Breaksea’s Community Singing Festival

Breaksea’s Community Singing Festival is offered as a recovery package for venues and communities after the Coverd-19 shutdown. It’s an adaptable concert framework, which brings together professional and local community performers in celebrating singing, creating and participating together. The concert program is tailored to the community and can facilitate local elders, soloists, community choirs and school groups together with Breaksea’s professional artists. Breaksea artists include Matt Ward (vocalist), Jonathan Brain (indie-folk), Pia Harris (opera), Jarrad Inman, Sheyan & Shantay Tidswell (young First Nations singer – contemporary). The music featured ranges from classical, indie-folk, contemporary to original compositions about local WA stories. About Breaksea Breaksea is on a quest to spread the joy of vocal performance with the whole world – we believe everyone should sing, create and participate. Breaksea specialises in community engagement programs and performances which celebrate the power of singing together. Breaksea was officially launched in 2019 as a non-profit arts organisation formalising the work of a collective of artists from across WA. Based in Albany, Breaksea designs and delivers world-class vocal performance projects in collaboration with professional and community organisations. Dedicated to open access, innovative project design and exceptional vocal performance, Breaksea frequently facilitates communities in the co-creation of new performance work. Highlights include Pilgrims of the Sea (Vancouver Arts Centre) Drift (Albany’s Historic Whaling Station), By Other Eyes (Perth Concert Hall 2021, Bunbury Regional Entertainment Centre 2021, Albany Field of Light: Avenue of Honour 2018), Shoal (Albany Entertainment Centre, Kidogo Art House) and Kaawar Song Project (Vancouver Street Festival, Noongar Boodja documentary CANWA). Since 2017, Breaksea has delivered singing workshops across the Great Southern to Denmark, Mt Barker, Gnowangerup, Katanning, Cosy Corner and this year extending to Bunbury and Busselton. Breaksea has exported regionally developed work with local artists to the Joondalup Festival and Kidogo Arthouse.

Form & Style:

Think of Breaksea’s Family Singing Festival as a relaxed, family friendly, mini festival of song compressed into a couple of hours. Local singers, community choirs and school groups are provided with music learning resources for up to 4 songs to be performed with the Breaksea cast. Each group will receive at least 1 incursion with a Breaksea singing teacher in the weeks leading up to the performance. All groups come together the day before the show for a full group rehearsal. The day of the performance there is a sound check, top and tail of the program and then it’s showtime. The program is adaptable to suit the needs, budget and objectives of the host venue. Breaksea will work with the host venue to tailor the program to satisfy these criteria and the needs of the local community. The program often includes an opportunity for an elder to speak and assist in facilitating local First Nation performers. The program has scope for small to large scale engagement with community performers. The music program is varied, presenting different styles of sing and communication through song. The evening is presented in two acts. Often a support act/ band will play three brackets before, at interval and after the show. This creates a great relaxed party vibe (we don’t do formal concerts). Music includes: • Original Breaksea music. Includes intercultural songs for soloists and choirs, songs relating to WA stories such as whaling, WWI etc. • Opera • Indie-folk • Choral • Local artists from the target community • Local elder