Australia’s expat super group goes west to lend an ear to Moorambilla Voices.

Jumping straight off the plane at Sydney Airport from London, Cologne, Berlin, Vienna, Denmark and heading out west to Baradine is not something musicians in world orchestras do every day. So why would nine members of the Australian World Orchestra do just that?

Answer: to lend a hand on the Moorambilla Voices programme. Overcoming jet lag, one saxophonist and six string players headed up the Castlereagh Highway to become a chamber-ensemble-in-residence in a remote, rural and isolated region of north-west NSW. The diversion for the AWO players was a very different adventure from their performances in Sydney as part of two Fifth Anniversary Concerts at the Sydney Opera House. It was a great chance for these international musicians to reconnect with their own country’s landscape and culture, and it was one they all leapt at.

The Moorambilla Voices programme focuses on high quality, innovative composition, music skills and dance. Expectations and standards of performance for the 300 primary and high school students are high.


Moorambilla Voices on stage, Dubbo September 2016. Photo by Noni Carroll

Few schools in the...