Sing for Water choirs include:
Acafellas, Borboleta, Brimbank Multicultural Choir, Chat Warblers, Central, Victorian Women's Choir, The Florinian Choir, The Green Singers, Golden, Fleece Choir, Kensington Community Choir, La Voce della Luna, Living Song, Lord Newry Singers, Mood Swings, Multicultural Choir Footscray, Northern Voice, North Melbourne Chinese Choir, Ozanam Choir, Primo Sante, Red Tent Singers, Resonance Choir, Sing Australia Camberwell, Sing Australia Hawthorn, The Sudanese Catholic Choir, Thursday Singers, The Timorese Choir, Tongue and Groove, Two Bay Choir and Sing for Water, Melbourne Choir.
With Special Thanks to all the Choir Leaders: Christoph Maubach, Veronica Gauci, Linda Browne, Simeone Shi-Yuan Yang and Yi Yu Chen, Trudy Keating, David Rigby, Barbara Hess, Kavisha Mazzella and Gerry McLoughlin, Mary Parfrey, Lisa Schwabe, John Howard, Joseph Jordania, Helen Begley, Lyn Eales, Polly Christie, Wendy Dwyer, Anneka Smit, Jane Thompson, Rita Modi and Albert Alinder, James Rigby and Meagan Reid.
SING FOR WATER ARTISTS' BIOGRAPHIES
Paul Kelly
Paul Kelly is an Australian singer/songwriter/musician born in Adelaide in 1955. At school he played trumpet and captained the cricket team and during his wanderings around Australia doing odd-jobs, picked up a guitar. He made his public debut singing the Australian folk song 'Streets Of Forbes' to a Hobart audience in 1974 and two years later moved to Melbourne.
Success in Australia during the 1980's established a solid popularity. Never resting, the 90's have seen Paul touring extensively and trying to break into the American market. While not touring or recording albums, Paul has composed music for a play (and acted in it), a film score, and continued to produce and compose for other Australian artists.
Paul has released two "non-Paul Kelly" recordings - one a bluegrass album with the band Uncle Bill, the other a "dub reggae, funk, R'n'B" recording under the name Professor Ratbaggy - showing the versatility and adaptability of many existing Kelly songs and the influence that inspires him. Adding to his list of achievements, Paul recorded three soundtrack albums in 2001 including the soundtrack to the movie Lantana. As an actor, Paul started in the movie 'One Night The Moon'. A tribute album came out in 2002 of female artists singing Paul Kelly penned songs called 'Women At The Well' along with an album of Paul Kelly covers, 'Stories Of Me'. 2004 sees the release of the double album Ways & Means.
Kavisha Mazzella
Singing in English and Italian, Kavisha sings traditional and original , contemporary music that is inspired by her rich Asian, Mediterranian & Celtic heritages. The daughter of an Irish-scots/ Burmese mother and an Italian father, Kavisha was born in London , England .Her family migrated to Western Australia in the sixties , where the desert meets the sea.There,this large, argumentative musical family ran a small cafe in a bowling alley the city of Perth
Her maternal grandmother played banjo and her uncle on her Dad's side was a Neapolitan Tenor.She learnt how to sing and play the guitar from her mother . Practicing guitar in her bedroom , her early influences include Sandy Denny, Joni Mitchell, & Leonard Cohen .She sang in church choir with her brothers and Grandmother.
Meanwhile , Her father taught her to love Art. Taking afternoons off from work, he would take her to visit Art exhibitions of local Artists.After leaving school,she studied Art at Claremont Art school , majoring in Painting. She started playing music in coffee houses and winebars to pay for her paints.
