A pair of Brisbane-based cellists will perform in the heart of the Daintree this November as part of a unique community event supported through the North Queensland Resilience Program’s Community Resilience Arts and Wellbeing Fund.
Music in the Daintree will be held at the Alexandra Bay Sports Club on Saturday, 28 November, bringing together live music, community stalls and local residents for a free afternoon in the rainforest.
Daintree Marketing Cooperative Chair Gaye Scott said the idea came about through Vivienne Stefanutti from Daintree Wilderness Lodge, whose friends volunteered their time after hearing about the challenges faced by the community following recent flood events.
“She has two good friends. She’s based in Brisbane and they are cellists, they play for the Queensland Symphony Orchestra on occasion and they heard about the floods and the people in the Daintree being cut off. They volunteered their services to come up and do a free concert,” Gaye said.
For many residents, the event is about more than music.
“When we talked about it, people actually were really touched that somebody in Brisbane cared enough to think about them, to come up. I think they’re looking forward to not thinking about the day-to-day things and just enjoying some fabulous music musicians to come and play,” Gaye said.
The visit will also create opportunities for young local musicians.
“While the cellists are up here, they are doing a master class,” Gaye said.
“There’s not a lot of access to that, so it will provide an opportunity that they normally would not have had.”
Getting the performers to Far North Queensland has proven to be an adventure in itself. Not only do the musicians need flights, but their instruments do too.
“I learned that I have to buy not only their tickets for the two cellists, but for their cellos because they have to come in the cabin with them,” Gaye said.
“So we had to book them the old-fashioned way on the phone. Took me 59 minutes.”
The Community Resilience Arts and Wellbeing Fund support has played a critical role in making the event happen.
“The resilience funding has allowed us to do it, otherwise we wouldn’t be able to do it,” Gaye said.
Music in the Daintree will run from 3pm to 6pm on Saturday, 28 November at the Alexandra Bay Sports Club. Alongside the headline performance, organisers are planning market stalls and are exploring the possibility of a curtain-raiser performance from local school students.
As for the music itself, audiences can expect a mix of old and new.
“They’re going to do some contemporary music as well as some classics for us,” Gaye said.
This initiative is jointly funded by the Australian and Queensland Governments under the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements and administered by the Douglas Shire Council.
