Newly-written repertoire forms highlight of QTas’s wellness-themed concert
QTas Choir is finishing out another big year with a performance incorporating hot-off-thepress
new songs which speak to the themes of resilience, gratitude, safety and hope.
The choir, now in its fourth year of operation, has taken two big steps forward in 2016.
Firstly, it has entered into a partnership with the Salamanca Arts Centre. “We found
ourselves in urgent need of a place to rehearse, perform and generally call home,” says
Thomson. “The people at SAC have been wonderful. We’re thrilled to have a strong
connection to such a high-profile arts organisation.”
The organisation also recently reconstituted itself as QTas Arts, an organisation facilitating
bold Tasmanian LGBTIQ-focussed arts projects. “QTas Choir and the communities we come
in contact with have always had a whole lot of talent in the ranks: visual artists, theatre
people, dancers, the list goes on. We wanted to broaden our brief so that we could foster
creative development across a bigger artistic scope and engage all that talent, as well as
drawing new and different energy into the organisation,” Thomson explains. “But of
course the choir will remain one of QTas Arts’ core projects, and we’ve got some exciting
repertoire lined up for this upcoming concert and into the future.”
As is often the case with QTas performances, ReachOut is more than just a choral concert:
the common thread, running through songs with topics as various as gardening and
gender transition, is self-care. “Wellness and self-care are vital for everyone, so we hope
that the concert will speak to all people,” continues Thomson. “However, a major
motivation in choosing this theme was that LGBTIQ people are statistically much more
likely to suffer mental illness, harm themselves, or take their own lives. That makes selfcare
a particularly vital theme for the queer community. So the concert is in part an
acknowledgement of the tough times, but also a celebration of our strengths and
strategies around wellness. The message is fundamentally one of hope.”
QTas also goes from strength to strength in fostering local creativity. The concert’s
highlight is five new songs created in a recent series of workshops for emerging and
practice-broadening songwriters. “The idea was to give these artists the means to write
for choirs,” says Thomson, who led the workshops. “With the support of Hobart City
Council and Tasmanian Regional Arts, we held a series of workshops and one-on-one
sessions around notation, arrangement, using software, and understanding aspects of
community choir learning and the nature of the human voice.”
The ReachOut concert will take place at Moonah Arts Centre on Saturday December 3,
7:30pm. Tickets are $20/$15, and can be obtained at the door or via Eventbrite.
Helen Thomson
