QPAC

Rebecca Levingston, Rhonda Burchmore, Timothy Sherlock, Professor Brydie-Leigh Bartleet FAHA and Casey Donovan sat on stage at the Cremorne Theatre, QPAC Peter Wallis

Sister Act and the healing power of song

Mon 14 Apr 2025

Friends of QPAC recently came together for their first event of the year at an intimate Q&A in the Cremorne Theatre.

As part of the exclusive event, a panel of music industry professionals including Casey Donovan and Rhonda Burchmore, stars of Sister Act, the most recent blockbuster musical to grace the Lyric Theatre stage, discussed the importance and power of song.

Speaking on the themes of connecting through music and song, Facilitator Rebecca Levingston asked the panel to explore the power music has to move us.

Community music expert and panel participant, Professor Brydie-Leigh Bartleet FAHA considers music our most ancient and abundant resource.

“It’s something that every living culture has,” she said.

“We’re absolutely wired for it. It’s how we express our identity and connect to the world around us.”

For fellow panel member and QPAC Chamber Choir Choral Director, Timothy Sherlock, music is more than a form of expression, it’s an opportunity for healing. Reflecting on his experience as Choir Master of the Children’s Health Queensland Community Choir, he spoke to music often being so much bigger than we realise.

“The choir was created to help and heal the staff: after a while, it became much more than that,” he said.

For Burchmore, music has been a place of solace in difficult times, and she talked about its importance to her when facing her mother’s passing.

“The audience might not know you’re experiencing something awful. As an actor, I have to suddenly forget all that awful stuff and go on with the show. It can be difficult.”

Turning to the topic of group singing, which plays a pivotal role in the story of Sister Act, Burchmore and Donovan expressed similar sentiments on transitioning from singing as an individual to being in a group, referring to it as empowering.

“This is my first leading role and the convent (in Sister Act) is so much fun…getting to share the stage with these amazing humans. I’ve never been very good at harmonising, but I wanted to learn, because I’d heard all these beautiful choirs that just move you to tears,” she said.

“It’s a herd community and we’re all learning together in the rehearsal room.”

Burchmore faced a similar learning curve, saying her transition from leading in melody to harmonising in group singing took her six months. With great triumph, she expressed how proud she was of herself, which prompted joyful laughter and applause from the audience.

“Throughout my career I’ve usually been in a lead role, but in Sister Act, we’re in it all supporting each other,” Burchmore said.

The panel enjoyed an interesting discussion on music’s ability to facilitate change in society and to tell stories in a unique way.

“Music has the power to change the world because it changes people,” said Bartleet.

“I think we need to ask what our song is for ‘now’ and to think about the change we wish to see.”

Nearing the event’s conclusion, Friends of QPAC had the opportunity to ask some questions of the panel. One audience member asked how we can connect with young people today in music education, when their lives revolve around genres such as Rap and other modern music concepts, in contrast with more classical forms of music many educators have grown up with and use in teaching?

Sherlock explained it as being a partnership.

“It’s important to consider the balance of young people’s musical interests and what you wish to teach them,” he said.

Throughout the session, Levingston teased that it wouldn’t be a musical event if no singing was to be had. To the audience’s delight, the QPAC Chamber Choir gave a surprise performance of “I Sing Because I’m Happy”; a beautiful moment of communal singing to end the first Friends of QPAC event of the year.

Upcoming Friends of QPAC exclusive events include The Dictionary of Lost Words, Ballet Preljocaj’s Swan Lake and Illume by Bangarra.

Become a Friend of QPAC 2025

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