Sing, Bike & Barge
Rachel Hore and Elly Franchimont lead this singing tour of the roads, rivers and resonant spaces of North Holand. The first tour happened in September 2012. Details of the tour (and a stack of great pictures) can be found on Elly's site, click here.
Big Sing in the Desert, May 2012
Big Sing is a gathering of singers from across Australia at Ross River Resort, an original homestead near Alice Springs. It's a wonderful opportunity for musical and cultural blending amidst the stunning landscape of the Eastern MacDonnell Ranges.
Diverse generations and cultures meet in song again in 2013
The Big Sing in the Desert is a 4 day choral camp near Alice Springs, 6th-9th June 2013. A donation goes directly toward the costs of transport, accommodation, food and workshop fees for our indigenous singers. Bookings for Big Sing 2013 are now full. To be on the waiting list contact Suzy Madigian bigsing2013@yahoo.com.au.
Click here to go to the Big Sing in the Desert Facebook page.
There's picture gallery and video on the Big Sing in the Desert 2012 info page click here.
Sca's Road Trip
Detail here soon.
Sponsoring Seka.
Seka is a Fijian choir master from Vivili village, on the island of Vanua Levu in Fiji. I met Seka when I took my first group of Australian singers to his village in May 2007. I loved his crazy energetic type of teaching, and straight away I felt comfortable teaching alongside him. Seka gets no wage as we know it for his work, but he has committed his life to choral teaching, and to being a mentor for younger people. It was his dream to travel to Australia.
In 2011, I became Seka’s sponsor, and with the help of the wonderful Elly Franchimont , Seka came over to attend the Spring into choral camp at Port Macquarie. Seka then taught at several schools in the Northern Rivers region, and visited my choirs in the Blue Mountains area.
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Wintersong
The annual, fabulous choral weekend of 100 plus singers, with Rachel Hore, Stephen Taberner and a very special guest artist. Both workshops are held at the Brahma Kumaris Centre, Leura, Blue Mountains, NSW.
Bookings open in March. You'll receive an email notification from me then about how to book. To be added to my mailing list click here.
Singing in Bali, October 2010
Thirty Australians came together in the beautiful Taksu Resort to learn new choir repertoire, relax, swim, and experience Balinese food, culture, hospitality and crazy taxi rides. Each day we sang looking out onto rice paddies where we got lots of laughs watching a big rooster rounding up his hens. Food was glorious and plenty of it. Highlight for most of us was our visit to two orphanages where the kids sang, danced and played gamelan for us. We sang some songs for them, and donated gifts and money toward the orphanages.
This was Shirley Jackson’s first singing event as an organiser and she did a really fabulous job.
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Toowoomba Cultural Connections
Roc in Fiji, June 2010
My choir Roc took a trip to Savu Savu to experience first hand the stunning choirs of the area and our beautiful host Fijian family at Daku.
As well as visting Vivili, Urata, and Yaroi villages, we visited Keni’s village for a lovo feast and ‘sing off ‘ with two of the local youth choirs. The sing off consisted of each choir singing one song each round, trying to up the ante each time. The youth choirs beat us on stamina I reckon!
Our choir kids had a ball snorkelling, swimming, and hanging around with Keni’s kids. They even went to school one morning.
Each time I visit I am humbled by the love we are given, the amazing voices of the Fijians and their willingness to share their culture and music with us. Thanks again Keni, Raj, Temu, Marionne, Demere and Joshika.
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Music workshops out Bush
I have done a range of trips out bush in WA and NT over the past few years, helping to develop music skills for women. It was great to work with Beth Sometimes and travel for the first time to Ernabella Community. We worked on some really good new songs have later been developed into a CD of songs from the community. Big thanks to Caama also for the opportunity to visit Willowra community as part of the MAD for life project and the 'Many Roads one voice' Choir project . Thankyou to the Titjikala community for inviting me to spend time with the choir and work with Margaret Campbell on choir leadership.
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