Community / Music
Full voices, full hearts: Brunswick Women’s Choir conquers Tasmania
Choir makes triumphant return to touring after six-year break
The Brunswick Women’s Choir performing inside a conservatory in the Hobart Botanic Gardens. Photo: supplied
Celine Haughey
Monday, July 14, 2025
AS the Brunswick Women’s Choir know, it’s not the song that matters so much; it’s the act of singing. Together.
The choir recently embarked on their first tour in six years – travelling to Tasmania for the Festival of Voices, an annual winter event celebrating vocal excellence.
The choir, who formed over 30 years ago, meet for two hours every week during school term to rehearse. While they regularly perform across Melbourne, touring provides a chance to fine tune their repertoire, and strengthen the bonds and friendships between choir members.
After packing their warmest cobalt blues, the Brunswick Women’s Choir kicked off their nine-day tour in Launceston on June 28, performing in the local mall, a coffee house and outdoors at Cataract Gorge, as part of the festival’s pop-up program.
The troupe of 35 then boarded a tour bus, to travel down the east coast. Along the way, they sang to patrons and staff at Bridestowe Lavender Estate, and with school kids at Bicheno Primary School.
A highlight of touring is the opportunity to connect and perform with local community choirs. BWC spent a night in the bayside town of St Helens, singing with One Voice Break O’Day Choir, and performed with Orford-based Maria Voices at Tandara Hotel, in Triabunna.
The choir’s final stop on the tour was Hobart, where they sang at pop-up events across the city, as well as within the festival’s ‘Singers’ Lounge’, a supportive space in Salamanca Arts Centre’s Long Gallery, where individuals and groups can perform part of their repertoire, debut new material or even see how it feels to sing in front of an audience for the very first time.
Cathy Nixon, who has been the Brunswick Women’s Choir’s Musical Director since it started in 1991, says: “One of the many great things about touring with the choir, is that we get to perform to responsive, enthusiastic audiences several times a day, for eight days.
“This is a unique and incredible opportunity that only comes along rarely. The result is a building in confidence and a strengthening of our sound. The choir has gone from good to great.”
The choir spent 18 months fundraising for their Tasmanian tour, and an in-house team planned everything from transport between Tasmanian towns and accommodation, right down to where and even what choir members would eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Festival of Voices were a key partner in planning and preparations, organising pop-up events across the state, and having a staff member on hand to assist at each and every performance.
“It is such a joy hearing music in beautiful and varied places as a listener,” says choir member Emma Keller. “And as a performer, the [Festival of Voices] is so well run, with the volunteers making everything so easy.”
For many of the choir members, this was their first time going on tour. Traditionally touring every three or four years, the choir last hit the road in 2019, heading west for the Denmark Festival of Voice. Previous tours have seen them perform and collaborate with other community choirs in Central Australia, New South Wales, New Zealand and even New York City.
Longtime member Ruth Fincher says: “Nearly six years after our last tour it was so good to be right in the middle of national choir-singing again.
“We were… singing our wonderful music in countless gigs, getting better and better as the days passed. And hearing, appreciating and meeting other choirs.”
Kate Burridge is one of the choir members who was touring with the group for the first time.
“I came back hoarse, happy and completely recharged,” she says.
Assistant Director Flip Case says: “The whole tour feels suspended in time. Days felt like weeks, and we all savoured the experience of being immersed in music and company as a precious respite from daily life.”
With the tour now over, the choir will turn their attention to their next big performance; their annual showcase event on 14 September. For information on the gig and ticket release dates, follow their Facebook page.
If you’re interested in joining the Brunswick Women’s Choir, email info@brunswickwomenschoir.org.au to secure a place on the waitlist.
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