Celebrating 30 years of community, connection and show-stopping musical numbers, the Canberra Qwire presents Singing Out with Pride! at Llewellyn Hall ANU on Saturday 11 November.
Stepping out into the community several times throughout the year, you might have seen them performing at celebratory days or festivals like Floriade, Fresh Out, Queer Night at the Museum, and charity events like World AIDS Day. The Qwire performs at community events that speak to their philosophy of challenging stereotypes and bridge-building between Canberra’s queer and non-queer communities.
The upcoming afternoon concert celebrates the rich history of the group and its members, while recognising the progress made throughout the years – from the founding members standing up with pride, to the diverse representation of the sexual orientation and gender spectrums of the LGBTIQ+ communities and their allies. Above all, the show celebrates the music they have made together over the past three decades.
“We’ve actually managed to get a group of people who joined in 1993 to sing one of the songs we used to sing years and years ago. It will be a crossover of this is the history of the choir, this is where we’re now, and this is where we’re going,” says Susan Nicholls, choir member.
Renowned folk singer Judy Small is welcomed as a special guest; the beloved musician has a long history with the Qwire, singing with them back in the early 1990s when they performed at Tilley’s Devine Café Gallery in Lyneham. Susan is confident the concert will be memorable.
“One thing that the LGBTQ people know how to do is have fun and throw a party,” smiles Susan.
Singing tunes with Qwire for the past 34 years, Susan first met up with an original member at The Meridian, a bar in Braddon, around four weeks after its inception. Moving back to Canberra after some time away, Susan was keen to reconnect with the community around her.
“I love singing in choirs; it is the most gorgeous experience to be together with people and making something that is greater than the individuals. Also, because I wanted to be with gay and lesbian people, as we called ourselves back in the day,” she says.
During the late 1980s, Susan says there weren’t that many public spaces the queer community could feel free to be true to themselves. She can recall The Meridian, a couple of women’s dances, a lot of dinner parties, and maybe a queer-friendly disco.
“They are the most wonderful people ever; they’re interesting, and they’ve had interesting lives. Moreover, and this is probably the special thing about queer people is that they’ve all been through a very similar experience of discovering who they are and working out how to negotiate that in the world,” she says.
At the other end of the Qwire spectrum is Jem Allen, who joined just a year ago after moving to Canberra to support her then-partner. Wanting to establish connections outside of work and her relationship, Jem looked for like-minded people.
“I had no community and no one that was really like my friend and it got very lonely … I got to the point where I was like ‘I should have a look around and just see what’s happening in Canberra with music stuff’ and I found Qwire,” she says.
Spending an hour on the bus to attend one Thursday night Qwire meet-up and nervous to be back singing with a choir after nearly a decade off, Jem’s apprehensions soon melted away and she started to feel at home.
“It’s that sense of community … All these people who have that same intrinsic thing about them that you know you already have in common. My experience with the LGBT community before this had been very much people my age.”
She says the opportunity to connect with people of all ages who share their own experiences has greatly enhanced her life.
Members are aged from their late teens right up to their 80s with the average age being around 40. Around 120 members are on the books with an expected 60-80 turning up to each weekly singing session.
From those early days to this big anniversary celebration, Susan says the Qwire has added a whole world of community to her life, a place where she has made lifelong friends.
“When you sing with people, something very strange happens in your brain, you get this rush of good-feeling chemicals, which is the same good-feeling chemicals you get when you’re falling in love. So, when you’re singing in a choir, you get this wonderful feeling of love for everybody in the choir,” smiles Susan.
Meeting her now housemates through the Qwire, she says the whole experience is social for her. From the weekly meetings to camp-out nights, to dinners and attending (and sometimes performing) at important life events, the Qwire members are always there to celebrate one another.
The welcoming, music-loving group is open to all sexual orientations and gender identities – you don’t need to know how to sing or read music, all you have to do is show up and be interested.
“When it’s that many people together, you could have someone who’s just squawking their heart out and it’s not going to make a difference. So much of the music that we sing is about heart and passion and what you’re feeling when you’re singing it and it’s not necessarily about having a perfect vibrato,” says Jem.
Spanning centuries and genres, the repertoire of the singing group is vast and the selection of performance songs is a collaborative effort as the musical directors ask members for input. Susan says the old codgers, like her, enjoy songs they used to sing years ago while the younger members often make wonderful new suggestions. The upcoming concert showcases the broad range they cover.
“We’ve got a Queen song, then we’ve got a beautiful entirely vocals, there’s no accompaniment, of a beautiful Australian-written bush song, which is my favourite piece that we have at the momen t… It is really varied, no matter what genre we are doing it still sounds like us,” says Jem.
Setting themselves apart from other local choirs, their singing is always about more than just the songs – Susan says there is always a political edge. They acknowledge the fact that the rates of youth suicide are higher than average in the LGBTQIA+ community and want to inspire hope for the future in anyone who might be struggling.
“We, as out and proud people, can show them that you can actually get quite old and be alright. A lot of our songs are about how it’s going to get better … A lot of our songs have a deep encouragement in them,” says Susan.
“It’s been so beautiful to get to have that in choir of seeing everybody at different parts of their lives and go ‘You can actually live a complete, full, happy, long, enriched life as yourself and you don’t have to put any of that away,” says Jem.
Canberra Qwire presents Singing Out with Pride at Llewellyn Hall, ANU on Saturday 11 November 3pm; canberraqwire.org.au
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