The MiCN Blog

The MiCN features posts by our Community Music Mentors, the MiCN team, and guest contributors. We have invited previous winners of the MiCN Awards, exemplars of excellence in community music leadership, to write a regular blog. Follow our featured mentor as they face up to the daily challenges, the highs and lows, the successes and the qualified successes of being a community music leader. This is where our Network mentors share with us what they do and how they do it. Read and learn!

If you have any questions for our mentor or would just like to send them a message you can This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and he'll pass it on. You might even feature in our next instalment!

Blog: Community Music Online Part 1

This year we will have a series of blogs, workshops and other resources to help you navigate the online environment, websites, social media, and more.

In Community Music Online: Part 1, we look at where to find help and give a quick guide to Social Media. Read the article if you're a registered member (you'll need to log in).

Thursday 17 November, 2011

peter_lowson 2010 MiCN Award winner Peter Lowson has been working with Indigenous Youth and Adult education programs since 1983. In 2004 he started Drum Atweme, initially as a means of encourage school attendance. Although primarily Afro-Cuban and Brazilian influenced, the rhythms are worked around the songs and stories of the indigenous participants’ culture. The program has transformed the lives of countless Alice Springs town camp-based children.

Peter has been our MiCN Mentor blogging for us this month but this week we hear from someone else...

blog41 Here's another story from a Drum Atweme performer...

Hi, my name is Alexis and I am 13 years old. I’m from Ti Tree which is the birth place of my great great grandmother. Ti Tree is 200 kilometres North of Alice Springs and a very wonderful place. I speak Walpiri Arrernte language and English. I understand a little bit of Luritja and have very cool friends teaching me.

I joined Drum Atweme early 2010 and have had wonderful experiences like going to Uluru and playing in the desert festival. Me and my sister did a play called Bamba and the Big Tree and in March we are going away to Melbourne.

Practising for 'Bamba and the Big Tree'.
From left to right: Alexis, Mikalya and Ella, Alexis' sister.

Thursday3 November, 2011

peter_lowson 2010 MiCN Award winner Peter Lowson has been working with Indigenous Youth and Adult education programs since 1983. In 2004 he started Drum Atweme, initially as a means of encourage school attendance. Although primarily Afro-Cuban and Brazilian influenced, the rhythms are worked around the songs and stories of the indigenous participants’ culture. The program has transformed the lives of countless Alice Springs town camp-based children.

Peter has been our MiCN Mentor blogging for us this month but this week we hear from someone else...

One of the drummers from our group is this week's reporter! Her name is Sarah...

Hi. My name is Sarah and I am 14 years old this month. The native languages I speak are Luritja, Walpiri and Arrernte. I have been playing drums since I was 8 years old. With Drum Atweme I have been to Melbourne, Adelaide and Uluru. I like going on trips because I like visiting other schools and making new friends. Seeing new places gives me good experiences. My favourite bush foods are bush banana, honey ants and witchetty grub.

Music is fun to make. At a workshop in Adelaide for the WOMADELAIDE Festival I played with African drummer Sekou Kieta and also with the Bedoin Jerry Can Band from Egypt. I had never seen that many people before. It was a bit scary at first but everyone was really nice. I told my teacher that I would like to just travel around with Drum Atweme for whole year and visit lots of schools and new places.

Thursday 20 October, 2011

peter_lowson 2010 MiCN Award winner Peter Lowson has been working with Indigenous Youth and Adult education programs since 1983. In 2004 he started Drum Atweme, initially as a means of encourage school attendance. Although primarily Afro-Cuban and Brazilian influenced, the rhythms are worked around the songs and stories of the indigenous participants’ culture. The program has transformed the lives of countless Alice Springs town camp-based children.

Peter will be our MiCN Mentor blogging for us this month live from Alice Springs...

I have had a pretty busy week working with the year 12 students of Our Lady Of the Sacred Heart School. About 50 of them are preparing and rehearsing a percussion piece for their 'Roast and Toast' day. This should be a lot of fun! The students a really keen and we have put together a good strong piece of music. I'm also working with year 6 kids of Sadadeen Primary for their end of the year graduation. The students are really looking forward to it and have been putting in the effort.

Thursday 13 October, 2011

peter_lowson 2010 MiCN Award winner Peter Lowson has been working with Indigenous Youth and Adult education programs since 1983. In 2004 he started Drum Atweme, initially as a means of encourage school attendance. Although primarily Afro-Cuban and Brazilian influenced, the rhythms are worked around the songs and stories of the indigenous participants’ culture. The program has transformed the lives of countless Alice Springs town camp-based children.

Peter will be our MiCN Mentor blogging for us this month live from Alice Springs...

The Drum Atweme program goes from strength to strength and is recognition of the importance that music plays in children’s lives. We are currently seeing 110 participants a week in the schools program.

