IfirstmetGreg20yearsagowhen I
joined theNewEraChoir. Asa result
of joining thechoir, Iwas thrown
intopreparations for theproduction
TheFaceofGlory.
Itwasduring these rehearsals that I confirmed
my faith in Baha’u’llah and became a Baha’i.
What really touched me during these
rehearsals, were little things that probably
no one else would have thought twice about,
but, Iwas likea sponge so thirsty for the truth
that Iwaswanting towitness andbelieve that
this Faith was everything it said it was. So
with Greg as the conductor of such amazing
musical compositions with lovely melodies
and four part harmonies, I grew to love not
only the joy ofmakingmusic, but of how the
choir members, every Tuesday night at the
South PerthBaha’i Centre, would pray before
andaftereverypracticewithsuchsincerityand
whenwehadperformances,wewould say the
Fire Tablet and chant other beautiful prayers
to overcome difficulties and to pray for each
performances success. Somuch laughter, joy
andmusicalharmony–itwaspurebliss. Rouhi
would always say, I came home so full of joy
aftereverychoir rehearsal.
When reflecting about Greg’s life and all
that he has offered me personally and the
community, I couldwrite for hours about his
many virtues and qualities, however, there
are a few qualities that stand out for me and
they also seem to go together. Greg has such
a fantastic sense of humour, perseverance
in everything he does and all that he does
is in his natural authentic ‘larrikin’ style.
To illustrate this further, at one afternoon
concert, Greg unfortunatelywas having some
difficulties. Hewas having costume troubles.
I am guessing the problemwas not apparent
to him until the event had started and Greg
was conducting… Greg inhisusual stylewas
moving about while conducting and when I
saymove, itwas not just his arms, but his legs
and feet, moving forwards and backwards,
sideways, and focusing intently on bringing
in each part of the choir, or take our volume
up, down, increase thepace, slow thepaceand
remindus to smile… somuch to focusonall at
the same timewithour eyesfixedonhis every
move, but…. something he was wearing was
distracting us… and him… he kept stumbling
overhis shoe!
It was likewatching someone about to take a
terrible fall andwanting to reachout andhelp
but be forced to just stand and smile and sing.
The choir were unable to cover our obvious
concern that Greg was going to land on the
floor with his next side step, sowith humour
and grace and his natural style, Greg decided
something had to be done about it. Straight
after one of the songs finished,…Greg pulled
off his black shoe and held it up high to the
audience andpulledback the rubber sole that
had come away from the rest of the shoe and
as he held it up he said something to make
everyone laugh… ‘O look, my sole is taking
off”. The choir and the audience burst into
laughter and it set the tone for the rest of
our performance where we were facing an
audience of smiling faces and Greg kept on
conductingwith one shoe on the floor. After
the performance, many from the audience
congratulated us on how amazing the
performance was. In fact one woman stated
she sawagoldenglowaboveourheads!
