Final week of Queensland Music Festival 2017 to resound through state with thousands of voices

MEDIA RELEASE

Final week of Queensland Music Festival 2017 to resound through state with thousands of voices

The fourth and final week of Queensland Music Festival (QMF) 2017, July 24–30, will climax with an explosion of sound, from community choirs and classical stars, to Cuban jazz and a didjeribone, performed across the state’s stages, regional centres, nursing homes, islands, smartphones and schools.

QMF Artistic Director Katie Noonan said final week performances would crown the 2017 festival with unforgettable experiences that place music at the heart of Queensland lives. 

“From thousands of community voices singing in unison at You’re The Voice and The Power Within, 
international percussion star Manu Delago’s world premiere Hang with QYO, and film scores and songs from our state’s brightest young artists in Score IT! and Jack Carty working with young budding musicians from regional Queensland for On Song, week four scales Queensland music talent and tastes from the grassroots to the world stage,” Ms Noonan said.

At 5:30pm on Tuesday 25 July in Sunnybank, more than 100 Brisbane school children will sing out against domestic and family violence alongside QMF Artistic Director Katie Noonan and Choir of Hard Knocks Founding Artistic Director Dr Jonathon Welch AM in a rendition of John Farnham’s ‘You’re The Voice’. Part of QMF’s Cornerstone Living Schools Program and groundbreaking You’re The Voice choral project, the one-off concert is free, but bookings via SunPAC’s website are essential.

At 5pm on Saturday 29 July, more than 4,500 people, including 135 choirs from across the nation, will join Australian music icons Kate Ceberano, X Factor winner and Eurovision grand finalist Isaiah and Katie Noonan in a national, mass rendition of Farnham’s powerful anthem, with over 2,500 choristers performing with the stars at South Bank Piazza. View the concert and join in via livestream from anywhere across Australia at qmf.org.au or on QMF’s Facebook page.

Later on Saturday evening at 8pm, QPAC’s Concert Hall will be graced by an exciting blend of classical and contemporary music, and international and home-grown stars, with Hang with QYO. Austrian star percussionist and Björk collaborator Manu Delago will play a the world premiere of a vibrant new concerto on the hang by emerging Queensland composer Dr Thomas Green, to honour the founding father of Australia’s youth orchestra movement, John Curro AM MBE. To complete the tribute, Delago is joined by the Queensland Youth Symphony, the Australian String Quartet’s acclaimed first violinist Dale Barltrop, the Curro family quartet, Katie Noonan, and prominent QYO alumni from Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Queensland Symphony Orchestra and Camerata. All ticket buyers for Hang with QYO will go into the draw to win return flights for two to Vienna – famed classical music hub and capital city of Manu’s home country, Austria. 

On Friday 28 and Saturday 29 July locals from the Isaac Shire will perform another QMF world premiere, on an outdoor stage in Moranbah – one of Queensland’s youngest towns. The Power Within celebrates the talent, diversity and resilience of Central Queensland’s agricultural and coal mining Isaac region, and is the culmination of an 18-month-long QMF community project. Set against an inventive industrial backdrop in Moranbah, the musical spectacular will unite more than 250 locals from Moranbah, Glenden, Dysart, Clermont, Middlemount and Nebo, including schools, choirs, instrumentalists, vocalists, dancers and horse riders. The Power Within reflects on the realities of pop-up mining towns – boom and bust cycles, the vagaries of weather, economic and social challenges – and the sheer power and beauty of a community united.

The spotlight on the state’s talent continues on Wednesday 26 July with the ScoreIT! award ceremony, when Hollywood screen composer Cameron Patrick announces the student winner of an original film score competition at Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University. The winner’s score, composed to accompany a short film produced by Griffith Film School students, will be performed live alongside the film at the ceremony. Later in the week on Friday 28 July, Mr Patrick will deliver a lunchtime lecture on collaborating, compromising and composing for the screen. 

Students continue to take Queensland’s stages by storm in On Song, as six students selected from a statewide search of aspiring musicians from regional and rural schools perform alongside award-winning singer-songwriter Jack Carty in their hometown. On Friday 28 July, two students chosen from the six finalists will perform at a special free concert with Carty in Brisbane as part of QPAC’s Green Jam program, further boosting regional talent in front of a statewide audience and industry leaders. 

Silver Memories continues to serenade aged care centres in Brisbane, Toowoomba and the Sunshine Coast to the end of July. Jazz and classical music concerts will be performed by vocal quartet ConChord, directed by Karin Schaupp, exclusively for residents, their family and friends. Backed by evidence-based research grounded in reminiscence therapy principles, these intimate events harness the healing power of music, celebrate memories and perhaps even make a few too.

Jazz to a different tempo will conclude the JMI Up Late Series on 28 July with the Gai Bryant Quintet’s unique take on energetic Cuban jazz styles. A soon-to-be doctor of Cuban folkloric music, Gai Bryant and band will have Bowen Hills buzzing with the sounds of the sax and trumpet, and booming with the conga and drums.

Meanwhile on stunning North Stradbroke Island, masterworks by Haydn, Mozart, Schumann, Janáček, Brahms, Dvořák, Poulenc and Szymanowski will be performed from Friday 28 to Sunday 30 July for the Stradbroke Chamber Music Festival. Two special concerts will link musical miniatures to Indigenous North Stradbroke Island author Oodgeroo’s Dreamtime stories in a tribute to Quandamooka cultural heritage. In another tribute, this time to the festival within a festival’s 10th anniversary, Israeli-Australian composer and pianist Yitzhak Yedid will premiere a new composition.

More idyllic Queensland settings, including rainforests, rivers and reefs around Brisbane, Noosa, Tin Can Bay, Maryborough, Hervey Bay, Yeppoon, Airlie Beach, Townsville and Cairns, can be experienced through ‘acoustic ecology’ by downloading AURALITY, a free mobile app created by multi-award winning Australian sound artist Leah Barclay.

In another unique music experience, Tjupurru’s The Didjeribone Show will continue touring Queensland schools until 15 September, working with students of all year levels to create inventive songs and soundscapes using the didjeribone, blending the traditional with the contemporary to create new compositions that blend cultures, technologies and sounds.

“The final week of Queensland Music Festival 2017 brings music to Queenslanders wherever you are – into streets, concert halls, islands, rainforests, regional centres and homes, through our livestream of the rousing and empowering You’re The Voice performance. We invite you to join us and use your voice for change,” said Ms Noonan.
For more information and to book visit qmf.org.au.

ENDS

Queensland Music Festival is an initiative of the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland, part of the Department of the Premier and Cabinet. 
Queensland Music Festival is a state-wide celebration of music with a vision to transform lives and communities through music.

Follow QMF on:        
Facebook: /qldmusicfest
Twitter: @qldmusicfest
Instagram:@qldmusicfest
YouTube:/qldmusicfest
Hashtag:#qmf17

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