.
‘‘We are enormously grateful to our principal sponsor Bayleys Arrowtown and delivery sponsors Amisfield, Todd and Walker Law, Alpine Milk Queenstown and Chard Farm for all stepping up again and helping us make this event possible.
‘‘It’s always a very humbling experience when you ask your community for support and they don’t hesitate to say ‘yes’.
‘‘As they say, it takes a village.’’
Bayleys Arrowtown Spring Swing, Queenstown Jazz Orchestra and The Barber Anns, Saturday 7pm, Arrowtown Athenaeum Hall; tickets $65 via eventfinda or on the door, if available; bubbles and cheese boards on arrival, cash bar
