|
Australia's new scheme to reward community music making
The search is on for the program - and people - that have been most successful in building music-making activities in their community.
Winners Announced! June 2008
8 inspirational community music organisations have taken top honours in the inaugural Awards, which received 225 entries from all over Australia. They will share a boosted prize pool of $22,000.
Best all-round program (all ages, all abilities, all types of music)
Winner Dandenong Ranges Music Council (VIC) $4,000
For over 25 years, this pioneering music-specific community council has been inspiring people of all ages and abilities to listen to, learn, participate in and perform music in the Yarra Ranges region and encouraging people to start their own bands and choirs. Music making is at the heart of this regional community.
Judges’ comment: "When she returned from having lived with her family in the US, DRMC founder, Bev McAlister, was disappointed in the comparatively few opportunities to make music in the Dandenongs. In her inimitable way, she set about changing all that – creating the DRMC as a community-led initiative and taking it to a point where, today, music is entrenched in just about every aspect of community life. The DRMC is a remarkable musical and social success story which should motivate every Australian community to say: we want what they’re having!”
Runner Up Mungindi Music Festival, near Moree (NSW) $2,000
A small festival led to year-round music-making, revitalising a community heavily affected by drought and involving farmers, shopkeepers, young mums and seniors in playing or singing music. In 2007 25% of the town’s population was on stage as part of the festival. Just about every community event now features live music.
Judges’ comment: “Before this initiative, Mungindi was a town experiencing a musical, as well as a physical, drought. It has gone from being a town with no live music to one in which there is now live music at every major – and a lot of the minor – events.”
Best community outreach
Winner: Leichhardt Espresso Chorus (NSW) $4,000
This non-audition community choir promotes choral music in the community and they annually go bush with their outreach program to remote Western NSW offering services as the ‘choir in residence’, resulting in the formation of a regional children’s choir and a rural men’s choir, singing ‘Songs in the key of Bloke’.
Judges’ comment: “This isn’t just a choir. It’s a social force!”
Runner up: Hand in Hand (ACT) $2,000
This program gives primary school kids the skills to visit nursing homes, pull up a seat, take the elderly resident gently by the hand and sing. The program shows that musically active children can have a positive influence on the lives of others and that, once the children feel their singing has helped someone else, they become even more engaged in learning.
Judges’ comment: “If only a program like this operated in every school and community! By taking a nursing home resident by the arm and singing to – and then with – that person, each child on this program gets to experience what it’s like to hand deliver the healing power of music. Simple. Ingenious.”
Best program for the disadvantaged
Winner: Tutti Ensemble Inc, (SA) $4,000
Adelaide-based Tutti has a national reputation for its innovative programs for people with disabilities. For the past 10 years, Tutti has been offering opportunities to talented school leavers and emerging singers and musicians with a disability to create and perform new music with professional artists. Their performance ‘My Life, My Love’, was a sell-out hit at the 2002 Adelaide Festival.
Judges’ comment: “Tutti is a kind of under-the-radar national treasure, using music making and performance opportunities to break down barriers. It is social inclusion and artistic excellence combined – a tremendous mix.”
Runner Up: Sydney Street Choir (NSW), program: Standing Tall $2,000
A precursor to the now iconic Melbourne-based ‘Choir of Hard Knocks’, this program connects with, inspires and empowers those who are homeless or living with physical, mental or social disabilities. The choir has mentored other groups to form choirs with similar aims.
Judges’ comment: “Empowerment is the keyword for this wonderful initiative. SSC empowers people to find their own voice, tell their own stories and find their own ways to appreciate each other – through the uplifting effect of singing together.”
Judges' Awards for Excellence ($2,000 each), were given for outstanding work in encouraging music-making, to:
Sweet Freedom, QLD who run singing and songwriting programs with refugees, migrants and disadvantaged children
Judges’ comment:”We were moved by the comments from participants which convey the way in which people often find it easier to sing about difficult things than to speak about them. In the true spirit of grassroots, community development, this wonderful program has gone from strength to strength, bringing people together to write and perform songs which help people to see themselves differently: stronger and prouder.”
Yilila, NT - miles away from anywhere, this music program is an economic and social force in its indigenous community
Judges’ comment: “The two talented leaders behind this project have taken their passion, skills and commitment and turned them into an economic force in this remote community. Here, music also plays a critical role in delivering the school curriculum and boosting school attendances. It is a wonderful project.”
The winners were selected from 28 shortlisted finalists.
Read about all 28 finalists and the Judges' comments 
|
