BY JESSIE WANG, LEAD WRITER (COMMUNITY AND SOCIAL AWARENESS)
We all know that kids in regional Australia do not have access to the same musical opportunities as kids who live in cities. That’s why documentaries such as Don’t Stop the Music exist – to provide and document the transformations that a music program can bring.
And while Moorambilla Voices didn’t have the national coverage like Don’t Stop the Music did, it’s nevertheless been running for more than a decade. What first started as an organisation that wanted to celebrate life in regional New South Wales through music has since expanded to include other artforms including dancing and visual arts.
We chat to Moorambilla Voices founder, artistic director, and conductor Michelle Leonard OAM about the past and future of this arts organisation ahead of its gala concerts in Dubbo this September.
Hi Michelle, thanks for taking time for this interview. So, what is Moorambilla Voices and why did you start it?
I started Moorambilla Voices 14 years ago in the middle of a roaring drought to ensure that the region that I love and grew up in would have an artistic vehicle that would celebrate the life-lines, as well as the rich cultural heritage of the region, through art music.
It has evolved to engage artists of the highest caliber across all mediums, dancers, visual artists, fire sculptors, musicians and composers.
So where did the organisation begin, and where does it operate now? Is it still expanding?
For nine years, Moorambilla Voices held its annual festival and concerts in my hometown of Coonamble. In its 10th year, it has moved to Dubbo and has continued to flourish there.
Moorambilla Voices, since inception, has held all of its regional residency camps in the tiny and glamorous town of Baradine, at the edge of the Pilliga Scrub. By the time we meet for our second residency camp to complete the final touches of our performance for the Gala Concerts in September, the town of Baradine virtually doubles [its population]!
I think as we are enter our 15th year, we are reaching critical mass. The skills, the world view, and the methodology that MV has so successfully established, and has been so regularly awarded [for], is something that people all over Australia – and indeed, are flying in from around the world – come to witness and emulate. The future is very bright indeed.
Moorambilla Voices is more than just being in a choir (although that’s already fun, in and of itself). What else do the kids participate in? How did they become integral to the organisation?
The children who have completed the skills tour, and have been chosen to become part of the Moorambilla Voices Residency Program in Baradine, are given the opportunity to work across artforms with outstanding artists this year such as origami, Japanese silk dying using all natural dyes, and extraordinary lantern work facilitated by the founder of the Lismore Lantern Parade. They also have worked for the past seven years in contemporary art dance led by Jacob Williams and this year beautifully supported by Amy.
This year, our focus is on the Macquarie Marshes region [pictured at the start of this story]. An extraordinary ecosystem even at its most incredibly dry, this nature reserve is a Ramsar-listed area and is vital to the ongoing river health and wider ecosystem health of a third of Western New South Wales. At Moorambilla Voices – when this is combined with incredible digital photography and artist’s experiences with the region, as well as live chamber orchestra – you have a performance that is truly immersive and representative not only of the rich cultural heritage from this region but indeed of the landscape itself.
We also miraculously find time in the day for MAXed OUT, our high school group, to perform and workshop with our members of Sydney’s premier taiko ensemble Taikoz led by Anton Lock.
These artforms are beautifully integrated in the performance in the Dubbo Regional Theatre to make a very cohesive artistic worldview on the focused area of that year.
I have no doubt that some of these kids would have gone on to have a career in music. Can you share some examples of success stories?
As far as I’m concerned, the whole point of the Moorambilla Voices program is to support the wider Australian arts [ecology]; and to give voice, metaphorically as well as literally, to the children from the communities and the towns of the region we serve.
We also find it a privilege to work with the first inhabitants, and indeed the owners of this land, to teach the children their language and worldview. The children who have come through this program are integral to our success and to the worldview that we hold dear, which is one of the constant pursuits of excellence, as well as absolute inclusivity of every child that comes through our program.
Once they leave and become alumni of Moorambilla Voices, they thrive in every aspect of their lives. Many become community leaders, some go on to pursue tertiary education and gain employment. We certainly do have children who have pursued music at a tertiary level, but perhaps more exciting for me is to see them maintaining a constant interest in culture in land, and in the pursuit of their own personal creativity throughout their life. This is a far greater success, in my eyes.
Moorambilla Voices has its annual residency camps in August and September. Tell us what happens at these camps, and what a day in the life is like.