Sunday 25 September, 2011

program What began as a regional outreach program run by the Music in Communities Award winning Leichhardt Expresso Chorus has grown into a cultural highlight on the calendar of north-western NSW. This multi-arts festival, under the artistic direction of Michelle Leonard, has grassroots community music making at its heart. The Music in Communities Network is please to be able to offer you a glimpse into the heart of this wonderful festival as we "live blog" daily for the course of the festival from 23rd to 25th September.

The night sky was alight with fire sculptures as the crowd gathered at the Coonamble Pavilion for the Gala concert for the Moorambilla Festival. 500 people pulled up in cars, buses, utes and all kinds of transport to gather and marvel at what the local people, under the fire sculpture facilitator Phil Relf of IKARA, had produced.

Saturday 24 September, 2011

program What began as a regional outreach program run by the Music in Communities Award winning Leichhardt Expresso Chorus has grown into a cultural highlight on the calendar of north-western NSW. This multi-arts festival, under the artistic direction of Michelle Leonard, has grassroots community music making at its heart. The Music in Communities Network is please to be able to offer you a glimpse into the heart of this wonderful festival as we "live blog" daily for the course of the festival from 23rd to 25th September.

Yesterdays concert went off like a frog in a sock! The Plaza Theatre was packed, literally, to the rafters with families, school students, locals, visitors and performers. The MAXed OUT ensemble performed the work Dan had written for them along with the ‘Demon Dance’ a piece for Taiko drums, body percussion, sticks and poles and voices, written by them under the direction of Anton Lock and Ian Cleworth from Taikoz. The roof off the old hall lifted off, the foundations rattled as spontaneous applause erupted.

Friday 23 September, 2011

program What began as a regional outreach program run by the Music in Communities Award winning Leichhardt Expresso Chorus has grown into a cultural highlight on the calendar of north-western NSW. This multi-arts festival, under the artistic direction of Michelle Leonard, has grassroots community music making at its heart. The Music in Communities Network is please to be able to offer you a glimpse into the heart of this wonderful festival as we "live blog" daily for the course of the festival from 23rd to 25th September.

It’s hot up here - not only the temperature but what is happening is hot hot hot! Yesterday finished with an open rehearsal at the Baradine Hall with the Central School and local Catholic School as audience. Watching the little ones in the front row grooving to the Taiko playing of the MAXed OUT company was inspirational. In the evening the townsfolk of Baradine gathered for a proms style concert featuring the Voices ensembles, the Sydney Youth Orchestra, Sydney Brass and Taikoz. People commented they could hear the drumming and the singing from their homes as the sound resonated through the whole town!

Wednesday 21 September, 2011

program What began as a regional outreach program run by the Music in Communities Award winning Leichhardt Expresso Chorus has grown into a cultural highlight on the calendar of north-western NSW. This multi-arts festival, under the artistic direction of Michelle Leonard, has grassroots community music making at its heart. The Music in Communities Network is please to be able to offer you a glimpse into the heart of this wonderful festival as we "live blog" daily for the course of the festival from 23rd to 25th September.

Wednesday the 22nd of September was D’Day for the arrival of all the Moorambilla Regional Girls and Boys Choir and the MAXed OUT children, Taikoz was also in tow.

Everyone arrived at around 12pm and were in rehearsals by 1.15pm, having traversed quit a few kilometres from different camping venues on foot! This is an extraordinary feat with around 178 children and 20 or so volunteer adult helpers to co-ordinate. Everything went like clockwork - a logistic miracle - with everyone arriving on site with all they needed, well prepared and ready to work hard!

Tuesday 20 September, 2011

program What began as a regional outreach program run by the Music in Communities Award winning Leichhardt Expresso Chorus has grown into a cultural highlight on the calendar of north-western NSW. This multi-arts festival, under the artistic direction of Michelle Leonard, has grassroots community music making at its heart. The Music in Communities Network is please to be able to offer you a glimpse into the heart of this wonderful festival as we "live blog" daily for the course of the festival from 23rd to 25th September.

How do you house, feed and care for 189 young people between the age of 8 and 18?

The best way is to stage your project in Nth West NSW which not only has big skies and beautiful landscape, inspiring indigenous art forms and fantastic natural wildlife but is peopled with extremely generous and talented people who have huge hearts and capacity to help.

The communities around Baradine, Coonamble and Gulargambone have been baking, organising bedding and shifts of people to cook BBQ’s, supervise children, cart gear, and prepare artwork and feasts a plenty for months in preparation for the Moorambilla Festival this weekend. Nea and Ronnie and their team are cooking up a variety of storms to feed the 300 or so artists involved and the Monterey Café in Coonamble is being transformed into a 30’s style tea shop complete with live Jazz band.

