So this year there is no orchestra pit. Instead, the Southern Stars orchestra will take their performance to new heights, setting up on stage above the singers and dancers who will perform around them.

The orchestra will be on view throughout the entire performance, giving the audience a rare insight into its role. Musical director Peter Copeland, who first performed in Southern Stars as a teenage pianist from Albion Park High, said while it wasn’t his idea to move out of ‘the pit’, it was exciting for the students to be visible to the audience.

“Being elevated means we are more exposed, which is great for the kids and means the audience can see what we are doing,” Mr Copeland said. “The orchestra is the foundation of the show and they will be able to see us operating all of the time.”

The 2016 orchestra is made up of about 30 students from Year 7 to 12 with about one third from Year 7, involved for the first time. One of them is Figtree High School student Bailey Craft, 13, who plays alto saxophone and whose father Glenn Craft was musical director of Southern Stars in 2003 and 2004 when Mr Copeland was playing keyboard in the orchestra.

Bailey said he was excited about being in the orchestra having previously been involved in the choir, dancing and a drumming group.

“I’ve been on the tarmac a few times so I’m not too worried about the audience being able to see me,” he said.

Mr Copeland said it was great to have a fresh group of musicians coming through and it was “really nice” to be working with the son of someone who had directed him. “I started out in the orchestra pit, and a couple of years later Bailey’s dad became musical director, when I was at uni,” Mr Copeland said.

“Glenn was always very supportive and it’s good to have a fresh bunch of kids like Bailey coming through, with their own skills. If we don’t have new generations of musicians and performers coming through it will just stop. It’s going full circle.”

Tickets for shows on Friday 26 and Saturday 27 August through Tickemaster.