A great and varied double bill with The Sydney Women’s Vocal Orchestra and The Third Voice.
The Sydney Women’s Vocal Orchestra was formed to sing the music arranged and sung in Palembang POW camp during WWII in Sumatra. The story of these amazing English, Dutch and Australian women was the basis for the movie Paradise Road. We present the story of the women – who they were, how they ended up at Palembang, and what happened to them – and weave the stories around the music arranged by Norah Chambers and Margaret Dryburgh, now published as “Songs of Survival”. This is a fascinating story from our history and celebrates the women who formed a choir in the direst of circumstances to keep their spirits alive and distract the other interns from their dreadful situation.
The choir recently presented this show at the National Folk Festival and we were all surprised at the depth which which the show moved people. SWVO is led by Christina Mimmocchi and Pam Davis, for whom this is a labour of love. Visit their web site.
The Third Voice features three strong female voices, mainly unaccompanied. As individuals, Clarita Derwent, Gemma Turner, and Christina Mimmocchi are each experts and soloists in their own right, who crossed paths early in their careers in the well-known vocal group Blindman’s Holiday. They share a love of a finely written song, voices in harmony and music for the body as well as the mind. In The Third Voice they create new songs and curate material they love from a wide variety of sources, re-arranging them as either a cappella numbers or adding new colours created by guitar, live-looping, concertina and percussion. They have each followed varied professional musical paths including songwriting, a cappella performance, fronting bands, directing choirs, conducting voice and song research and performing in a range of ensembles in diverse musical settings around Australia and the world.
Since its inception, the Sydney-based trio has performed at venues, events and festivals around NSW, Australia. The group has just finished recording their debut EP, with a grant by the Sydney Inner West Council, which is due for release mid-2024. The album features originals by Christina and Gemma and new and trad-inspired arrangements of Afro-Cuban songs by Clarita. Produced by Llew Kiek, the recordings also feature his considerable guitar skills as well as percussion by Jess Ciampa and bass by Peter Firth with additional voices from community choirs that are directed by Christina and Gemma. Visit their web site.