Our Songbird concert, on 6 December 2020, is dedicated to Sam Pearse.
Sam came to the ICO after serving as President of the Bach Society of Qld (a choral society) in 1996-97. He was a mainstay for the orchestra for almost 20 years and was made an Honorary Life Member. He served as ICO President or committee member for about 15 years, and played an important administrative part in the incorporation of the orchestra.
Sam joined as an oboist, and later converted to bassoonist as his lip-strength declined. One of his sons, Graham, who is in the audience today, played clarinet early in the ICO.
In the early days Sam served in a number of roles, including organising opportunities for retirement village residents to attend ICO performances. His most memorable effort was initiating the organisation of a combined concert with the then “St Lucia Orchestra” under the baton of Chris Andrews in 2005, which raised over two thousand dollars for victims of an Indonesian tsunami disaster.
Sam is remembered by the orchestra members for his kindness and his leadership. Sue Penn-Davies recently wrote to us saying she would never forget his kindness. When she first joined the orchestra, feeling very nervous about her ability, “he hand wrote a simplified version of a concerto; it must have taken him hours!”.
Sam is also remembered as a story teller. In particular he loved to talk about his time in Papua New Guinea, when he held a senior position at the university. He was often involved in mediating tribal disputes between students, and told stories of his experiences of shared food and conversation as a means of resolving disputes.
Russell Gurrin was president of ICO for a significant amount of time while Sam was active in the orchestra’s organisation. Russell has said that when he was elected president of the ICO, he had no prior experience in leading a group.
“I had been in the committee for a couple of years, so I knew what the committee did, and how it functioned. But being a leader – that was a learning experience, and Sam (along with Robert Teakle and David Teakle) guided me gently through it. Sam was always available, day or night, should I have any questions. And we did have some quite lengthy discussions! Sam loved to bring people together to talk through problems. Many of the committee meetings were held at Sam’s house, and he was very generous to the orchestra, even purchasing some musical scores from his own pocket, so the orchestra could use them.”
Sam continued to play with the orchestra up until 4 years ago, when he retired to the Sinnamon Village aged care community.
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