But it wasn't until she heard the the folk music of "NUOVA COMPAGNIA DI CANTO POPOLARE" from Naples that she felt she felt a deep connection to her heritage.Then she started to sing traditional Italian Folk , learning these songs from travelling italian actor, Pino Confessa ,who was with Paolo Consiglio's much celebrated company Compania Di Pucinella, Sanjiva Margio , her father and grandmother , old records and cassettes ,Then one day she was invited to play for a group of elderly italian women in a derelict wooden church hall in Fremantle. They spent the morning singing and playing together. They became her new teachers ,singing songs of the old country that had all but died out in Italy but had lived on in their memories. From their friendship,she realized the power of the stories of their lives and it was then she became a song writer, chronicalling their lives in an Album called "Joys Of The Women" (1993)
Since then, Kavisha has won many awards In the different fields of artistic expression. Highlights include W.A.R.M.I.A AWARD for songwriting 1990 , GREENROOM AWARD for Musical direction of "EMMA CELEBRAZIONE"(1996) ARIA award for Best World Music Album (1998)"Fisherman's Daughter", Italia Nel Mondo Award (2000) from the Italian Government for her work in s promoting Italian Culture outside Italy by setting up Italian Women's Choirs In Australia, AWGIE AWARD BEST NEW AUSTRALIAN PLAY 2003 " With Katherine Thompson and Angela Chaplin for her contribution in the writing of "Mavis Goes To Timor".She has also been a guest vocal tutor at Swinburne College of the Arts and Victorian College of the arts Improvisation Department.
Whether working solo or with others, Kavisha has carved a strong reputation as a performer, songmaker, composer , theatre worker and teacher. Playing guitar , mandolin , piano accordian , it is her hauntingly beautiful voice,capable of power and nuance , humour and spontanaity on stage that makes no two shows alike . Singing in English and Italian, Kavisha's songs take you on a joyful, raw, poetic , emotional journey . She is currently based in Melbourne, Australia.
Helen Chadwick Sing for Water London
As a singer and composer Helen has made five solo albums and several albumswith other artists. She has written around 200 songs, mainly for unaccompanied voices. Her story/song/theatre performances tour internationally, and she composes for radio, theatre and opera. Helen has led voice and singing workshops in many parts of the world.
Paulo Almeida from The Dili Allstars
Paulo was born in Dili, East Timor 1974.
His mother is Timorese and his father who was killed in 1975 was Portuguese. In 1983 his family flew to Portugal where they lived for 2 years. In 1985 they migrated to Melbourne, Australia. Completed his primary and secondary education in Melbourne.
Paulo started singing at the age of 15 for a Timorese band "Kore-An" (meaning 'Roots') playing community festivals and parties. After doing that for a couple of years he decided to start his own reggae band. Natural Mystic a 5 piece reggae band played at many venues and festivals around the country. Even the great pleasure of supporting acts such as O'yaba (South Africa), Afro Moses (Ghana) and Mabulu (Mozambique).
In 1999 just before the East Timor referendum Paulo, Gil Santos and Paul Stewart formed 'Dili Allstars'. They then wrote and recorded 'Liberdade' (Freedom) which was smuggled to East Timor via Melbourne Uni students and people played non stop for 48 hours. In that same year he had the pleasure of returning to his homeland for the first time since 1983 as part of the Tour of Duty (concert for the troops) with the Living End, John Farnham and Kylie Minogue.
Paulo has also being involved in singing for theatre shows (Tour of Duty, Melbourne festival, 2001) and workshops around the country. Festivals he has performed at include St Kilda, Fringe, Apollo Bay, Port Fairy, Melbourne International Blues & Roots, Sydney Festival, Mallacootta, Canberra Multicultural festival, Echoes of Freedom, Global garden party, Folk, Rhythm & Life, and many others.
Paulo has also had the pleasure of sharing stages with Michael Franti, Ross Wilson, John Farnham, Chris Cheney (Living End) and the Wailers (Jamaica).
Paulo toured East Timor a few times including to play at the Independence celebrations in 2002.
Paulo toured Portugal in 2003 to play at the Avante Festival for a crowd of over 150,000.
Catherine Reiser, Producer Sing for Water Australia
Catherine produced Sing for Water in London as part of The Mayor's Thames Festival. She relocated to Melbourne in July 2004. Since her arrival she has set up Sing for Water, Australia, Executive Producing the first Sing for Water concert as part of Brisbane’s Riverfestival and forging partnerships with The City of Melbourne and The Commonwealth Games Cultural Program in order to present Sing for Water in Melbourne in 2006. She has worked in the arts for the last 20 years as a freelance Producer, Festival Director and Arts Consultant. Between 2001 and 2004, she was Associate Director of The Mayor's Thames Festival, a free outdoor festival focused around London's South Bank. The festival program included large-scale spectacle (Sticky 2003, co-produced with Michael Lynch at The South Bank Centre), world music stages, Sing for Water mass choir concerts, fireworks unlike any other by Christophe Berthonneau, lantern processions, street theatre and animations plus a summer long program of integrated community arts and education projects.
