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I Wish

November 2013 I Wish banner

Through the Wish List, With One Voice choir participants grant one another wishes big and small. The short video above features the smiling faces of With One Voice choir participants… who know how to dream big!

Share the joy of song this festive season and support the With One Voice program to thrive in 2014.

Click here to watch the extended version of the I Wish video.

Beth & JD dream big

Beth with group

This year, Beth had one big wish… to stand up. Last night, Melbourne Sings choir was honoured to celebrate this achievement at their rehearsal.

Beth, one of Melbourne Sings’ oldest and most enthusiastic members, has cerebral palsy. Her infectious love of life bring us joy every week. We can’t wait to see what she does next.

This Saturday, the Moonee Valley City Council are launching a documentary featuring Beth, in celebration of the International Day of People with Disability (IDPwD). Click here for details.

Also last night at Melbourne Sings, the wonderful JD, whose smiling face (below) graces our With One Voice postcards, played for the choir a song of his own composition, inspired by his love for Australia.

JD lived in China during the reign of Mao Zedong, and his stories inspire and fascinate his fellow choir participants.

Last night, JD thanked the choir, especially Shaun and Peter, for helping him bring this big wish to fruition. Click here to hear JD’s beautiful song.

Melbourne Sings

Back your choirs!

Cover photos

With a new year fast approaching the time has come to BACK YOUR CHOIRS! 2013 saw Creativity Australia’s With One Voice program named one of Australia’s top social innovations and we want to take it to the next level.

We need the help of our choirs, their communities and the public as a whole to double our membership this festive season and continue building the With One Voice program in 2014 and beyond.

Unsure of how you can help? Your contribution could be any of the following:

The With One Voice program has a foundation on which something even more special can be created, but to make this possible we need you to raise your voice, crank up the volume and BACK YOUR CHOIRS!  

Click here to download the Back Your Choirs media statement.

Westpac Community Leaders Award Finalist

Westpac Community Leaders Awards 2013

Creativity Australia Founder and Chair Tania de Jong AM is a finalist in the Westpac Community Leaders Awards 2013! The awards seek to identify those outstanding leaders who have made an impact on the community through their work in the social sector.

The annual Westpac Community Leaders Awards offers grants to those Australians who make a significant contribution to society through their service ensuring that the Not for Profit (NFP) sector delivers benefits to those most in need. Tania has been nominated as a Social Entrepreneur, an award open to leaders from any sector who are using innovative solutions to solve social problems, for the founding of Creativity Australia, specifically the scalable model used to bring our choirs to those who need it most.

Tania is pictured above with Westpac’s General Manager of Retail Banking Jason Yetton and Creativity Australia’s Executive Director Ross Maher. (more…)

TEDxMelbourne presents Seeing the Unseen

Brain TEDx

Creativity Australia Founder and Chair Tania de Jong AM will be presenting a TEDxTalk “How singing together changes the brain” at TEDxMelbourne presents Seeing the Unseen. The topic relates directly to our message at Creativity Australia and is something we hope to achieve through our choirs.

Hosted by former TEDxMelbourne speaker and well known MC Zara Grose, Seeing the Unseen will involve highly intriguing, thought provoking discussions lead by a panel of informed speakers, of which Tania is a part. There will also be a special performance by world renowned guitarist Tommy Emmanuel!

For more information and bookings please click here.

Where: Melbourne Recital Centre, 31 Sturt St, Southbank, VIC 3006
When: 3rd December 2013, 1pm. Registrations open at 12 noon

Make it POZIBLE for Sydney Sings!

Dee

An amazing documentary is being created about Sydney Sings, and we need your help to complete it! Albert Lecoanet, filmmaker extraordinaire and husband of Elizabeth Lecoanet – our vivacious Sydney Sings conductor – has been following the stories of several of the choir’s most colourful characters.

Sydney Sings is one big happy family and this film is a celebration of their spirit and community not to be missed.

The exposure of this wonderful film would help Creativity Australia expand its programs to reach more communities, and more people in need. So pledge now and share the joy of song.

Click here to watch the trailer and pledge your support to this terrific cause.

Come on Richmond, let’s sing!

Richmond Sings

Do you live near Richmond, or have friends, family or colleagues in that area? As an early Christmas gift, give them the joy of song by sending them along to Richmond Sings!

When: Mondays, 4.00 – 5.30pm (until 17 December 2013)
Where: The Factory, 19-21 Belgium Avenue, Richmond

Creativity Australia is running a short-term choir in Richmond for the next nine weeks. It’s a great chance to de-stress, be inspired, unleash your creative potential, improve your wellbeing, make new friends, learn new skills, open doors to new opportunities… and maybe even sing some carols!

