To celebrate On The Terrace, a mini-festival from Chamber Music Adelaide on November 1, Burra composer Jodie O’Regan tells us about her new work Sing Sanctus.
Tell us a bit about yourself in a nutshell.
I live and work in a 150 year old stone church in Burra, on the edge of the South Australian desert. I’ve written and sung songs for most of my life, but after some voice/health issues a decade ago, when my voice stopped working freely, I made composing and libretto writing my main focus. Over those 10 years, I’ve been venturing out from my comfort zone of writing for singers, to writing for different instrumental ensembles, writing libretto with and for other composers, and finding ways to bring what I know through my previous work with choirs into all sorts of different community projects.
What does your idea of the perfect day look like?
I have the outrageous fortune of saying it looks pretty much like a normal day I live now, with perhaps slightly less work. Living with health limitations has meant I have needed to let a lot of things go and build gentle, creative days. My hubby works from home too, and we have this very simple life that might appear calm, where we sit on our respective couches quietly tapping away on our laptops. Meanwhile, inside our heads we’re both caught up in frenzied creation, and we egg each other on.
What is a wonderful moment of kindness you have experienced?
I am still in exhausted bliss after the weekend we’ve just had in Burra. Over many months I’ve been leading a composing project to create a piece of music about the sounds of Burra, with the people who live here, and made a score with people playing teacups, powerdrills, quadbikes, grinding stones, and much more, alongside songs we created. We had the final concert in the Town Hall on Saturday night with local people getting up and performing with a country band formed for the night, and visiting string quartet Adelaide Baroque and tenor Mark Oates. It was one of those magical events, where everyone involved contributed, in different ways, to make the whole work joyous, funny and beautiful. I’ve been thinking lately that kindness and bravery go together, kindness involves a degree of risk, of vulnerability and uncertainty and this was a brave, generous undertaking for the people involved.
What is your favourite photograph?
Wow. That’s a tough question. I have grown children, and of course I have some special photos of them hanging up at home. It’s one of the mysteries you can’t know about ’til you get there, children grow up, and the babies your whole world revolved around disappear! There are wedding photos, and photos of sunrises over lakes and thousands of photos from decades of beautiful memories. But for this photo I’ll share something from the studio with Emlyn O’Regan (hubby) and I performing during a house concert here with WindSong Wind Quintet. We joined them to sing a sea shanty.
If you could own any piece of art, what would it be?
I have a friend who is a sculptor and her father was a sculptor too. I don’t know his name, but she had a work of his, of a man singing, with an enlarged stretched out hand gesturing. It was a very tenorial look, that fully alive gesture of a singer bellowing with all their lungs. The way the artist brought the feeling of singing to life that really struck me. I worked briefly with puppets years ago, and find puppets incredibly beautiful. One of the puppets I worked with was a latex dolphin and bringing her to life was pretty amazing. I saw a large, lantern whale puppet online recently. I think a whale puppet would be amazing in the studio, floating above us. I would also like to commission a stained glass artist to create a new window in my studio. Amongst the church’s stained glass windows, which tell their own story of the church’s history, there is one plain glass pane, and I would love to have a window about the church’s new life as a music studio.
Here’s $500. You have to spend it in the next hour – what are you buying?
If SALIFE is offering a $500 donation, Burra could do with some music stands and music stand lights for when people come and make music here. But if it’s a $500 bonus for me, hmmm. I’ve been so busy, my household is feeling neglected so maybe some pillows and new bedding and I could replace some chipped plates. Also our church is quite dark, so some new lamps would be wonderful. With our five-metre ceilings, last time we needed to replace lightbulbs, we had to borrow some scaffolding from a tradie in town.
A restaurant or cafe you’d recommend?
We are next door to the Clare Valley and if you want to go a bit fancy the wineries up here are just great for that. A bit special but informal and easy going which is my favourite. But my answer is there are three cafes in Burra, and I’d recommend them equally, because then you’ll be in Burra. It wouldn’t do to have a favourite. Sometimes, we go down to the Barossa to Maggie Beer’s Farm Shop for lunch, because she is an inspiration for me of creating a successful life and career in country SA on her own wonderful terms.
What was the last film or TV show you watched?
What happens is, after our frenzied days we find something pleasant to fall asleep to. At the moment it’s a lighthearted but likeable series called Ghosts on Netflix. Does being asleep in front of it count as watching? We went down to Elizabeth to watch Digger recently. I thought it was intriguing in the way flawed-but-fascinating movies are.
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Favourite way to unwind?
Because we are up here in the dry Mid North, every now and then I need to see water. We are heading down to Goolwa in a few weeks so I can sit next to the river and unfurl for a few days.
Last book you read?
If we don’t count books for work, it would be the breathtaking autobiography For Life by Australian actress Ailsa Piper. She documents her journey through widowhood, of rupture, grief and identity freefall, to finding ways to repair, rebuild and rediscover. Her writing is exquisite. She is poetic, dignified, heart-wrenching, honest and hopeful.
Last song you listened to?
Today I’ve been preparing for teaching tomorrow. My students have to convert a well-known song into a completely different style. I’m going to share with them the original Hallelujah from Handel’s Messiah and then the 1992 gospel version in A Soulful Celebration, and how both in very different ways, are equally majestic and joyful. I listened to them a few hours ago, and I’ve still got the gospel version bouncing around in my head, making me smile.
What are you currently working on?
I am cleaning my house right now, getting ready for visiting royalty. Sally-Anne Russell is flying into SA this week and is coming to stay for a few days to put the finishing touches on a song cycle performance for this week. Then, super exciting, Sally-Anne will premiere SING SANCTUS, the final movement of my work Leviathan, next week, which we’ll be doing with young singer Clara Cutri and Adelaide Baroque string quintet as part of Chamber Music Adelaide’s On The Terrace. This is the final movement of a four movement ocean symphony I’ve been developing over years, with support from Chamber Music Adelaide, so this is a special one, and from our rehearsal so far, I think it’s going to turn out beautifully.
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