Upcoming Events

Click on the image to see a full size poster

Past Events

In this listing you find past events going back to 2013. Other events and memories can be found on the Musical Life page under 'Other Memories'

Events 2024

JANUARY 2024 PERFORMANCES AT THE SOUTH COAST

Judy took young people and adults who enjoy both singing and acting to be a part of the Wayfarers music theatre tour of South Coast villages in January 2024.

Events 2023

On Saturday, 3rd June, from 2 - 5pm, Wayfarers offered a "Part-Singing For Fun" workshop to singers of all ages who might never have experienced singing in harmony, or maybe are too busy to make it a regular part of their life. The repertoire included rounds, folk songs from a variety of cultures and classical pieces, all sung in three or four parts, with helpful Wayfarers assisting visitors in each part.

The workshop was held at Gorman Arts Centre Main Hall, 55 Ainslie Avenue, Braddon.

From 16 - 22 July mostly young Wayfarers (aged 7 - 16) worked on Judy's music theatre version of Winnie-the-Pooh stories in Lorinna, Tasmania, in preparation for touring performances in October.

ANZAC EVE 2023

On Anzac Eve, 24th April 2023, Wayfarers again joined with A Chorus of Women on the top of Mount Ainslie at sunset (5.30pm) to express, through song and spoken world, our longing for a peaceful world. Singers and audience, carrying large lanterns, sang as they processed from the top of the mountain to the lower lookout.

THE THRESHOLD

The work was performed as near as possible to International Women’s Day (4th and 5th March 2023), in the Chapel of the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture.

Four actors (older women) spoke from small stages, delivering sometimes conversational dialogue, sometimes poems (both from the classical canon and from contemporary women poets). A small choir and instrumental ensemble at times offered gentle music beneath their speech; at times performed Judy’s settings of poems. Words and images were projected onto the wall. The tone of the presentation ranged from mildly humorous to transcendental and beautiful.

All three performances were very well attended and greatly appreciated. A video and an audio record of the event are currently being created.

Events 2020 - 2022

In January 2022 45 Wayfarers from Canberra and interstate spent three days at Bapa's Forest (via Braidwood, NSW) rehearsing and performing both The Hobbit and The Ringbearer (= The Lord of the Rings) with an orchestra, a choir, soloists and actors, including all of Judy's settings of Tolkien's poems written between 1967 and recently.

In April 2021 48 Wayfarers of all ages spent a week at Caloola Farm, rehearsing and performing my music theatre version of C.S. Lewis' Narnia story, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

From 6th - 10th July 2020, 53 people of all ages (1 to 80!) spent 5 days with me at Caloola Farm, in the south of the ACT, enjoying singing rounds, playing ukekleles, painting mandalas, indulging in creative writing, reading my dramatic version of Zizou Corder's trilogy LIONBOY, and walking in the mountains in the glorious winter sunshine. Not to mention cooking and eating mountains of exquisite food, and enjoying a nightly bonfire! We hope to repeat this activity at least annually!

On Saturday 15th March, about 70 singers (a children's choir, a young peoples' SSA choir, a large all-ages SSA choir, and a large SA(T)B choir, joined by several professional soloists, a small orchestra, and members of A Chorus of Women, presented a series of choral and vocal works looking at our current global environmental crisis, as well as its history, and including songs of hope. The concert, entitled NEW LIFE - NEW HOPE, was held in the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture, Barton, ACT, attended by about 200 people. Box office raised $3700 which was donated to post-fires bush regeneration and wildlife assistance in four locations: Milton NSW, Cobargo NSW, Mallacoota Victoria, and Cooma NSW.

Click on the image to see the poster.

Singers and instrumentalists, young and old, had been invited to join with a small group of Wayfarers to perform at the Numeralla Folk Festival, Australia Day weekend 2020. Sadly, the Festival was cancelled, as Numeralla suffered during the January fires.

Events 2019

Musica Antiqua: carols from 12th - 17th century were performed in the foyer of the Canberra Hospital at 4.00pm on Saturday 21st December (free event).

In July 2019 I invited 77 Australian and overseas Steiner students from the age of 12 to adult to spend two weeks rehearsing Harmonia Mundi - an hour-long piece of music theatre which I devised with my daughter Jess Dixon in 2017. It is written for solo singers / actors, choruses, movers and orchestra. The first performances, in July 2017, were in Japan and Korea. July 2019 saw Australia’s première performances: Canberra, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. Fruits of Hope was also performed by the touring group: My re-orchestration of my Peace in Our Time? 2006 work. The July 2019 performances called on a large orchestra of strings and wind, including recorders, narrators for the poems, and a group of dancers / eurythmists. Other items in the touring repertoire were choral works written by Wayfarers from around the world on the topic of 'Harmonia Mundi'.

On Sunday 7 April Wayfarers performed excerpts from my Kakadu at the Two Fires Festival in Braidwood, followed by Margo Neale's presentation of her Seven Sisters exhibition (which was at the National Museum in 2018).