  • NO AUDITIONS
  • NO SINGING EXPERIENCE NECESSARY
  • FREE TO PARTICIPATE
  • PROFESSIONAL CONDUCTOR
  • FREE SUPPER PROVIDED
  • EVERYONE WELCOME

If you wish to keep singing after the short term choir is over, we’ll help you find another local group.

Richmond Sings is proudly supported by Mission Australia!

Click here to download the poster for Richmond Sings.

Please vote in eftpos Giveback

eftpos

Please vote for Creativity Australia in the EFTPOS Giveback by Saturday 12 October. The EFTPOS Giveback calls on Australians to help choose which worthy causes should receive a share of up to $2 million that will be donated to charity this Christmas.

This funding would be invaluable to the growth of the With One Voice social inclusion program. Thank you for your support.

What’s your Christmas wish?

Beth

For Christmas, Creativity Australia is creating together a special “I Wish…” video to capture the wishes of the With One Voice community.

This is in celebration of our wonderful Wish List, which inspires people to grant wishes for one another including work experience and employment opportunities, help with resume-writing, free singing and guitar lessons and much more.

Above is Beth, a much-loved participant of Melbourne Sings, whose wish was to work at the Royal Melbourne Show. The wish was granted by SKILLED and Beth is loving the job so much she’s extended her hours and is enjoying greeting show-goers with her incomparable enthusiasm.

Whether your Christmas wish is big or small, please share it with us for inclusion in the video. Be creative! You could make a video and share it with us, or just send your wish in an email to [email protected]

Click here to read wishes granted and pending online.

The Joy Of Song

Creativity Australia - WOBV

On Sunday 15 September, the With One Voice choirs raised the roof of the Melbourne Town Hall, sharing the joy of song with more than 1,000 audience members. Moving stories were shared and inspirational songs performed by all thirteen choirs.

Singing is the language of the heart. For centuries, song has played a key role in community, culture and story-telling worldwide. Yet how many people dare to sing freely these days… apart from in the shower?

Community singing empowers voices that have been silenced, unleashes creative potential… and that’s just the start.

Every week, Creativity Australia’s 13 With One Voice choirs inspire people from more than 40 nationalities, aged 9 to 90, to sing side-by-side. Age, race, language, religion, disability and disadvantage fade away. Everyone is welcome.

Click here to read more about the With One Voice program, or join us in song at your local choir.

Photographs courtesy of Graham Denholm, Barbara March and Victor Dam.

 

With One BIG Voice 2013

12353_0156

You’re invited to raise your voice, share the joy and help all Australians open doors to brighter futures at this year’s With One BIG Voice concert on Sunday 15 September at the Melbourne Town Hall.

  • 400 voices
  • 40 nationalities
  • inspirational songs
  • moving stories

Families, CEOs, asylum seekers, refugees, students, people living with disabilities or disadvantage… Be inspired by the real people of your community.

Enjoy all-time favourite songs and uplifting stories from the With One Voice choirs: Footscray Sings, Frankston Sings, Geelong Sings, Greater Dandenong Sings, Heidelberg Sings, Melbourne Sings, Our Community Sings (Ashburton), St Kilda Sings, Sydney Sings, ANZ Sings, Deakin Sings, Orygen Youth Health Sings and Royal Children’s Hospital Sings.

Click here to book online or download the poster.

Join the Facebook event.

I’d like to teach the world to sing

TOH_03_2010 13

“Since ancient times people have invested significant time and effort to create music. Today people spend enormous amounts of time and money to engage with music in all sorts of ways. Music is always around us. It makes our lives complete. Everyone can express one’s emotion with music and everyone is born with one instrument: a voice to sing. So why does music, and especially singing, hold such potentially enormous intrinsic value? And since singing is an innate ability, how does it affect us?

The simple explanation is that music and singing brings a unique pleasure to humans. Of course, that still leaves the question of why. And for that, neuroscience is starting to provide some answers.

Singing is primitive and tribal. Before written language emerged, critical stories were passed on with the oral tradition of song. The Hebrew Torah and the Greek myths of the Iliad and the Odyssey, were all sung long before they were first written down. When we sing, we tap into something that is not only one of the most ancient of human practices, but we also tap into the activity that modern neuroscience is showing to be profoundly healthy.”‘

Tania de Jong AM, Founder and Chair

Click here to read Tania’s full article, or here to read more about the positive benefits of singing.


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