On their northern Queensland tour, Gondwana Voices and Gondwana Indigenous Children’s Choir combine today with Rockhampton children for a Songfest concert at St Joseph’s Cathedral. Jacquie Mackay of ABC Radio Capricornia caught up with Lyn Williams and Minette – one of the seven Boyd children who have all ‘done Gondwana’. Audio link
And below, local TV station WIN and journalist Inga Hansen joins a rehearsal session and speaks with Artistic Director Lyn Williams and choristers.
Executive Director of Gondwana Choirs, Bernie Heard has been on the road with the choirs and says, “We have had some really great rehearsals with the local Songfest Choir over recent days, and our Gondwana Indigenous Children’s Choir arrived safely from Cairns after a slight hiccup – a bus breakdown on the road to Rockhampton yesterday!”
Several choristers in Gondwana Voices are from Rockhampton and Yeppoon – such as 15 year old Minette Boyd who was interviewed by ABC Capricornia. Minette is the youngest of seven children, all of whom have participated in Gondwana’s national choirs, so there has been a family representation continuously since 2002 in Gondwana!
Bernie said that the main rehearsal focused on bringing together the sounds of the two choirs – Gondwana Voices and Cairns-based Gondwana Indigenous Children’s Choir. “They are from all across the country, but are enjoying forming new friendships based on their mutual love for choral singing.”
Tonight’s Rockhampton concert will include repertoire from a range of Australian composers such as Paul Jarman, Dan Walker and Michael Atherton, and the Indigenous choir is also sharing some repertoire from a new work commissioned by Gondwana Choirs by Alice Chance – the Trochus Shell suite, drawn from traditional songs and stories from the Torres Strait Islands.
The tour moves onto Mackay, Townsville and Innisfail finishing in Cairns on 13 October.
The tour (5 – 13 October 2018) is supported by Rio Tinto (Principal Partner sponsor of the Gondwana Indigenous Children’s Choir), the Queensland Government Department of Premier and Cabinet, and the Queensland Government’s Regional Arts Development Fund, through the Cairns Regional Council.
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