For three years 1997-2000 she was Director of The Islington International Festival in London, a two week festival of contemporary circus (Que-Cir-Que), outdoor visual arts installations (BeachLife & Feast) and performance (F.A.T), large-scale spectacle, international street arts and a two week program of free and ticketed music events in The Famous Spiegeltent. For twelve years (1985-1996), Catherine was Producer for Theatre de Complicite, producing fifteen of the company's shows as well as touring and co-producing for Complicite with international theatres and festivals all over the world. It was with Complicite that she first came to Australia in 1990 at the instigation of Janet Holmes a Court and The Perth International Festival with the Laurence Award Winning Production of The Visit by Friedrich Durrenmatt. Subsequent visits to Australia were to The Sydney Festival with The Winter's Tale and for a season co-produced with Sydney Theatre Company with The Street of Crocodiles. In Melbourne the company presented The Street of Crocodiles and The Three Lives of Lucie Cabrol at The Arts Centre. Between 1986/7, she was Theatre Co-ordinator at ICA (Institute of Contemporary Arts, London) working alongside Angharad Wynne Jones (LIFT Director 2005/07) with Michael Morris, then Director of Performing Arts. Projects undertaken during this period included from Canada, LA LA LA Human Steps, from Belgium, Jan Fabre's The Power of Theatrical Madness at The Royal Albert Hall and Belgium’s Anna Teresa de Keersmaeker, from New York, Japanese choreographer, Yoshiko Chuma, from Barcelona, La Fura dels Baus among others. Catherine was also on the board of Made In Brighton, an organisation set up with Arts Council funding to commission, produce and tour theatre which has clear origins and connections to the City of Brighton, including the work Don't Look Back by Tristan Sharps' company Dreamthinkspeak. She is an Associate Producer of Risingtide-productions. She lives in St Kilda with her husband, Film Producer, Bob Weis and her nine year old son, Sam.
CHILDREN SING FOR WATER
Valanga Khoza Musical Director
VALANGA KHOZA
Valanga was born in South Africa and spent his youth in Alexandra, a black township in Johannesburg, and in rural Transvaal. Growing up in a community where many could neither read or write, music and dance and storytelling were an integral part of the culture of his people. Although primarily a singer and musician, Valanga is a most inspirational storyteller. His school performances are highly theatrical and very entertaining. He manages to impart the rhythmic vitality of African music that never fails to captivate his audience. He frequently travels to country schools and is happy to give a range of workshops as well as his performances. These can include any combination of song, dance and percussion (playing and making). Valanga has recently released a CD and is happy to speak to students about the recording and production of this. He is also very keen to speak to senior students about life in South Africa under Apartheid and the changes that have occurred in recent years. He has been back to Africa recently and is able to give a broad insight into the current situation.
Vicki King Musican
Vicki is a highly skilled singer, performer and improviser. She has studied extensively in the areas of improvisation, jazz and opera, attaining degrees in both Music Performance and Music Education at the Victorian College of the Arts and the University of Melbourne.
Vicki's diverse training has kept her in demand as a singer, teacher and conductor. Teaching in a number of school, tertiary and community settings, she has also spentten years as a choral director with the Australian Girls' Choir. Vicki was the Co-Conductor and tutor for the 1999, 2000, 2002 and 2004 Melbourne Millennium Chorus and worked with the Boite in producing the 2004 Flight Concert for school children. In addition to her developed understanding of jazz and its various interpretive forms, Vicki works creatively on a number of musical projects including the internationally acclaimed a cappella sensation, Akasa.
Andrea Watson Musician
Andrea is an experienced singer, songwriter, vocal teacher and workshop tutor. Based in Melbourne, Victoria, she has been working as a professional musician for the last 9 years participating in a broad range of musical events. In 1996 she began studying for a Bachelor of Music Performance at the Victorian College of the Arts. This kick-started her professional career asa singer/songwriter. She co-founded the all female acappella quartet Akasa and has sung and recorded with many other musicians including Valanga Khoza as 'Hemisphere', King Marong as 'Safara' and Sallie Harvey as the duo 'Caramelle'.
