Applications for Compass Music Festival – North Coast are made by schools on behalf of their participating students.

• A participation fee of $20.00 per student will be payable upon confirmation of numbers late Term 1, 2026. 
• Each participating student and teacher will receive a specially designed T-shirt to wear at the performance.

Schools may put forward groups in more than one ensemble, however students will only be able to rehearse and perform in one ensemble per day.

Please complete the schools application form by Friday 13 February 2026 (Term 1 Week 3).

Compass Music Festival – North Coast will be held at Wiigulga Sports Complex, Woolgoogla on the Monday 25 and Tuesday 26 May 2026 (Term 2 Week 6)

Schools participating in the Compass Music Festival will come together to rehearse throughout the day and perform an evening concert.

The combined ensembles include:

• combined secondary school choir (Years 7 to 12)
• combined primary school choir (Years 3 to 6)
• combined recorder ensemble (Years 3 to 12).

There is no audition required for the combined ensembles. All schools that apply will be accepted.

The repertoire for combined ensembles will be made up of selections from:

• Festival of Choral Music (combined primary choir)
• Festival of Instrumental Music (combined recorder and string ensemble).

All of the combined ensembles will perform a combined opening and finale item as part of a massed choir.

• Teachers will receive a master copy of the relevant repertoire (secondary choral and/or recorders and/or primary choral) from which to make copies for every participating student.
• Access to a range of online repertoire resources will become available soon.
• Teachers from participating primary schools are encouraged to attend in-person teachers professional development workshops for the musical component in which their school is involved.
• Teachers from participating secondary schools are encouraged to attend in-person cluster rehearsals with their students.

Local teacher professional development workshops will be available to participating schools.
Primary choir and recorder workshops will be held from 9 am to 2:30 pm at the following locations:

• Wednesday 18 February 2026 at Southern Cross School of Distance Education, Ballina
• Thursday 19 February 2026 at Coffs Harbour Regional Conservatorium
• Friday 20 February 2026 at Tacking Point Public School

Please complete the teacher PL registration form if you wish to participate.

Sydney teacher professional development workshops also covering the Compass Music Festival repertoire include:

• Festival of Instrumental Music recorder workshop 
• Festival of Instrumental Music strings workshop 
• Festival of Choral Music primary choir workshop 
• In Concert secondary choir workshop

Teachers may choose to attend their local professional development workshop and/or the corresponding Sydney workshop.

Secondary choirs and their teachers are invited to participate in an exciting day of singing with Paul Jarman.

The cluster workshop for the combined secondary choir will support the teaching and learning of Compass repertoire. Schools are encouraged to attend this workshop. It is not expected that students will have completely learned the songs by this time.

The workshop will be led by our expert conductor and include demonstration of choral teaching strategies to support your ongoing rehearsals.

This workshop is available to participating schools and will be held from 9 am to 2:30 pm, Wednesday 25 March 2026 at Clarence Valley Conservatorium, Grafton.

Performance opportunities are available for outstanding individual school instrumental and vocal items at Compass Music Festival – North Coast. Solos, duets, or small ensembles are encouraged to apply. Pieces will be selected on the basis of providing high quality and variety to the concert.  

Applicants will be required to be available for a sound check and the evening performance.

Applications for featured performers will open in Term 1 2026.

There are opportunities for Entertainment Industry (VET) students to undertake work placement at this event. VET Entertainment teachers should contact Sarah Armour, Arts Coordination Officer, The Arts Unit – email: [email protected] for further information.

Applications for featured performers will open in Term 1 2026.

Schools may nominate pairs of students for the role of Host at the Compass Music Festival. We will be looking for confident and enthusiastic public speaking students from Years 5 to 12 to act as Hosts for each performance.  

Students taking up a position as host should not be a performer in the festival and must have publicity consent. Hosts will be required to attend the festival during the day to rehearse before the evening show.

Hosts will be required to wear their formal school uniform for the show. Students should prepare the audition script and submit their audition when the applications open during Term 1 2026.

For further information please contact: Sarah Armour, Arts Coordination Officer, The Arts Unit – email: [email protected]