In March 2019 15 performers aged 10 - adult with skills in both singing and instrumental music performed a bracket of mediaeval and Renaissance pieces at the Albert Hall as part of the 50th anniversary of the Young Music Society, which I founded and directed for nine years. All of the performers were either current, past or future YMS students or parents.

In February 2019 Wayfarers with guest recorder players performed Mysteries in Carey's Cave at Wee Jasper: Robert Kennedy's The Mystery of the Cave for recorder quartet, Kyrie from Fauré's Requiem and other short pieces, with recorders and celli accompanying the voices.

In January 2019 Wayfarers gave five performances of my music theatre version of Robert Browning's The Pied Piper at the Tuggeranong Arts Centre, Canberra.

Events 2018

In December 2018, in the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture, Canberra, augmented Canberra and interstate Wayfarers performed Schütz's Magnificat for double choir, with Luminescence chamber choir. Other works included settings of the Magnificat by Palestrina, Mendelssohn, Distler and Pärt.

From June - August 2018 some Canberra Wayfarers participated in a series of Choral Mastery sessions, which I co-taught with David Cassat.

Heavenly Grandfather's Banquet was performed in Canberra schools by Wayfarers in the last week of June 2018, featuring Christopher Lincoln-Bogg in the title role.

On Maundy Thursday, 29 March 2018 at 6pm the Canberra Wayfarers performed an SATB version of Pergolesi's Stabat Mater in St. Alban's Anglican Church, Chappell Street, Lyons, featuring Sarah Berger-Alexander as soprano soloist and AJ America as alto soloist, accompanied by Emily Leong on the piano with recorder soloist David Cassat.

Events 2017

In 2017 I composed Why? - a piece for unaccompanied SAAB choir, requested by citizens concerned at the high incidence of unacknowledged police suicides. Read more and see the video on the Musical Life Page.

Wayfarers Australia presented three performances of my music theatre version of Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince at the Tuggeranong Arts Centre, in December 2017. The cast included ten of the original cast who performed it at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2016, combined with five members of the cast who performed it in Canberra in January and February 2017. The performance included puppetry, songs and dances. Click on the image for the full poster.

You can watch a YouTube video of the performance on the Musical Life Page.

In October 2017 Minnie and I gave a week of workshops with adults and students from classes 3 - 6 at the Casuarina Steiner School in Coffs Harbour.

In October 2017 Canberra Wayfarers performed music from Harmonia Mundi at the Churchill Fellows concert at the High Court.

In September 2017 Minnie (Yen-Ling Lin, from Taiwan) and I spent two weeks in Lorinna, Tasmania, workshopping and performing my music theatre version of The Wind in the Willows.

in August 2017 Canberra Children's Choir celebrated its 50th Anniversary. This included workshops given by Padma Newsome, Geoffrey Badger, Stephen Leek and myself. Current Children's Choir members together with guest artists performed my 2016 opera for children Heavenly Grandfather's Banquet.

Wayfarers from Australia, Taiwan, China, Europe, UK, Japan and Korea came together with me and my daughter Jess to perform Harmonia Mundi and choral and orchestral repertoire in Hokkaido, Japan and Seoul, Korea in July / August 2017.

In August 2017 with Canberra Wayfarers I gave a presentation of live excerpts from Harmonia Mundi together with slides and videos at the ANU School of Music's conference 'Women in the Creative Arts'

In October 2017 Canberra Wayfarers performed music from Harmonia Mundi at the Churchill Fellows concert at the High Court.

Canberra Wayfarers performed in St. Alban's Church, Lyons 'Concord of Sweet Sounds' in June 2017. Click on the image to see the program cover, which features a pastel drawing by my sister Jill Clingan.

The Canberra launch of my new book on recorder teaching in Steiner Schools, Play On! - 26 March at Orana Steiner School drama room. A Melbourne launch of Play On! was held in July. Click on the image for for the full cover.

The Chinese edition of Play On! was launched in Taiwan in April 2018. Together with recorder virtuoso David Cassat, Minnie from Taiwan, and Naomi Elliott from Canberra, I toured Taiwan, giving recorder quartet performances, as well as lectures about music education and recorders in history.

The book can be purchased through Lulu Online Publishers for $60.

Events 2016

In January I taught over 100 teachers from all over India singing, recorder, music literacy and visual art.

I was commissioned by Coro to compose a choral piece dealing with the issue of equality, which resulted in Truths.

I conducted a music theatre workshop The Voyage of the Dawn Treader at Lorinna, Tasmania in March.

I performed the premiere of my Heavenly Grandfather's Banquet (music theatre) with Taiwanese Wayfarers in Taiwan and China, April - May. My daughter Jess was the stage director.

A small, select group of Wayfarers from Australia, Taiwan and Italy performed at the Edinburgh Fringe in August - premieres of my musical setting of Saint-Exupíry's Le Petit Prince and choral works by me and Gawain Davey from Australia, and several contemporary Taiwanese composers.

