SKYLARK QUARTET - NINTH IN THE WORLD…uh what??!
| Type of post: | Region 34 news item |
| Sub-type: | No sub-type |
| Posted By: | Karen Phillips |
| Status: | Current |
| Date Posted: | Sat, 6 Dec 2025 |
Skylark had a single goal for Columbus, Ohio… STAY IN THE 15! We can’t even describe to you the initial emptiness we felt when they called 15, 14, 13, 12… we didn’t make it… back to regionals again for us in 2026. When they called the amazingly wonderful Radiant for mic testers and 11th place, it was a done deal. So to hear "Skylark" as the first name drawn for the 10 was absolutely wild. We actually couldn;t even cry. We were simply speechless. To be completely honest, it still feels very much like a dream..
Rewind back to the semi-finals on Wednesday… they were a total blast! Avril had a bit of a cry coming off stage – it just felt THAT good out there! We’d had a whole 45 minutes of coaching with Rob Mance on Monday afternoon, and pretty much stuck the landing on his advice. It felt like we unlocked the next level of musicality, and singing those two songs felt extremely relaxed and easy. We were hopeful… but as the day turned into evening and more and more excellent quartets performed on that stage, it was clear it was going to be a tight race for the 15.
The euphoria of being called soon switched to a quick dose of reality… we had to sing again on Friday! Since we hadn’t anticipated making the finals this year, we had only partially designed our 15-minute entertainment package – we had the first three songs of our Aussie icons theme chosen, learned and sung in Hobart in May. However we had planned to create a mega medley to round out the set… which was still just an idea! Oops!
That meant we had to pull together other material we could sing credibly with 36 hours’ notice. We had always wanted our first finals set to be all Glenda’s arrangements, so that helped us decide to take Shelter, the much-loved mass sing for Region 34 – and Skylarkify it – then finish strong with Journey To The Past. Not being part of our otherwise Aussie theme, this weakened the story development, but we had little choice!
To get an idea of the timeline of this whole crazy moment in our lives, the draw happened very late Wednesday evening after semi-finals. We have to confess we weren’t very good at taking in all the details of the finals briefing as we were still absolutely stunned. We stumbled back to our Airbnb and sketched out a plot, and decided songs and had the cue sheet submitted by the deadline of noon Thursday. Then we went to Harmony Bazaar with all of our fingers crossed and thankfully found some beautiful blingy tops to wear! Yep, we didn’t even have an outfit, let alone a finals package!
The afternoon was spent writing dialogue and singing through the songs to check the timing and that they worked. That left one evening rehearsal to actually run it and memorise that dialogue. There was absolutely no time to hone things further; just put on stage our baseline skills and give it all we had. Considering all that, we were immensely proud of what we gave to the crowd on Friday morning. It was genuine, heartfelt – and a bit surreal, to be honest!
During the finals briefing and as we walked on clouds back to our Airbnb, we thought we must have juuuuuust scraped in by a point or so. To get the scoresheet at the end of the contest and find out we were FIFTH in the semi-finals was… well… actually we don’t yet have words.
Seeing your first 88 on a scoresheet is an experience you’ll never forget. 10/10 would recommend. Thank you hugely to Redland Rhapsody, Circular Keys, and of course Alouette for being there with us at such an historic moment; it was wonderful to share that joy with you all! We certainly also felt the love flooding in all the way from Australia from the rest of the region. Thank you for your lovely messages and support, particularly our GoFundMe donators!
What’s next? Well we’d better get planning a finals package for reals! Serious plea: if any Region 34 member knows anyone who is in a position to help us out with a corporate sponsorship or help in any way at all financially, please do contact us via our Facebook page. Stuff is getting real! And we’ll see you all in Hobart next year!
Kirsten Richardson, Skylark Quartet
Rewind back to the semi-finals on Wednesday… they were a total blast! Avril had a bit of a cry coming off stage – it just felt THAT good out there! We’d had a whole 45 minutes of coaching with Rob Mance on Monday afternoon, and pretty much stuck the landing on his advice. It felt like we unlocked the next level of musicality, and singing those two songs felt extremely relaxed and easy. We were hopeful… but as the day turned into evening and more and more excellent quartets performed on that stage, it was clear it was going to be a tight race for the 15.
The euphoria of being called soon switched to a quick dose of reality… we had to sing again on Friday! Since we hadn’t anticipated making the finals this year, we had only partially designed our 15-minute entertainment package – we had the first three songs of our Aussie icons theme chosen, learned and sung in Hobart in May. However we had planned to create a mega medley to round out the set… which was still just an idea! Oops!
That meant we had to pull together other material we could sing credibly with 36 hours’ notice. We had always wanted our first finals set to be all Glenda’s arrangements, so that helped us decide to take Shelter, the much-loved mass sing for Region 34 – and Skylarkify it – then finish strong with Journey To The Past. Not being part of our otherwise Aussie theme, this weakened the story development, but we had little choice!
To get an idea of the timeline of this whole crazy moment in our lives, the draw happened very late Wednesday evening after semi-finals. We have to confess we weren’t very good at taking in all the details of the finals briefing as we were still absolutely stunned. We stumbled back to our Airbnb and sketched out a plot, and decided songs and had the cue sheet submitted by the deadline of noon Thursday. Then we went to Harmony Bazaar with all of our fingers crossed and thankfully found some beautiful blingy tops to wear! Yep, we didn’t even have an outfit, let alone a finals package!
The afternoon was spent writing dialogue and singing through the songs to check the timing and that they worked. That left one evening rehearsal to actually run it and memorise that dialogue. There was absolutely no time to hone things further; just put on stage our baseline skills and give it all we had. Considering all that, we were immensely proud of what we gave to the crowd on Friday morning. It was genuine, heartfelt – and a bit surreal, to be honest!
During the finals briefing and as we walked on clouds back to our Airbnb, we thought we must have juuuuuust scraped in by a point or so. To get the scoresheet at the end of the contest and find out we were FIFTH in the semi-finals was… well… actually we don’t yet have words.
Seeing your first 88 on a scoresheet is an experience you’ll never forget. 10/10 would recommend. Thank you hugely to Redland Rhapsody, Circular Keys, and of course Alouette for being there with us at such an historic moment; it was wonderful to share that joy with you all! We certainly also felt the love flooding in all the way from Australia from the rest of the region. Thank you for your lovely messages and support, particularly our GoFundMe donators!
What’s next? Well we’d better get planning a finals package for reals! Serious plea: if any Region 34 member knows anyone who is in a position to help us out with a corporate sponsorship or help in any way at all financially, please do contact us via our Facebook page. Stuff is getting real! And we’ll see you all in Hobart next year!
Kirsten Richardson, Skylark Quartet
