The rugged landscape of rural New South Wales is unfamiliar to 15-year-old violinist Demeil.
Travelling through the outback on a bus, it’s the first time he’s experiencing the brown dirt turn a deep red, and the trees grow hardy.
He’s leaving the city behind to journey with the Sydney Youth Orchestras on its Big Sky tour into remote areas, collaborating with local performers along the way.
It’s almost 11 hours on the bus before they reach their destination. (Sydney Youth Orchestras: Craig Proudford)
The Sydney Youth Orchestras, which has served as a stepping stone for young musicians for more than five decades, is sharing its talents to help bridge the divide between city and country through music.
Joining them is Back Roads guest presenter Jeremy Fernandez, who shares their passion for classical music.
Demeil is excited to perform in Wilcannia with the local children’s choir, and then at a gala concert in Broken Hill.
In Wilcannia, the children await their guests. (Sydney Youth Orchestras: Craig Proudford)
“I’m really looking forward to meeting new people, connecting with them, talking about each other’s cultures, learning about each other,” Demeil says.
“Music can connect pretty much anyone. The power that you feel when there’s a massive orchestra, it’s incredible.”
On his journey, Demeil meets 14-year-old Barkindji girl Imogen — she has never seen an orchestra before.
Sisters Olivia (middle) and Imogen (right) welcome Demeil and Jeremy Fernandez to their home. (Sydney Youth Orchestras: Craig Proudford)
Connecting to Country
Imogen calls the remote Wilcannia, with a population of 735, her home.
She was one of the founding members of the Wilcannia Children’s Choir in 2022, which local kids set up with the help of their school teachers.
“I’ve always wanted to sing since I was little. It makes me happy to sing,” Imogen says.
“We all sat down one day, and we were talking about it, and we decided to do it.”
Imogen helped bring the Wilcannia Children’s Choir to life. (Sydney Youth Orchestras: Craig Proudford)
Her 12-year-old sister, Olivia, joined soon after.
“Everyone was just nice, no-one judged anyone, and I felt like myself, like I could just sing,” Olivia says.Â
“And singing just makes you feel better — it takes away all your frustrations and your feelings and emotions, and it just makes you feel calm.”
Olivia painted her face to welcome the Sydney Youth Orchestra. (Sydney Youth Orchestras: Craig Proudford)
Olivia is intrigued by the inner workings of an orchestra, but admits it looks “very confusing”. Her big sister hopes to hear magic.
“I think it would sound like a dream. I can just imagine walking in and hearing them all together, like the melodies and the harmonising. It would just be a magical experience,” Imogen says.
The sisters care deeply about their home and want their visitors to recognise how special Wilcannia is to them.
“We’ll go places — go anywhere in the world, but this will always be our home, this will always be our Ngamaka. Ngamaka means mother; this is our motherland,” Imogen says.
“I hope that they go home wanting to come back, that they enjoy the experience of being out here and that they have fun, but also learn some of our cultural ways and learn some of our Barkindji words.”
The Wilcannia kids are proud to show the visitors their home. (Sydney Youth Orchestras: Craig Proudford)
For Barkindji girl Zhayle, 11, this connection to culture is why she loves being in the Wilcannia Children’s Choir.
“The choir’s basically a thing to give kids the opportunity to sing, and just to enjoy themselves and just feel amazing,” she says.
“We like to sing songs that have our Aboriginal words in them to learn our culture. It’s really nice to learn all the Aboriginal words.”
Full of curiosity, Zhayle makes the visitors feel right at home, and quickly bonds with them over their shared love of music.Â
“It’s actually really fun to meet new people and hang around them,” she says.
Loading…Bridging the city-country divide
The local children only spend a handful of days with the 70-piece orchestra before taking the stage.
Lisa Millar on small town festivals
They exchange handmade gifts and bond in rehearsals, building a strong foundation before their performance in front of the Wilcannia community.
For the locals, the children perform Family Song, written by Barkindji musician Nancy Bates, which includes words from their Language.
When it’s time to stand on stage at the Broken Hill Gala concert and let all the anticipation go, they perform a new song, Rise Up, with local Barkindji singer-songwriter Leroy Johnson.
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Johnson says it shares a powerful message.
“It’s a song about oppression and how we oppose that, you know, stand up to that oppression — being held back, being overlooked, and it’s a song about, ‘Hey, this is our Country. We stand up here, and we’re going to use our voice.'”
Johnson delights in hearing the children from his hometown sing this song.
“That’s pretty deadly. It makes me very proud. I’m hoping they take those messages and do good things, for themselves, for their families, and make us proud.”
On stage, the Wilcannia Children’s Choir take it away. (Sydney Youth Orchestras: Craig Proudford)
It’s a touching performance for many reasons, but for Wilcannia Central School teacher Karen O’Donnell, it all comes back to the lyrics.
“It just lifted me. I almost cried. To watch them sing in Language, it just warms me. I’m quite inspired myself to learn more Language,” she says.
For Zhayle it’s not only a personal triumph, but a shared one.
“The one thing that I’d like to do in life is make my parents proud of me, and they thought that I was amazing, and I was just like, ‘I’m not amazing, we were all amazing together.'”
Demeil beams with pride, alongside guest conductor Benjamin Northey (Right).
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 (Sydney Youth Orchestras: Craig Proudford)
This awe is shared by Demeil.
“I’ve never really experienced the raw outback, then I come here and they really love what they’re doing,” he says.Â
“I saw kids with their eyes closed, I saw kids just feeling the music, smiling because they were so happy.”
“We think of rural Australia as what everybody depicts it as, the stereotypes: kangaroos, complete desert, but then we come to little communities like this, and we see choirs being set up, we see people being able to play instruments, it’s hopeful.Â
“That’s what it is, hopeful.”
A shared love of music bonds these city and country kids. (Sydney Youth Orchestras: Craig Proudford)
Stream Back Roads free on ABC iview or watch the Sydney Youth Orchestras’ travels to Wilcannia on Thursday at 8pm on ABC TV. Â