Events 2015

In the inaugural Canberra Festival for Peace, I joined with many other Canberra women singers in April (as both a soloist and member of the Chorus) to perform Glenda Cloughley's new music theatre work A Passion for Peace to coincide with the centenary of the big International Women's Congress that met in The Hague in April 1915 to end World War I and find a way towards sustainable peace (click here for more information).

As part of the same peace festival, I and other musicians, including a children's choir, presented two concerts: Things Are Changing - short songs looking at a variety of issues surrounding our understanding of peace, and Songs of Passion and Compassion featuring works by me, Honey Nelson and other Australian composers which look at how we humans have often failed in our treatment of fellow humans and the natural world. The second concert was presented by a small selected SATB vocal ensemble.

In July I directed Jubilate - two weeks of music and music theatre workshops for adults and young people, with tutors from around Australia. 89 participants came from Taiwan, China and Japan, as well as Australia. Students aged 15 to adult studied choral singing, choral conducting, voice production, musicianship, sight reading, recorder, song writing, music pedagogy, and instrumental work, choosing strings, guitar, wind, piano etc. Younger children worked on music theatre pieces.

In August most of the Jubilate overseas participants stayed in Australia to join the World-Wide Wayfarers tour of Eastern Australian Steiner Schools, giving the premiere performances of my music theatre work Endangered, as well the children's piece The Singing Mermaid and choral works.

In October I spent three weeks teaching the history of Western music to senior students at the Ci-Xin Waldorf School in Taiwan. I then spent almost three months in India, helping music programs at Steiner/Waldorf Schools in Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Mumbai, as well as visiting the amazing music workshop at Auroville, Svaram.

Events 2014

In January I taught at the Humanising Education conference in Mumbai, India. In February and March I taught the history of Western music to senior students at the Ci-Xin Waldorf School in Taiwan; in April I was joined by 20 Australian mostly young adult Wayfarers as I worked on my opera Marco with students and teachers from the Taiwan school. The performances toured Taiwan as well as going to Hokkaido in Japan.

Australian participants. Click to see the finished backdrop

In 2014 25 mostly young adult Australian performers travelled to Taiwan and worked with about 45 Taiwanese performers from the C i-Xin Waldorf School in Yilan – children from 10 years to adults. We rehearsed my opera Marco for two weeks, with two casts of main characters – Australian and Taiwanese. Simultaneously with rehearsing, we bought fabric, measured performers, cut and sewed three or four costumes for each of the 70 performers, and made many props. Jiren Lai and I created a huge painted backdrop - a copy of the mediaeval image of the Polos leaving Venice. We then toured the opera and a program of choral pieces to other parts of Taiwan and to Hokkaido, Japan.

In December Canberra Wayfarers performed less-well-known Christmas carols, including some by me and some by Australia's David Yardley at the Christian Community Chapel in Hackett.

Events 2013

In December 2013 I mounted in Canberra's Albert Hall a complex three-day festival of music to celebrate the 50 years of my musical activities in Canberra, which co-incided with 100 years since the founding of Canberra. The event was titled SO GOOD A THING - a quote from William Byrd's dictum, "Since singing is so good a thing, I wish all men would learn to sing!" Across the three days, hundreds of my previous students and colleagues from around Australia - solo and choral singers, and instrumentalists - presented workshops, hour-long day-time concerts (Journeys), talks, and three evening concerts:

Harmonia Mundi - favourite choral works from five centuries of western art music.
From the Great South Land - choral works looking at both the beauty of Australia and its chequered history. Repertoire included my Spiritus Sanctus Australis, Kakadu, and excerpts from Nganbra (libretto Anthony Hill); Liam Waterford's The Wattle Tree and Stephen Leek's Kondalilla.
My Spirit Rejoices - Christmas music by Australian composers, featuring excerpts from Donald Hollier's opera In Dulci Jubilo, which I had premièred in 1970.

A considerable number of Australian compositions were performed across the three days, some being premières, which led to my receiving an Award for Individual Excellence from the Australian Music Centre.

Besides performances, workshops and talks, the event contained an exhibition of archives (photos, posters, programs and portraits by me of musicians) celebrating the eleven musical organisations founded or co-founded by me in Canberra:

SCUNA (ANU Choral Society)

CANBERRA CHILDREN'S CHOIR

SUMMER MUSIC SCHOOLS FOR CHILDREN aka YOUNG MUSIC SOCIETY

CREMS (Canberra Recorder and Early Music Society)

GAUDEAMUS (aka Music for Everyone; now part of Music for Canberra)

LADY'S MANTLE (women's vocal ensemble)

IMAGINE MUSIC THEATRE

VOICEBOX YOUTH OPERA

WALDORF WAYFARERS aka WAYFARERS AUSTRALIA (originally students, parents and teachers from Waldorf/Steiner Schools; led to world-wide tours incorporating performers from up to seven countries)

VARIABLES (SATB semi-professional vocal ensemble)

A CHORUS OF WOMEN