Brunswick Women’s Choir’s Farewell Concer

New Territory – Brunswick Women’s Choir’s Farewell Concerts

The Brunswick Women’s Choir Beyond the Sunset Tour, will begin in Adelaide and finish beyond Darwin in the Tiwi Islands.  Performing and collaborating with local choirs along the way, this tour has been two years in the planning.

“It is an enormous, exciting and challenging undertaking and we are thrilled to be going on the road with our songs, and sharing and learning from others around this big country,” says Choir Director, Cathy Nixon.

Before heading on tour, the Choir is delighted to perform two farewell concerts on home territory in Melbourne. The Brunswick Women's Choir - New Territory concerts will send the Choir off in style as well as raise money to cover the costs of touring.

Two farewell concerts will be held at the Brunswick Uniting Church, at 212 Sydney Rd, Brunswick, on 15 August 2009 – an afternoon concert at 2.30pm and an evening concert at 7.30pm.

The Choir promises to uplift and inspire with songs about the land, women’s issues, working towards a better world, and the blues that come with bad shoes!

“The Brunswick Women’s Choir - Heavenly – really – like a foretaste of heaven!”  says Clare Boyd-Macrae, author and freelance journalist.

Many of the choir’s songs are written by Australian songwriters including Lou Bennett, Paul Kelly, Kavisha Mazella and Tony Backhouse, and form the backbone of the repertoire we’ll take on tour.

The Beyond the Sunset tour is inspired by the choir’s collaboration with indigenous songwriter Lou Bennett in 2007. The title Beyond the Sunset is taken from the lyrics of one of these songs, which is partly sung in Bennett’s traditional language, Yorta Yorta.

Lou’s passion for keeping the Yorta Yorta language alive and flourishing has become our passion too.  It’s our wish to share the Yorta Yorta language by singing these songs about love, respect and healing, to new audiences.

The Brunswick Women’s Choir strongly believes in the healing power of song. Lou Bennett feels the same way.

“When things like language are shared, there is a common ground and there is a sense of pride, but when we exclude that it becomes an ‘us and them’ situation…when you start to include people; when you choose the right people to share your knowledge with, it opens up such a positive place. It’s so important for healing and understanding. It’s reconciliation in action,” says Bennett.

One feature of the tour is an invitation from the Ngarukuruwala or Strong Women's Choir on Tiwi Islands to join them in sharing culture and song.

For more information and to buy tickets to the New Territory farewell concerts, go to www.brunswickwomenschoir.org.au or contact the Choir Administrator: 0408 079 922

For interviews, please contact Cathy Nixon, musical director: 0425 741 030