Andrea has conducted workshops at festivals and schools around Australia and the Pacific. Over the past 3 years, she has been teaching as a vocal teacher at Sophia Mundi Steiner School in Abottsford. She has directed choirs including the 2002 Woodford Folk Festival Fire Event Choir of 400 voices. After extended trips to South Africa to study music and culture, Andrea specialises in South African vocal music. Andrea and her partner, Valanga Khoza, run annual cultural tours to the Limpopo Province of South Africa where they have also built traditional huts.
Kutcha Edwards Guest Songwriter
Kutcha was born in Balranald, NSW and is of the Mutti Mutti people. He is one of twelve children and was taken by the authorities at the age of 18months, along with five other siblings. After spending many years in institutions, Kutcha finally met his mother at the age of seven. He was fourteen before he was reunited with the rest of the family, being 'allowed' to live with his mother in Traralgon, Victoria.
At seventeen years of age Kutcha was spotted by a St Kilda Football Club scout, when he captained the Victorian Under 17 Aboriginal team. After a short time commuting between the country and the city, playing with the St Kilda Football club, Kutcha placed his loyalty with his country team of Gormandale and continued to play with them.
In 1985 Kutcha returned to the city to attend Koori Killij in Collingwood. It was here that he studied Koori Politics, Health, Black Studies and Radio & Video Production. During this year he was a crew member invited by the traditional land owners of Uluru to film the 'hand over' from the government.
For the rest of the 1980's Kutcha became involved with his community by working as a Sports Coordinator/Youth Worker at the Fitzroy Stars Youth Gymnasium. In 1988 he became a father.
It wasn't until 1991 that Kutcha was coerced into joining Koori rock bank Watbalimba as a singer. This was the beginning of Kutcha’s musical career. Two years later Kutcha joined the renowned Melbourne Koori band Blackfire. At one of the first gigs, Kutcha and Lionel Rose performed as singers in the band. The line up changed over the years, and Blackfire traveled extensively throughout Australia, and internationally to Japan, Taiwan, China and Mexico.
While developing his singing and performing, Kutcha always maintained his strong links with his community by working at the KODE (Koori Open Door Education) school as a Youth Worker/Mentor, teaching Video Production at an Aboriginal Recovery Centre and hosting the 3CR (855AM) Songlines Radio Program.
In 2001 Kutcha was awarded National Indigenous Person of the Year, Best Male Artist of the Year at the Deadly Vibes Awards, and has recently released a solo CD, 'Cooinda', with tracks produced with the assistance of personal friends Paul Hester, Paul Kelly and David Bridie.
Today, Kutcha travels widely around his community and the wider community sharing his message through songs and stories. He continues to work all around Australia and internationally. He still hosts 3CR Songlines show as well as now broadcasting on Melbourne’s first Indigenous radio station 3KND (1503AM). He has co-hosted his own TV show, been featured on ICAM (ABC TV) and in 2004 he received a HRAEOC (Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission) Award for his work in prisons – particularly his involvement in the live-to-air NAIDOC radio broadcasts - BEYOND THE BARS.
What Kutcha shares with people are a connection and belonging. It is his gift that in his own journey of healing he is able to help heal and enlighten others.
Angela Costi Writer
Since 1993, Angela Costi has been freelancing as a writer, particularly focusing on playwright commissions and writers-in-residencies with various communities. Six of her full-length plays have received professional productions and two others have received professional work-shopped readings. She has been commissioned by various bodies, including the City of Melbourne, City of Darebin, Geelong Courthouse Youth Centre and Mission Australia. The reLOCATED arts project, for which she was writer-in-residence at the Kensington Public Housing Estate, received the national award for innovation and excellence in community services in 2002. She is the author of Dinted Halos (poetry chapbook, Hit&Miss Publications, 2003) and Prayers for the Wicked (CD, Floodtide Audio, 2005). At the Melbourne International Arts Festival 2005, she will be performing her poetry as part of the La Mama Poetica event.
