THE LINE-UP 2019 10 GLORIOUS DAYS OF MUSIC IN SEPTEMBER ALICE SPRINGS • 6-15 SEPTEMBER 2019 Find yourself @ DSF DESERTSONGCENTRALAUSTRALIA DESERTSONG.COM.AU DESERTSONGFESTIVAL SOWETO GOSPEL CHOIR Main Attraction Friday 13 September 10.00am @ Soweto Gospel Choir Workshop The Marian Centre of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart School Saturday 14 September 3.30pm & 7.30pm @ Soweto Gospel Choir Freedom Concerts- Araluen Arts Cultural Centre The Soweto Gospel Choir, winner of the 2019 Grammy for Best World Music Album for their latest album - Freedom - is the Main Attraction at Desert Song Festival this year. In a Central Australian Première and supported by the NIMA Award-winning Central Australian Aboriginal Women’s Choir, they present two amazing concerts based on their award winning Album comprising songs that celebrate and commemorate South Africa’s democratic movements struggle for freedom. This three-time Grammy Award-winning Choir has been spreading sheer joy to audiences across the globe for nearly two decades with their powerful blend of African gospel, freedom songs, and international classics. DESERTSONGCENTRALAUSTRALIA DESERTSONGFESTIVAL THE CENTRAL AUSTRALIAN ASANTE SANA Desert Song Festival’s Choir in Residence ABORIGINAL WOMEN’S CHOIR Friday 6 September 5.30pm @ Parade of Performers and Aperture Friday 6 September 5.30pm @ Parade of Performers and Aperture Saturday 8 September 5.30pm @ Desert Voice Saturday 7 September 10.30am Soiree & 5.30pm Desert Voice @ Whitegums Friday 13 September 6.30pm @ Under The Southern Cross Sunday 8 September 5.15pm @ Sacred Song Sunday 15 September 3.45pm @ A cappella in the Gorge Thursday 12 September 6.30pm @ Alchera-Jugulba Asante Sana is an Alice Springs community Friday 13 September 6.30pm @ Under The Southern Cross choir, under the musical direction of Morris Saturday 14 September @ Soweto Gospel Choir Freedom Concerts Stuart. The choir gets together every winter Sunday 15 September 3.45pm @ A cappella in the Gorge for an annual season of rehearsals and performances, concluding with the very popular season-ending concert ‘A cappella in the Gorge’. Asante Sana has collaborated with the Central Australian Aboriginal Women’s Choir, the triple Grammy-Award-Winning Soweto Gospel Choir and with International Tenor Boyd Owen. Since the inception of the Desert Song Festival, Asante Sana has been a regular and popular performer, anchoring ‘Desert Voice’ and featuring in ‘A cappella in the Gorge’, to the delight of audiences. The choir has also regularly contributed to the community through its performances at Civic events, conferences, local institutions (the Alice Springs Hospital, the gaol) and other local events (the Old Timers’ Fete) to mention but a few! Since 2008 the choir has also collaborated with the Australian Youth Choir, the Sydney Street Choir, the Brunswick Women’s Choir, The Australian Boys’ Choir, the Tenor Philip Griffin, and many more. AURORA The National Indigenous Music Award-winning Central Australian Aboriginal Women’s Choir (CAAWC), is awakening audiences with the ancient sounds of sacred songs in the Western Arrarnta Friday 6 September 5.30pm @ The Parade of Performers and Aperture and Pitjantjatjara languages. The Choir has performed across Germany and in 2018 in acclaimed Saturday 7 September 5.30pm @ Desert Voice concerts at the Hammer Hall-Melbourne Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House and at the Serenade Sunday 8 September 2.00pm-4.45pm @ Pentatonic Choral Festival at the Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts, Washington DC, all in ONE WEEK! Tuesday 10 September 7.30pm @ The Festival Showcase Its story has been celebrated in the award-winning documentary ‘The Song Keepers’, screened Wednesday 11 September 5.30pm-6.30pm @ The Choral workshop before record-breaking and appreciative audiences at the Melbourne, Darwin and New Zealand @ The Soweto Gospel Choir Workshop International Film Festivals and screened nationally on NITV and also in cinemas across Australia Friday 13 September 10.30am-3.00pm and New Zealand. In this UN International Year of Indigenous Languages, Desert Song Festival Friday 13 September 6.30pm @ Under the Southern Cross honours the work of this remarkable ensemble at their ‘home’ festival. Sunday 15 September 3.45pm @ A cappella in the Gorge – Ormiston Gorge AURORA is the senior vocal ensemble of internationally renowned South Australian youth choir Young Adelaide Voices, under the direction of Christie Anderson. A diverse and talented ensemble, Aurora performs a range of repertoire from early music to contemporary pop and they are committed to performing contemporary Australian music. Aurora have sung everywhere from onstage with the Rolling Stones at the Adelaide Oval to the orchestral pit for the Australian