Monday 19 September, 2011

program What began as a regional outreach program run by the Music in Communities Award winning Leichhardt Expresso Chorus has grown into a cultural highlight on the calendar of north-western NSW. This multi-arts festival, under the artistic direction of Michelle Leonard, has grassroots community music making at its heart. The Music in Communities Network is please to be able to offer you a glimpse into the heart of this wonderful festival as we "live blog" daily for the course of the festival from 23rd to 25th September.

We are getting excited as we approach the starting date of the Moorambilla Festival ready to take flight on Friday 22 September in Coonamble, Baradine and Gulargambone. Ensembles from Sydney and all over NSW are preparing, rehearsing, packing bags, organising costumes, putting the final touches to compositions, backdrops and artworks ready for the big day.

We had the first rehearsals with the fabulous SYO Flagship orchestra this weekend and they are going to blow the minds of the audiences they perform for along with the Moorambilla Voices ensemble who are primed for the challenge! Other artistic partners: Sydney Brass, Taikoz and the Leichhardt Espresso Chorus, are packing their trucks and are ready to roll – destination Nth West NSW- for some inspiring music, great spectacles, wonderful food, warm welcomes and good fun!

The Moorambilla Festival runs from September 22nd to 25th 2011 - click here to download the full 2011 Program with a sneak peak of the beautifully colourful and stunning artwork celebrating all the good things of life – a true collaboration between the Ngemba Wailwan Artists and the young people of the region from Moorambilla Voices.

WORKSHOP PASSES AND TICKETS ARE SELLING FAST - Go to www.moorambilla.com and follow the links!

Friday 11 August, 2011

Vivienne Winther is Artistic Director of Music For Everyone, the ACTʼs community music organisation . In November 2005, Vivienne was named 'The Canberra Times Artist of the Year', for her uncompromising vision and achievement in gaining national and international recognition for opera in the ACT. Vivienne will be blogging for us in the run up to our Music in Communities day in Canberra.

Music For Everyone (MFE) is gearing up for our annual Open Day, packed full of short performances from all our programs and hands-on opportunities for the general public.

smfedrumcircle2 Within the next week or so, we hope to post info on our website about some “play-in” events we are planning for Open Day this year, that are open to the general public as well as our members. These are based on activities we did in 2010 for Making Music Being Well Week, Drum Circle and Big Guitar Gig.

Drum Circles are well known and popular activities all around the world, and a great way for novice and more experienced drummers to get together and jam: you just need a lot of drums and willing hands!

But what is the Big Guitar Gig? Well, our terrific team of acoustic guitar tutors gets together and chooses a simple ensemble piece in 3 to 4 parts. This is given out to all their MFE students and friends, and also posted on the MFE website. Then anyone out there who wants to play in the Big Guitar Gig can download the music, see what part they can manage, register with MFE to participate, and hopefully do some practice on it for a couple of weeks leading up to the big day. You do need to be able to read music to join in, and we do ask young guitar players to show the music to their teacher to get advice!

Friday 4 August, 2011

Vivienne Winther is Artistic Director of Music For Everyone, the ACTʼs community music organisation . In November 2005, Vivienne was named 'The Canberra Times Artist of the Year', for her uncompromising vision and achievement in gaining national and international recognition for opera in the ACT. Vivienne will be blogging for us in the run up to our Music in Communities day in Canberra.

If it’s August then September is not far off and that means coming up there’s the Music in Communities Network Meeting right here at the Ainslie Arts Centre in Canberra, followed the very next weekend by the Bloom Music Festival at the same wonderful location.

I hope everyone knows about the Music in Communities Network Meeting on 10 September and how much we Canberra music-makers are looking forward to getting together with like-minded people from around Australia.

But what’s the Bloom Music Festival? It’s three day celebration of community music-making in the Ainslie Arts Centre, the hub for music in the ACT.

Friday 28 July, 2011

Vivienne Winther is Artistic Director of Music For Everyone, the ACTʼs community music organisation . In November 2005, Vivienne was named 'The Canberra Times Artist of the Year', for her uncompromising vision and achievement in gaining national and international recognition for opera in the ACT. Vivienne will be blogging for us in the run up to our Music in Communities day in Canberra.

Learning an instrument: Group tuition or individual lessons? Or maybe a bit of both?

A new term has started this week at Music For Everyone and we welcome back all our regular weekly participants to a flurry of activity. A couple of new beginner tuition groups have started up, as by mid-year the waiting list for beginners has grown enough to support extra groups.

Offering group tuition on all the instruments we teach, as an addition and alternative to the traditional individual one on one music lesson, has been a priority at Music For Everyone for several years now. Group tuition has its advantages and disadvantages. We feel the increased financial affordability of group tuition plus the enjoyable social aspect of learning music with others are two big factors in its favour.

