Various People Incorporated

Various People Inc creates deconstructed chamber vocal works for intimate audiences in nontraditional venues, with contemporary sociocultural connections. Our productions create intersections between music, design, installation and the social conscience, deconstructing the traditional chamber music format and working across art forms with diverse stakeholders to illuminate some of the compelling issues of our time. Our reputation as creators of high quality, genrebending, uplifting and surprising work has seen us present in the Adelaide Festival and in the Adelaide Fringe, Cabaret, Cabaret Fringe and Come Out Festivals, as well as within the Adelaide Festival Centre s Intimate Music and Summer Sessions series, and with organisations including Tutti Arts, RIAus, State Opera of SA, SA Museum and the Port Fairy Spring Festival. Artistic Activity July 2023 June 2024 The main artistic focus for Various People Inc during this period was creative development of French Guise (working title), a new music theatre work based on the life of seventeenth century opera singer and sword fighter Julie d Aubigny. In preparation for an intensive creative development later in the year, Anne Cawrse (South Australian composer) was commissioned to write 4 songs to texts by female poets. Artistic Director Cheryl Pickering selected the texts as artistic and emotional commentary on specific stages of d Aubigny s life. The songs are also designed to be performed as a standalone song cycle for concert performance. Cheryl Pickering premiered the songs in the Adelaide Town Hall with violinist Helen Ayres and cellist Thomas Marlin as part of Chamber Music Adelaide s Perspectives series. Cheryl also created a production for emerging opera singers called Orpheus Wedding, with a pastiche of music across 4 centuries based on the Orpheus myth.