Music, feeling and memories often go hand-in-hand. The West Australian Symphony Orchestra’s performances help tie those things together with their Choose Your Vibe series.
By Ara Jansen
Music helps catalogue our memories, especially for certain times in our lives. A significant summer, your first concert or your first kiss are all quite possibly linked to a song, an annoying jingle or a piece of music.
This year for the first time, WASO has bundled their performances into Choose Your Vibe categories. Ravel might be your ticket to adventure, Beethoven’s Violin Concerto could be the soother you need or find a date and swoon with Dvorak. The idea is that certain pieces evoke specific emotional reactions in listeners and personal memories, and this way you can choose how you want to feel. Consider it musical medicine.
WASO violinist Jane Serrangeli has performed with the orchestra for 30 years and has also performed in aged care and nursing homes as part of a string quartet in WASO’s Music for the Ages series. She says it’s a wonderful opportunity to travel the world and across time through music as they can perform everything from a gentle classical piece through to some ragtime by Scott Joplin or the perennial sing along O sole mio.
“We can create a program which guides people through a series of emotions,” says Serrangeli. “We encourage them to sing or just hum along. At one concert I played, there was a gentleman with tears streaming down his face. It’s moving to be able to bring that kind of joy to someone.
“I love the way that when we start to play it fills the room with colour, energy and emotions. It can be calming, quite exciting or passionate and that can rekindle memories.”
For her own musical memories, Serrangeli clearly remembers her first concert, the first time she played pieces or played them publicly. Subsequent performances, she hopes, have brought greater depth to the performances – along with an ever-growing catalogue of wonderful memories of playing.
Dr Susanna Fleck has been a WASO chorister for more than 10 years and has sung for as long as she can remember, starting with her school choir. Having worked in various countries around the world she has often connected with her local community and found a home through the power of singing, inextricably tying certain choir memories to different places.
“It’s such an amazing thing do to,” says Fleck about singing. “It’s difficult to describe why, but it’s using your body and your voice as an instrument. All your feelings, emotions and memories are coming out through your voice. I have a lot of wonderful memories of the things I have sung and when I have done them before.
“Singing definitely makes me happy and it’s really empowering when everything comes together when singing as a group. I will sing for as long as I can, and I always want to be involved in music. I enjoy the beauty of music and love to be moved by music. Some performances are almost life changing, it’s beautiful.”
Curate music to match your feelings and memories by customising a subscription package with WASO. Their Choose Your Vibe packages return in 2024.