The memories and experiences of five local residents and music compositions from 17 students were shared at Cobar High School’s Sound and Stories Installa-tion Showcase on Monday night at the school.
The Sounds and Stories Installation project, initiated by the school’s music teacher Laura Andrew, is a student-driven collaborative work that combines the residents’ memories and stories of the Silver Tank with the stu-dents’ sound and music compositions that will be played in the Sound Chapel.
The transition of the Silver Tank water stor-age area into the now world famous Cobar Sound Chapel was the idea of composer Georges Lentz and came to fruition when the unique music installation was officially opened in April this year.
Ms Andrew said Mr Lentz was thrilled to have the community, and in particular music students from the school, taking an interest in the Sound Chapel.
With funding from the Country Arts Sup-port Program (CASP), Ms Andrew has guided the students, along with esteemed Australian composer Elizabeth Jigalin, to create the Sound and Stories Installation.
“Students have collected and documented stories from local community members about their memories of the Silver Tank,” Ms An-drew explained.
Students used some of these stories as the inspiration for their songs.
They have also made field recordings from the site (early morning bird song, wind, water, shoes crunching on gravel etc) documenting the journey through photos and video.
Ms Jigalin spent a week long residency with the students encouraging them to think crea-tively about the compositions they were creat-ing.
She then completed the mixing and sound editing of the project.
The public were invited to view “the work in progress” at the school on Monday night.
“It’s ongoing and will have many lives as it goes on,” Ms Andrew said.
The students work is proposed to be fea-tured at the Sound Chapel next year when Mr Lentz brings out a string quartet to perform.
Monday night’s showcase concluded with a group performance by the students of one of their own Silver Tank story songs.