Ballet’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. DESERTSONGCENTRALAUSTRALIA DESERTSONGFESTIVAL QUETZAL GUERRERO / QVLN UKE NOMAD Friday 6 September 5.30pm @ Parade of Performers and Aperture Friday 6 September 8.00pm @ Festival Club Watertank Café Saturday 7 September 10.30am Soiree & 5.30pm Desert Voice @ Whitegums Saturday 7 Sept 10.30-3.30pm @ Soiree at Whitegums Sunday 8 September 2.00pm @ Pentatonic Tuesday 11 September 12.00-2.30pm @ The Ukulele Café Monday 9 & Tuesday 10 September @ Midday and Meditation in the Mall Wednesday 12 September 12.00-2.30pm @ The Ukulele Café Monday 9 September 6.00pm @ Fiddlesticks Thursday 13 September 12.00-2.30pm @ The Ukulele Café Tuesday 10 September 7.30pm @ The Festival Showcase Friday 14 September 12.00-2.30pm @ Midday in the Mall Friday 13 September 6.30pm @ Under The Southern Cross Friday 14 September 5.30pm @ Young Desert Voices Sunday 15 September 3.45pm @ A cappella in the Gorge Anu Grace and Laurie Bycroft invoke the troubadours of old with their Q returns to Desert Song Festival for his third successive year. As songs about love, life and people met touring Australasia. Their original our Associate Musical Director for the global musical collaboration and contemporary Jazz Folk features Tenor & Bass Ukuleles in a whole series, Q will collaborate with the celebrated violinist Eric Avery, as new tonal light, looped with soaring harmonic overlays and flute that lands well as with the Arafura Collective. One of the world’s most exciting smack-dab in your heart. electric violinists, originally from Los Angeles and now resident in Brisbane, Quetzal is a prodigious genre-hopping artist whose virtuosity on his trademark electric-blue violin reflects his Mexican/ Brazilian and Native American Indian roots. QVLN (Q-Violin) has ERIC AVERY spent the greater part of his twenty-year career in North and South America, He expresses his passions for love, life, and dance with his Friday 6 September 5.30pm @ Parade of Performers and Aperture voice, violin, guitar, and percussion. Q is ‘on the road’ about 200 days Saturday 7 September 10.30am Soiree & 5.30pm Desert Voice @ Whitegums each year performing at clubs, festivals, cultural centres - and for Sunday 2.00pm 8 September @ Pentatonic people in remote parts of the world that commercial music bypasses. Tuesday 10 September 7.30pm @ The Festival Showcase In 2015, QVLN had the honour of representing the United States as Friday 13 September 6.30pm @ Under the Southern Cross part of the State Department’s American Music Abroad program, @ A cappella in the Gorge in conjunction with long-time collaborator Oveous and a talented Sunday 15 September 3.45pm group of musicians from Los Angeles. http://www.qviolin.com/ SUNSHINE ZERDA Saturday 7 September 10.30am @ Soiree at Whitegums Monday 9 September @ Midday in the Mall Monday 9 September 8.00pm @ Meditation in the Mall Tuesday 10 September @ Midday in the Mall Sunshine Zerda returns to Desert Song Festival for a second year, again contributing her passion for wellness through her Vibrational Yoga sessions. Sunshine’s fearless and uncompromising approach to wellness is fuelled by her intimate understanding of the demands of a busy lifestyle and the potential detriment of stress to our health. Her mission: to change inertia into action, delivering positive transformation for body and mind, helping us live a higher quality of life, creating a functional human out of us! A former professional athlete, Sunshine joined the US Junior Olympic Desert Song Festival is proud to present Eric Avery team for gymnastics in her teens, before moving into martial arts. She graduated from college with as part of is 2019 program. Eric is a Ngiyampaa, Yuin, a business degree, segueing into the corporate world for a number of years, before ultimately Bandjalang and Gumbangirr artist. He started learning returning to her true passions: health and fitness. classical music by “ear” when he was 11. He is a violinist, a dancer and composer. Working with his family’s custodial songs he seeks to revive and continue on an age old legacy, using his talents to create an experience of his people’s culture. Eric has benefited from mentorship at The Australian Ballet and studied dance at NAISDA Dance college. He performs classical music and also creates new contemporary music expressing his Koori (NSW Aboriginal) heritage. Eric is an experienced and highly sought after performer across Australia This outstanding artist will be collaborating with Quetzal Guerrero/QVLN to present some exceptional musical artistry at Desert Song Festival 2019. DESERTSONGCENTRALAUSTRALIA DESERTSONGFESTIVAL Quartet, with NT vocalist and actor Yoris Wilson in the main role. Also on the program is the CHIME preview of the Olive Pink Opera by Anne Boyd ‘Alchera-Jugulba’, Arrernte