If you’re in the primary school, and you’re in year 6, you start the day with a dance rehearsal from 8-9am. Then, you join everyone else for a fabulous choral warm-up and rehearsal of new Australian choral music from 9-10.30am. Then, they have a wonderful morning tea invariably drowning in biscuits, scones, cookies or cakes to then start a choice of electives. These, as I’ve mentioned, sit across three visual artforms for half of the ensemble, while the other half does a dance workshop in the beautiful Baradine Memorial Hall.
The hall, incidentally, has not a single metal nail in it: it is all done by tongue and groove and was one of the first and most magnificent dance halls in Western New South Wales, and is a real privilege for us as an organisation to have access to.
They work with our Composer in Residence [after lunch] to collaborate on the creation of music for this year’s artistic focus. Our Composer in Residence for the Voices Boys this year has been Andrew Howes; the Voices Girls has been Josephine Gibson; and MAXed OUT will be Kevin Barker. […] When we start the camps, we have no idea what will actually come out of them. However, this also mean that our sell-out audiences are listening to almost entirely 100 per cent Australian new art music that is so fresh, the ink hasn’t even dried off the page!
You also have your annual gala concerts coming up. What can we expect from these events at the Dubbo Regional Theatre?
You are right, our gala concerts will be held on September 27 and 28 in the Dubbo Regional Theatre. I hope that [audiences] will this year feel very much like you are appreciating the magnificence of the Macquarie Marshes, even in their deeply drought-affected state, through the eyes of the bird life. We will be utilising drone footage and environmental sounds, as well as our chamber orchestra and the perspective of our three ensembles, to really tell the stories that have been shared with us.
Our program this year is also inspired by the creation story, told to us by Daniel Faulkner, our Elder in Residence this year. Interestingly enough, those members of the audience who have been following our journey for the past 10 years will find a magnificent coalescence of a lot of these cultural stories this year [just as]I suppose the Macquarie, the Barwon, the Castlereagh and the Bogan coalesce into the Macquarie Marshes.
These stories also are coming together and really helping us frame the connection we all have to this magnificent country. [I hope] that the audience feels uplifted and energised by the sheer joy and capacity of the children as they perform with such energy and sense of life purpose. As they dance and sing this new repertoire, it is a great privilege for us as an organisation to have the opportunity and to share that – not only when we go on tour to record or to perform another states, but also to share that with the audience that comes from the region; a unique and atmosphere in our performance. It is a wonderfully positive symbiotic relationship between the audience and those on stage.
Before you go, why is something like Moorambilla Voices still necessary in this digital and technology era?
I’m assuming by that, you refer to why live performance is necessary at all in in this era of a technology. It is my opinion that our connection to other humans is what builds our humanity. I have no problem at all with live-feeding performances to digital platforms for an increased audience, and I strongly encourage the many mental health benefits of being involved in online platforms. Our Moorambilla Mob and the Moorambilla wider community incredibly benefit [from these] networks that also us to share our message more freely, however these can only start in a meaningful way once the established trust happens at an interpersonal face-to-face level.
To ensure that here in the residency camps, I have a zero technology tolerance level from my high school candidates while we’re rehearsing because I need the children to trust each other. To make great art, you need to connect not only to your inner self and your inner creativity, but to the creativity of the people around you. Humans work best when they work collegially in positive groups or ensembles towards a common artistic purpose or goal. I believe that this is what makes us innately human and as such, the pursuit and creation of art of your landscape, your cultural heritage, the language and the world views embedded in that help us in an era of artificial intelligence, digital interface, and what many see as an atomisation of society. It helps the children build more meaningful and deeper connections that they can then see through in a digital interface.
The arts teaches them real-world skills so when they enter an environment that is going to have more and more complex solutions, we have left the future generations the capacity to collaborate to come to creative solutions. They make positive mistakes in an environment where that is celebrated.
Being able to see that connection to their real life and their futures is possibly the best legacy we can leave. This is why ensembles like Moorambilla Voices are still absolutely necessary, or indeed important, in the digital and technological era.
The Moorambilla Voices gala concerts take place on September 27 and 28 in the Dubbo Regional Theatre. Learn more about Moorambilla online.
WATCH: Here’s more of what Moorambilla Voices has been up to over the past few years.
Say thanks to our writer Jessie Wang for facilitating this conversation
Thanks for supporting Jessie as she volunteers her time to shed light on the arts in Australia.
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Image of Moorambilla Artistic Immersion Day 1, Macquarie Marshes, captured by Noni Carroll Photography (supplied).
Video: Moorambilla Voices from Anna Craney on Vimeo.
