Community & Business
20 August, 2024
Hall of Fame awards for Mareeba
MAREEBA has picked up two 2024 Cairns Italian Festival Hall of Fame Awards, announced earlier this month.
Young Italian of the Year Award went to talented performer Albina Niceforo who has achieved much in her young life, while the Cosentino brothers (Giuseppe, Mario and the late Pasquale) received the Farming and Agriculture Award.
Albina lives and breathes music - since she was a baby, she accompanied her mum, a local musician, to her events, and by age three, she had already taken to the stage.
“At the age of eight, I started experimenting with my voice to see ‘how high I could go’ and was trying to develop a classical sound,” Albina said.
“I have always had classical piano and guitar lessons, so I have always appreciated classical music since a young age.”
By 2018, at age 12, Albina was more than prepared to start classical competitions nationally and internationally and then competed in the 2018 Tamworth Country Music Festival, coming runner up in the Mount Franklin Talent Quest.
She then was named winner of Innisfail Young Performers Vocal Award and winner of the Beavon Award.
In 2019, she received the title of National Vocalist Winner (10-11 years) at the Evolution Dance competition.
In addition, she represented Australia in the 10th edition of the San Remo Junior World Finals, receiving second place overall. She was also a finalist of the Forte International Music Competition held at Carnegie Hall in New York City receiving a gold award.
When the pandemic began, most competitions stopped and slowly started going online, but Albina saw an opportunity where many could have seen a disadvantage and started participating in competitions all around the world with excellent results.
In January 2022, Albina entered competitions in Canada, America, France, Serbia, Greece, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Vienna, London, Russia and won first place in the 21st Century Talents Music Competition, Red Maple International Music Competition, Imka Classical Music and Dance Competition, Nouvelles Etoiles Competition and the Grand Prix of the Angel Voice in Serbia.
In winning the Hall of Fame for Farming and Agriculture, the Consentino brothers were recognised for their long association with the tobacco industry in the Mareeba area.
The brothers have a long history with the Mareeba region, with the family migrating to the area in 1960-61.
For the first 10 years in Mareeba, Mario, Giuseppe and Pasquale worked on different tobacco farms as employees and sharefarmers.
In 1973, the families purchased their first tobacco farm of 120 acres in Biboohra, and after a decade there, moved to a larger farm of 160 acres in Paddy’s Green where they stayed for 25 years.
In total, the three families worked in the tobacco industry for 35 years and reportedly never had an argument with each other.
The brothers and their families retired into town in 2008, building a new home within 600m from each other.
Sadly, Pasquale passed away in 2014 but the two other brothers pass their time in their vegetable and flower gardens and still meet every day for afternoon coffee.
