Honouring Nana in Elder Hall
Loretta with her daughter and Mum at the Elder Hall donor thank you
Classical violinist, passionate educator, and Elder Conservatorium alum Loretta De Palma has honoured her Nana with a seat dedication through the Take a Seat campaign.
鈥淢y Nana was born in Sicily in 1922 with this incredible gift of music. Any instrument she touched, she could play.鈥澛
鈥淪he grew up in Sydney, singing at all the Italian festivals and clubs 鈥 even singing with Dame Joan Sutherland 鈥 before she met my grandfather and they settled in Grange.鈥
鈥淭hey lived a very humble, simple life, but it was so full of beautiful music and food 鈥 and that was our upbringing as their grandchildren. We were so blessed.鈥澛
Loretta inherited her Nana鈥檚 talent and passion for music and studied classical violin at the Elder Conservatorium.
I just loved every bit of my time with the University. I was a very shy girl in school, and being studious wasn鈥檛 really my thing. But when I found this passion for music鈥 Well, I just felt very lucky to have found my niche.Loretta
Loretta's Nana, Josephine Amato
Since graduating, Loretta has worked in music and performing arts education around South Australia. When she came across the Take a Seat campaign, she knew it was the perfect opportunity to preserve her Nana鈥檚 legacy and celebrate their connection through music.
鈥淚 know she would just love this. It鈥檚 such a beautiful way of preserving the essence of her and what she shared and gave to so many people.鈥
Donations through the Take a Seat campaign supported the refurbishment of the Elder Conservatorium, including replacing the seating to be more complimentary to the heritage structure of the building. The engraved plaques were placed on the backs of the new seats and will remain in place for at least 10 years.
鈥淚鈥檇 most definitely recommend this to others, it feels like such a beautiful celebration of my Nana鈥檚 life,鈥 said Loretta.
More than 100 seats have been 鈥渢aken鈥 and bear dedicatory plaques featuring donor names or those of their loved ones. There is still an opportunity to be included in 鈥楾ake a Seat鈥 and be acknowledged with an engraved plaque placed on the back of a seat.聽