Sydney Band Viva - Concert at Unveiling Ceremony for Sydney's Welcome Wall

Twice a year an unveiling ceremony to celebrate new arrivals to Australia and to register new names on a Welcome Wall. The wall is 100 metres long and is next to the Australian National Maritime Museum at Darling Harbour, Sydney. The wall was initially created to honor more than six million people that have crossed the world to settle in Australia.

The last unveiling was on the 18th May 2008, guest speakers included: the Hon Tanya Plibersek MP, Mary-Louise Williams director of the Australian National Maritime Museum and Barry Cohen, former minister of the Arts and Heritage. A Sydney Northern Beaches band, Viva the band provided entertainment with a 40 minute concert of multi-national music to a record breaking audience in excess of 2,000 persons.

Viva the band have been invited to perform a return concert at the next unveiling ceremony on the 26th October 2008. They will once again perform from a repertoire of: French, Spanish, Gypsy, Russian, Hungarian, Danish, Argentine, Cuban, Brazilian music along with the usual fare of Jazz and Latin Music.

The line up of the band includes: Marie Rappolt (accordion and midi bass) Peter Rappolt (guitar and flute) Gerri Santos (vocals and percussion) Jose Santos (vocals, congas, guitar and percussion)