Simon Hall

Open House Ensemble is a multi-platform arts ensemble designed to engage in community building through shared music making and visual arts activity that can be used to promote cultural and ethnic diversity to the world in which we live.

We are now open:

* To present the outcomes in the form of music and visual arts, in performance, exhibition, recordings, publishing and workshops

* To share and exchange visual and musical culture in both formal and informal creative settings

* To forge and develop ongoing cultural relationships with artists and community music facilitators/participants

* To create a new developmental framework that can be used to promote cultural and ethnic diversity to the world in which we live

A Prelude to Palestine

This is the first project undertaken by Open House Ensemble which is intended to provide a lens through which we can focus on the Palestinian communities and culture. We believe it will also provide a gateway to a non-language based understanding of the lives and culture of the many communities in Palestine
It is well documented that music, and song particularly, has the ability to lead and herald change. Perhaps what is lesser known, but is now also  well documented, is that music can provide for the mental health of a community. Community music, non-virtuosic music, can create a resonance and reach communities far beyond the western classical music tradition. We have been invited by the Choir of London in their twelfth year of their Choral Festivals in Palestine to join them in August 2016.

PRIOR TO OUR VISIT. We intend to engage in collective music and song with local Melbourne-Palestinian communities as a prelude to our workshops, collaborations and performances in Palestine, to share and create new music and to garner a non-language based understanding of the lives and culture of the Palestinian people. We intend then, to make the journey, plant seeds of cooperation and further communication through music, and to leave a legacy as a start of a broader connectivity between our cultures. We are seeking to raise funds in the short term through crowd, corporate and other sourced funding in order to meet some of the costs of the creative development and this journey, already part funded by the musicians and choir members themselves. Further funding it is hoped, will provide the vehicle largely guided by the interaction with Palestinian communities and the extent of funding received, to create a legacy project for Palestinian communities. It is our intent to further engage in music and build an ongoing non-language based communication between our community in Melbourne and those of the communities we visit.

For more information about Open House ensemble or the project, please visit the links below:
http://www.choiroflondon.org/Choir_of_London/Choir_of_London_-_Home.html

https://www.facebook.com/OpenHouseEnsemble/

THE OPEN HOUSE  ENSEMBLE MEMBERS FOR THE PALESTINE TOUR

BRIAN STATING MUSICAL DIRECTOR. Brian “Strat” Strating is a singer, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter who has performed and taught in the Australian music scene for 30 years. He is passionate about engaging and empowering people in the joy of music making and exploring our identity through music and song. He is a trained teacher whose recent projects include The Open House Ensemble Project, Homebrew Verandah Singers (a men’s singing group based in Melbourne), the Brunswick Old Time String Orchestra(with Andy Baylor), Glenroy Harmonisers community singing group, the Railway House Ramblers community singing group, Havana Palava street band, The Kwela Swingsters (South African penny whistle jive) to name but a few.
LYNDAL CHAMBERS ENSEMBLE MANAGER Lyndal Chambers is a performer, community music leader and leadership facilitator who counts herself as lucky to have grown up within the folk tradition. A tradition nurtured in Australia on the fertile soil of Gippsland Victoria. Lyndal has performed around the world with folk band Boola Boola and is performing regularly in various ensembles such as the ‘Kwela Swingsters’, street band ‘Havana Palava’ and Open House amongst others. Not only an engaging performer but also an astute producer, Lyndal is currently the project manager of Community Music Victoria’s StreetSounds project. Professionally trained, as a music & drama teacher and a veteran instrumentalist Lyndal’s understanding of the power of music to transform lives and communities is powered by enthusiasm and a guided by an innate perceptive nature.
PONCH HAWKES SOCIAL DOCUMENTARY ARTIST Ponch Hawkes photography has captured Australian culture, social and political life since the seventies. Her work has taken her all over Australia and overseas looking at community and relationships. A distinguishing hallmark in her work is the frequent use of text, historical and oral material as seen in her work on the Family and in Best Mates, a book about friendship between men. Her work is widely represented in major collections including the Australian National Gallery and the National Gallery of Victoria
IAN BRACEGIRDLE ARTIST AND MUSICIAN Ian Bracegirdle has an extensive record of artistic achievement spanning over thirty five years.  As director of Mothers Art Productions, Motherworks and Mothers Art Television applying arts-focused expertise across many industry platforms including Architecture, Theatre, Film more recently Museums and Zoos. His studio arts projects include recent sculptural projects and painting exhibitions. Ian has been a board member for Back to Back Theatre and Artists for Kids Culture and is currently a guitarist and singer with ensembles including The Footscray Gypsy Orchestra, The Brunswick Old time String Orchestra and Open House Ensemble
JEN HAWLEY GUITAR AND VOCALS Guitarist and vocalist Jen Hawley can be found exploring the cracks between jazz, folk and world music. She is a graduate of the late great jazz tutor Bruce Clarke, and has worked with Alex Burns, Christophe Genoux, Great Chefs of Europe and Blue Drag. Jen has a passion for teaching, both privately and in the world of community music and is often out and about performing at festivals and venues around Melbourne.
JOHN LANGFORD VOCALS AND BANJO John describes himself as a retiree finally able to grab the important opportunities in life. He came to OHE through BOTSO and Homebrew, and travelled with Strat and Lyndal to Morocco in 2014, experiencing first hand how sharing and shared music can connect, foster understanding and provide simple joy. He also sang with choirs from around the world at the 2015 Alta Pusteria International Choir Festival in northern Italy, as part of the Viva Melbourne choir. John loves to sing and particularly harmonise, and will also add banjo to the range of instrumentation.
LEWIS STRATING BANJO, VIOLIN AND VOCALS Lewis, despite his relative youth is a multi-insrumentalist and seasoned performer . Growing up amidst the folk framework of Gippsland in Victoria he has had a thorough grounding in how music and community can mesh to produce a harmonic balance of lifestyle.
COLIN LLOYD VOCALS Also came to us through Homebrew Veranda singers. He claims to have had minimal musical training yet we know that he not only began playing in a school recorder band but he is also a refugee of piano lessons. A veteran of 15 years in community choirs, he hasn’t stopped. Colin believes the Choirs have enriched his life in so many ways bringing more than just the music. The connectedness of the choir and the choir to the audience as well as the opportunity to share with a diversity of people in a variety of settings continues inspire him.
JOEY REMENYI VIOLIN AND VOCALS Joey Remenyi has been a part of community music since meeting Strat & Lyndal in 2013. She grew up with music and using song to share stories. For Joey, playing music is an expression of joy and an opportunity to feel whole in body-mind-breath. Joey sees music as a common language that can connect us as people of diverse backgrounds.
PAUL MAYFIELD VOCALS Paul came came to OHE through the Home Brew Veranda Singers . He has an abiding interest in poetry and the power of music to address each ‘person in particular’. Hymn singing was formative having grown up in a Methodist household. More recently, he hears ‘gospel’ in more diverse expressions such as Tibetan folk singing and lyrics written by his contemporaries in the men’s singing group.
ANJA MARSCHOLLEK Anja started playing the ukulele about 4 years ago inspired by Lyndal and Strat and their love for music and music making. The three of them met when travelling in Southeast Asia. Anja has not had much of a musical education up until then except for some rather unfruitful recorder and piano lessons when she was a child. During her time with Strat and Lyndal, she experienced first hand how music is able to touch and connect people across cultures and linguistic barriers. Since then, Anja has met with Lyndal and Strat frequently to play music with local communities in Morroco, Australia and Germany.