The Boite’s Melbourne Millennium Chorus has been wowing audiences for the past 14 years and is set to do it again with more than 380 voices, including 11 regional choirs, limbering up for Freedom Road, a concert at Melbourne Town Hall, 2pm Sunday August 7.
Special guests include Vika & Linda, country balladeer Archer, acoustic soul singer Geoffrey Williams, Gospel acapella group The Illuminators, Sweet Mona’s Choir and blues guitarist Skip Sail. Ballarat playwright, Barry Kay, will narrate.
For the seventh year running, the Melbourne Millennium Chorus will be complemented by the Boite Schools Chorus which will perform the same songs at two concerts at the BMW Edge Theatre, Federation Square, Thursday August 18, 1pm & 7.30pm. The response from schools has been so enthusiastic that, for the first time, a regional performance has been scheduled – in Ballarat at Wendouree Centre for Performing Arts, Sunday August 28, 2pm.
Directing all the choruses and around 1100 voices are Stella Savy and Dani Fry who have rocked Ballarat with their stunning voices and solid harmonies for the past fifteen years. Musical collaborators and best friends, they have selected and arranged all the music as well as training the regional and school choir directors all over the state.
Freedom Road celebrates the music that was born out of a time of struggle, when injustices against humanity were commonplace, Savy and Fry said.
“Chain gang work hollers, early blues and gospel songs from the American civil rights movement are songs which capture a period of American history and have influenced popular music across the world and continue to engage, move and inspire us all,” they said.
“Gospel, one of our favourite styles of music, started in the Baptist church, and moved out to inspire a whole new style called soul music. It was the beginning for any modern sounds in popular music and it’s quite a story to tell. The hardest bit has been trying to narrow it down to just a handful of songs!
“The concerts will explore not only uplifting music but also celebrate human rights and the strength of the human spirit. The participation of choirs like Kankelay, refugee women who fled war and turmoil in Sierra Leone, is a ready reminder that the songs are just as pertinent today as they were in the days of slavery. As the song says, we have to ‘keep on walkin’/keep on talkin’/walkin’ down freedom road’.”
The sound of the Melbourne Millennium Chorus will be “massive, phenomenally big”, according to Stella Savy.
“Bringing the whole state together for a big sing is simply ‘awesome’, as the young ones say. Community singing used to be seen as thing of the past but the popularity of the Choir of Hard Knocks, the Gay & Lesbian Chorus, the Melbourne Millennium Chorus and many other choirs proves that singing together is a fundamental part of human nature,” she said.
For Dani Fry, there is a special family connection in co-directing the Melbourne Millennium Chorus.
“My sister Lauren Schmutter is the regional conductor for the Albury/Wodonga group. It’s so nice – and having singers come from so far afield makes the concert that much more special,” she said.
“I found travelling to schools in the fire-affected areas around Yea, King Lake and Alexander particularly moving. Singing, I hope, is helping the healing.”
The Melbourne Millennium Chorus was launched by the Boite in 1999 on the eve of the new Millennium, with a vision of bringing together singers and musicians from around the world to welcome in the new era. To the surprise of the organisers, what was to a one-off event was so popular that it is now a major annual event on the Boite calendar.
In 2011 the singers of the Melbourne Millennium Chorus will be rehearsing in 11 locations: Melbourne with Stella Savy and Dani Fry; Stratford Singers with Ros Annear; Markwood with Leonie Brien; Alley Cats in Mallacoota with Leonie Daws; Vocalise in Ballarat with Dani Fry and Stella Savy; Bairnsdale with Naomi Gordon; Two Bays Choir in Mornington and Frankston with Sue Kirkpatrick; Orbost with Liz Mitchell; Sweet Sassafras in Sassafras with Chris Riseley; Frocks ‘n’ Jocks in Gisborne with Judy Rose; and Albury/Wodonga with Lauren Schmutter. All singers are spending 9 weeks in rehearsal and are then getting-together for one-concert performance in Melbourne Town Hall on Sunday August 7, with a dress rehearsal the day before.
Katrina Wilson, Co-ordinator of Boite Special Projects, said the logistics are formidable but the power of massed voices makes it all worthwhile.
“The issues explored in song may be weighty – slavery, equality, civil rights, cultural diversity, reconciliation, liberation, refugee and asylum seeker awareness – but the power of the massed voices of the Melbourne Millennium Chorus inspire and give us hope.”
Melbourne Millennium Chorus, Melbourne Town Hall, 2pm Sunday August 7: Tix $30-$60
Boite Schools Chorus, BMW Edge Theatre, Federation Square, 1pm & 7.30pm Thursday August 18: Tix: $8 (children under 18); $18 (adults); discounts for school bookings, accompanying teachers free.
Book online: www.boite.com.au; for phone orders or help, contact The Boite: 03 9417 3550
Boite Schools Chorus, Wendouree Centre for Performing Arts, 2pm Sunday August 28
Tickets: www.wcpa.com.au; phone orders: 03 5338 0980
