MAGIC HAPPENS WHEN ALICE SINGS
Celebrating a decade of harmonies, high-notes, and a whole lot of community spirit, Alice Sings presents their annual concert at Araluen Arts Centre, filled with joyful compositions that make them truly singular.
WORDS ROSIE WILD
IT STARTED SMALL, with a passing comment between friends about desperately missing the fun of group singing. They organised a gathering, and 15 people showed up.
10 years on – under the direction of Ed Gould and support from collaborators Dave Crowe, Ash Steel, Camille Bernardino, and Xavia Nou – that initial cohort has grown to an impressive 80-strong chorus, built from inclusivity.
“The choir is open to absolutely anyone who might benefit from the experience … Everyone should be comfortable being themselves and everyone has the right to be a part of music making. Everyone's individual contribution is what makes the choir unique,” says director, Ed Gould.
Alice Sings’ vibrant cohesion of diverse individuals has brought colourful harmonies to festivals, shopfronts, mountain-tops, school halls, gorges, galleries, and parks. Their voices have been heard, year after year, echoing a cappella against the ranges at Kwartatuma/ Ormiston Gorge. They’ve sung renditions of pop tunes from icons like Barry White, The Flaming Lips, and Madonna, from ridge-tops at Inteye-Arrkwe for Wide Open Space Festival.
Through it all, the singing has kept people connected. They kept singing through the pandemic, linked online from their living rooms. They even kept singing when a fierce storm ripped through town during an end-of-year concert, toppling trees, flooding the venue, and shutting off power to all Mparntwe. Dancers held torches for the horn-section, and the choir sang, unmiked and undaunted, from puddles under a verandah.
“Some people have said the choir keeps them in town. For some, it gives a sense of community, and for others it’s a chance to reconnect with a passion for music that they may have lost through the chaotic busyness of life,” Gould says.
The choir sings only original musical arrangements created specifically for them. This musical labour-of-love is sometimes contributed by Crowe or Nou, but is often borne from Gould’s late-night passion projects.
“The joy for me is to create original arrangements … I get a little obsessive and like to do all the string and horn arrangements from scratch. It involves listening to a song a lot and percolating on it, trying to distil the parts that make it special, then working out how we can bring a little Alice Sings flavour to it,” Gould says.
“For me, there's nothing more satisfying than starting with a blank page and ending up with 80-plus musicians on stage creating something unique.”
While it started out with Mariah Carey's ‘Always Be My Baby’ – and the choir still loves a pop classic! – they increasingly sing arrangements of original music by artists from Central Australia.
“I’ve been finding collaborations with local artists to be the most rewarding. The musos in this town are endlessly inspiring, and the talents of GUTS Dance have added splashes of choreography to the show to make us look that little bit more spectacular,” Gould says.
This year’s show features collaborations with local music artists Tom Snowden, Casii Williams, Katanga Junior, The Holy Dimes, Ash Steele, and Paul Ah Chee. The celebrations are supported by the musicianship of Nou, Crowe, Bernardino, King Marong, a string quartet, and a brass band.
“You can expect strings, horns, dance moves, beautiful harmonies, original artists, and unique arrangements … We want our audience to share in the same joyous feeling we get when we sing,” Gould says.
So grab your tickets for a chorus of joy, originality, colour, and the magic that comes from herding chaos into harmony.
Alice Sings | 10 Years of Alice Sings
WHEN SAT 8 NOV | 4PM & 6.30PM
AT ARALUEN ARTS CENTRE
COST $25-$40
INFO araluenartscentre.nt.gov.au
Image: Sara Maiorino
