Opera at Jimbour, Queensland Music Festival 2011. Photograph Sean Young.
In 1999, Queensland Music Festival (QMF) began working with Mount Isa’s city council on a series of projects including staging concerts, rehearsals and workshops. The momentum gained from these events lead to the remote North Western town forming its own symphony orchestra in 2014. Comprising 300 locals, the Mount Isa Community Ensemble (MICE) will perform the world premiere of a work commissioned for the ensemble by Australian composer Matthew Dewey.
For QMF’s Artistic Director, James Morrison, the thrill of seeing participants empowered to take ownership over their own stories and to ‘see themselves in a new light’ is why he turns up to work everyday. He sees his role as a vehicle for the staging of an event, which brings different community groups together in a new way.
Currently the QMF is working with Logan City Council to stage a spectacular community production involving a cast of 700 local residents. To accommodate the performance a permanent custom-built stage 100 metres in width is being carved out of the banks of Logan Gardens Park.
Logan’s Musical Celebration (the working title) is not a variety show, rather it is a cohesive narrative which ‘in it’s broadest terms is a day in the life of the city’. It will be the largest community production QMF have produced in its history.
Morrison’s involvement with Logan began with a ‘musical audit’ where he was struck by the talent in the community and by the ‘sheer passion’ of the people who live there. Morrison and his creative team discovered groups from an array of backgrounds – Rwandan drummers to a Gospel Youth Choir and a few senior superstars along the way. The big job is pulling all these dynamic elements together. What may be seen as an overwhelming task at first was overcome by uniting participants through their love of music and targeted programs such as songwriting workshops.
For Morrison the final performance in August is merely a ‘punctuation mark’. What’s important is the collaboration and discussions, which happen in the lead up to the event. He knows the project has succeeded when he hears the participants talking after the show about ‘what we’re going to do next’.
Mount Isa Community Ensemble
23, 24 July 2015
Logan’s Musical Celebration
1, 2 August 2015
http://qmf.org.au/
