On Sunday 25 August, the stirring sounds of a massed choir and orchestra will reverberate through St Patrick’s Cathedral, honouring those who have died on our streets.
As part of a new community music project sponsored by Australian Catholic University (ACU), the ‘Big Sing for a Big Cause’ concert will raise funds for people struggling to find secure accommodation. It will also include a 10th-anniversary performance of the acclaimed choral work Street Requiem by Melbourne-based composers Dr Kathleen McGuire, Andy Payne and Jonathan Welch.
Since its world premiere in Melbourne in 2014, the critically acclaimed Street Requiem—a musical response to rising levels of poverty and violence on the streets—has been performed more than 30 times worldwide by 6,000 people, raising more than $250,000 for charities supporting people who experience homelessness.
The concert at St Patrick’s Cathedral will be the second of two ‘Big Sing for a Big Cause’ concerts, with the first to be performed at the brand-new Performing Arts Centre at St Patrick’s College in Ballarat on Saturday 24 August. Free tickets to the concerts are being given to organisations that support Victoria’s homeless community.
World-class Indigenous artist Jess Hitchcock will perform as a guest soloist at the concert at St Patrick’s Cathedral.
The program will also premiere new music composed by McGuire and Payne to give a voice to people living on the street. The new composition includes a rap component and addresses street violence, asking, ‘What will you say when they carry me away?’
The performance will feature a massed choir and orchestra comprised of students and staff from ACU, where McGuire is a senior lecturer in music education. The ACU Choir will be joined by secondary school students and singers from the wider community, including members of a choir from Auckland, New Zealand.
The homeless can become invisible to us far too easily, and the Street Requiem is a beautiful way to give our attention to them and, most importantly, to lift our hearts in prayer for them, especially those who have died on the streets.
‘I am thrilled to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Street Requiem with some of my own students and colleagues from ACU, and honoured guests from Victoria and New Zealand, to stand up for the lives of people who have tragically died on our streets,’ Dr McGuire said.
Among those lending their voices to the choir is Fr Michael Buck, Chaplain at ACU and Archdiocesan Master of Ceremonies and Curate at St Patrick’s Cathedral.
He says he is very proud to be participating in the concert. ‘We don’t often think of the homeless,’ he says. ‘They can become invisible to us far too easily, and the Street Requiem is a beautiful way to give our attention to them and, most importantly, to lift our hearts in prayer for them, especially those who have died on the streets.’
He is particularly looking forward to singing a solo part in the Libera me movement of the requiem.
‘I get to sing the Gregorian chant line,’ Fr Michael explains. ‘In Latin, it is “Libera me, Domine, de morte aeterna”, which in English means “Free/Save me, O Lord, from eternal death”. And then you have another voice, which is that of the dying homeless person, speaking of the loneliness and pain of his situation on the street.
‘On the one hand, the prayer is asking for deliverance from a dreadful fate after death, but on the other, it seems to be calling out for deliverance from the ‘hellish’ situations some people experience here and now.’
The music brings together both ancient and modern styles ... I’m excited to see how the various styles work together.
Br Isaac Webb, a Capuchin Friar who is currently doing a part-time pastoral placement at ACU, will also be singing in the choir. ‘I see the Big Sing as a wonderful opportunity to highlight the dignity of each person,’ he says, ‘particularly those in our community who are struggling or even forgotten. It’s an opportunity to show our support and compassion for them through music and prayer.’
Like Fr Michael, he will be focusing on the movements in the requiem that use Gregorian chant. ‘It is the musical style I am most familiar with,’ he says, ‘and the Big Sing is an opportunity to share with others how rich and beautiful our musical heritage is. The music brings together both ancient and modern styles which will be a new experience for me, and I’m excited to see how the various styles work together.’
ACU creative arts student Alia McBride is another of the 40 students and staff from ACU who will be part of the choir. The event has special significance for Alia, whose family home has become a safe haven for people experiencing homelessness.
During the 2020 Melbourne lockdown, Alia discovered one of her high-school friends had been kicked out of her family home. Alia’s family agreed to house her temporarily, with Alia opting to sleep on a mattress in her sister’s room.
‘We grew to love her as another sister, but her time with us was not without its struggles. Navigating VCE, Centrelink, friendships and relationships was extremely difficult on her,’ Alia says.
Alia also witnessed the desperation of her maternal grandparents after they fled a dangerous family situation in their home in New Zealand last year. They now housesit homes across Victoria and live with Alia’s family in between jobs.
There is sorrow, hope, anger and contemplation ... I felt validated in my despair and frustration about homelessness but encouraged to see the possibility of change.
Alia has invited her formerly homeless friend, a talented singer who is now in secure housing, to perform in Street Requiem with the ACU Choir in Ballarat on 24 August.
‘I am so grateful to be at a university that values the support of issues such as the housing crisis and poverty,’ Alia says.
The final-year university student says Street Requiem is more than a concert performance.
‘Street Requiem is hard to describe in words other than “moving’,’ she says. ‘There is sorrow, hope, anger and contemplation. After the first rehearsal, I listened to recordings of the work multiple times driving home at night. I felt validated in my despair and frustration about homelessness but encouraged to see the possibility of change at my own hands.’
Proceeds from the performances in Melbourne and Ballarat will go towards ACU’s Urgent Financial Hardship Grant and Peplow House Crisis Accommodation Support in Ballarat, a service of CatholicCare Victoria.