Friday 15 July, 2011

Vivienne Winther is Artistic Director of Music For Everyone, the ACTʼs community music organisation . In November 2005, Vivienne was named 'The Canberra Times Artist of the Year', for her uncompromising vision and achievement in gaining national and international recognition for opera in the ACT. Vivienne will be blogging for us in the run up to our Music in Communities day in Canberra.

The break between Terms 2 and 3 is meant to be pretty quiet here at Music For Everyone (MFE). The only activity on the program is Music Jam, our annual get-together for all the participants in our weekly program of music for people with disabilities, more on that later.

But quiet doesn’t seem to be an optional setting for MFE or the Ainslie Arts Centre, Canberra’s dedicated community music space. We spent the first week of the ACT school holidays recovering from two major MFE events at the end of Term 2 and re-enrolling over 700 people for our Term 3 activities, with the lovely background hum of 50 or so children enrolled in the Young Music Society’s Winter Wonderland music camp.

Sunday 1 May, 2011

Michelle Leonard, is the founding Artistic Director and conductor of the Leichhardt Espresso Chorus, the Moorambilla Voices Regional Children’s Choirs and Festival Director of the Moorambilla Festival. This is the fourth and final instalment of her blog!

Well it has been an AGE since i have written - please accept my apologies - but I have done a festival program, two major concerts and a tour since!

Since I last was online I have seen over 1900 children in workshops for Moorambilla Voices, Some of the funniest moments this year happened either on the road or in the schools (a very large black snake insisting on getting in to sing was one of them in Coolah!). This was such a wonderful way to reinforce the capacity of teachers to effect real change in the lives of students. Schools were so very happy to have us this year, and the standard of concentration in workshops, and calibre of singing has never been stronger. I was in tears on more than one occasion looking back at how far we have come in just 6 years! So many, many communities are now looking upon music in the classroom and in the wider community as something that "we need to get back". This is again a huge change in attitude from 6 years ago. I feel a great deal of credit for has to go to the continual positive campaign run by the music in communities network... if you were ever doubting it - ITS WORKING!

Sunday 20 March, 2011

Michelle Leonard, is the founding Artistic Director and conductor of the Leichhardt Espresso Chorus, the Moorambilla Voices Regional Children’s Choirs and Festival Director of the Moorambilla Festival. This is the third installment of her blog!

Since i last wrote the stars seem to have aligned! The festival postcard looks great. The LEC rehearsals are going VERY well. Concert program is at the printers. Orchestra manouvers (often in the dark) accounted for. Music is in Australia and being copied and sent to those who have requested it. Post-concert catering in hand. And finally, Moorambilla festival presenters locked-in with flyer well on the way to meeting deadline. PHEW!

Now all I need to do is look at my own scores, stay calm and happy in rehearsals, and focus on the reason we are all doing this - THE MUSIC!

Believe it or not the wheels are already in motion for the next LEC concert Sonnets and Sax (25th, 26th June). As I will be giving birth the weekend of this one, Dan Walker will conduct it (I cannot multitask that well!).

Sunday, 13 March 2011

Michelle Leonard, is the founding Artistic Director and conductor of the Leichhardt Espresso Chorus, the Moorambilla Voices Regional Children’s Choirs and Festival Director of the Moorambilla Festival. This is the second installment of our first blog!

Well its been a busy week that is for sure!

Moorambilla just took over this week (not according to schedule damn it!) and some wonderfully exciting developments happened with the Weilwan Ngemba artists, from Warren through Outback arts, who will be involved in 2011. Looks like their remarkable work will not only form the artistic starting point for the MAXed OUT commission this year, but we will meet up on audition tour to see them first hand, and talk about how we can show their work to best effect in the Art Deco Montery Cafe in Coonamble during the festival - exciting, challenging, an amazing opportunity and a real positive step foward. But HEAPS to do to bring it to fruition (again!).

Sunday 6 March, 2011

Michelle Leonard, is the founding Artistic Director and conductor of the Leichhardt Espresso Chorus, the Moorambilla Voices Regional Children’s Choirs and Festival Director of the Moorambilla Festival. This is her and our first blog!

Well its Sunday late afternoon - the kids are out playing soccer with Luke and i am going to use this 45 minutes to write my first ever blog!!!

... well in LEC land we have agreed at the Thursday committee meeting last week to pay a project manager for our concerts (on a case by case basis) after 12 years. In the last 5 years at least the role has got really huge, and we are now in the position where we have the skills, the processes and paperwork from previous events to make it smoother and more accountable. And finally (most importantly) we some money in the bank to do this. This has been a GREAT leap forward. The money of course is still an honorarium in reality, but it is a recognition of the huge time and effort required to keep things looking like the proverbial swan (elegant on the top, paddling furiously underneath!). It certainly allows other committee members to focus on what they do best, support that person without drowning or leaving themselves, and thus the organisation continues to grow and prosper ...well thats the idea anyway. Will let you know how it goes!