Rhian Hinkley Filmmaker
Rhian Hinkley is a new media artist and filmmaker who has a diverse body of work ranging from Web based artificial intelligence to contemporary spaghetti westerns. His credits include the short films Face of the West and Buckstop, screening in Hiroshima, Melbourne and winner of the Director's Award at the New York Animation Festival in 1998. Since 1999 Rhian has been working with Theatre Company "Back to Back", adding multimedia complexity to the productions Mental, Fishman, Inside the Angel House and Soft. Rhian has also been directing the multimedia elements of "POD", a traveling workshop of inflatable sculpture, performance and animation.
Sofia Chapman Accordian
Mal Webb Trombonist and Percussionist Born in Melbourne in 1966, Mal started learning percussion at the age of 4. This led to singing, piano, moving to Canberra and writing facile pop songs with his brother John for the imaginary band, Spider. At 10, he took up trombone. At 12, and back in Melbourne, he started getting into jazz theory and composition. At 14, he did his first paid gig, playing trombone with a big band at the Hilton Hotel ($80 and a meal: It set quite a precedent!) At 16, he took up bass guitar. From 1984-88, he studied secondary teaching at Melbourne University Institute of Education. At this time, he became very into Ghanaian music with the group Adzohu, as well as being the musical director of the major theatre show, Wogs out of Work. Mal's diverse tastes in music led him to be a member of many groups (6-16 at any one time to the present day). He played the support for David Lee Roth in Melbourne, Australia with Afrodisa (a soucous/hilife band). 1987 saw the start of the Oxo Cubans, a brass, percussion and vocal group that went on to tour much of Australia and release 4 CDs, before taking an extended break in 1996. In the Oxos, Mal became more involved in singing and song writing. In 1994, he toured to the Bogota Theatre Festival (Colombia) with roving circus drumming group, Batacuda (of which he was a founding member). The same year, he took up guitar and began doing solo gigs. Mal's interest in the vast possibilities of the voice increased and in 1996 he did his first solo a cappella show (for the Boite) and formed the a cappella trio Milo, which became Sock after a change of personnel. It featured 3 men, complex arrangements of swapping parts, vocal drumming and a little comedy. Sock went on to release a CD and tour a little. Also in 1996, Mal began using his (slightly rusty) teaching skills, running workshops in alternative vocal techniques and being a band. His piano composition called Schvink Chass was published in the book, "Piano Miniatures" (Red House) and later recorded by Michael Kieran Harvey. In 1997, Mal got the job writing, playing, singing and recording the music for the ABC TV and Working Title co-production, "The Adventures of Lano and Woodley". The show went for 13 episodes and honed Mal's recording skills. In 1998, he recorded the Sock CD and the award winning CD "Aloukie" by Zulya Kamalova. That year he also began playing trombone and recording with the Overtones, which became Bomba. In 1999, the Sock recording of his song "Roofrack" come runner up in the Canadian Acapella Song Contest (tragically, to a song called "Humpty Dumpty Jumped"). In 1999, Mal recorded his first solo CD, Trainer Wheels. He formed Totally Gourdgeous with Penelope Swales, Carl Pannuzzo and Andrew Clermont, all playing gourd instruments (Mal playing bass, mbira and trumpet). They have recorded 2 CDs and are touring extensively (including Germany, Austria and Slovenia). In 2000, Mal began working with hurdy gurdy player Barb Dwyer. They have toured to France and Germany with their band, Hurly Burly. In 2002, Mal became musical director (and brass teacher!) of theatre company 5 Angry Men for their Melbourne Festival show, The Flag. Mal played mbira and sang "Eagle Rock" with Ross Wilson on John Safran's Music Jamboree on SBS. In the 2003 Australian Science Festival, he performed solo and gave workshops in the physics of "beatbox and beyond" (and he's been invited back). He did mouthdrums and stuff for Kaya on the X Factor (Channel 10). And he gave workshops at the Spark 2005 Arts Conference for People with a Disability. Mal is currently working on his second solo CD, teaching music in a few outback schools around Alice Springs, sitting in with friends like Bomba, Cat Empire, The Bird, Wild Marmalade and Kila whenever possible and occasionally touring to Austria, Germany, Ireland and/or North America. See gigs for more current events.
King Marong Percussionist