The ASPIRE Song Competition is in its ninth year and provides students with the opportunity to create and share their original music. This year’s finalists recently performed their music to a packed audience at The Factory Theatre.  

ASPIRE’s 2021 production centres around masks and dance music. Songwriters were invited to compose a song about either of these themes. There were more than 80 entries. I then workshopped the songs with the selected finalists. 

There are many talented songwriters and composers in our Diocese. Their willingness to not only share their talents, but then to be also open to workshopping and performing them with others, shows much courage. 

The judges – Anna Kerrigan, APSIRE Artistic Director; Alicia Paterson, teacher at St Joseph’s College, Lochinvar; and Isabella Rendina, former ASPIRE cast member and ASPIRE song competition winner –had the enormous task of selecting a Primary and Secondary winner. 

The winners of the ASPIRE Song Competition 2021 were: 

Primary – Isabella Rankine – St Mary’s Primary School, Warners Bay, for Hide Away 

Secondary – Molly Herbert – St Paul’s Catholic College, Booragul, for Black and Blue. 

Not only did the winners walk away with a Musos Corner gift voucher, they will also have their songs professionally recorded later this year. 

This year’s finalists: 

1. Ivy Jones – St Joseph’s Primary School, Merewether – More Than Just Mistakes 
2. 3 Maroon – St Joseph’s Primary School, Kilaben Bay – Out of the Shadows 
3. Josie Diaz, Zara Goodman, and Daisy Hall – St Columba’s Primary School Adamstown – Imposter  
4. Liam Bowling, Lachlan Jones, Taylah Lavender, Harriet Price, and Emma Treagust – St Aloysius Primary School Chisholm – Lost in the Music  
5. 6 Gold – St Mary’s Primary School, Warners Bay – Cover Up 
6. Amelia Meischke – St Bede’s Catholic College, Chisholm – That Mask 
7. Samuel McKay-Clerke – St Pius X High School, Adamstown – Mask 
8. Jordan Snowden – St Francis Xavier’s College, Hamilton – Happy as Larry  
9. Seren Everingham – St Clare’s High School, Taree – Don’t Hold Your Breath 
10. Leianna McCloy – St Francis Xavier’s College, Hamilton – Someone Else 
11. Brayden Woodyatt – St Bede’s Catholic College, Chisholm – Disposition 
12. Tahlia Zanardi – ASC St Peter’s Campus, Maitland – Keep on Wondering 
13. Ashton Hearth, Leila Kelly, Marcus Legaspi, Caitlin Price, Anna Schmalenberg, Bella Sepos – St Bede’s Catholic College, Chisholm – Masquerade 
14. Macy Nash – St Mary’s Catholic College, Gateshead – Who Am I?  
15. Kirrily Boslem – St Paul’s Catholic College, Booragul – A Letter to the Best Friend 
16. Lucius Cable – ASC, St Peter’s Campus, Maitland – I See 
17. Holly Hayes, Byron Lynch, Daniel Smith, Trent Swadling, and Jamie Whyte – St Mary’s Catholic College, Gateshead – Wicked Wicked World 
18. Xavier Fogarty, Eli McNamara, and Rylan Thompson – St Francis Xavier’s College, Hamilton – Asking for Change 

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