Indigenous art, storytelling and a 117-year-old piano make sweet orchestral music together in Queensland's capital.
A more than century-old piano hand painted by Cairns First Nations artist has formed as the centrepiece of an orchestral performance by 21 musicians from the Queensland Symphony Orchestra (QSO) Connect ensemble.
The performance, Planets aligned, formed before the discovery of the 117-year-old semi-grand ballroom piano at auction in Cairns in 2021.
Susan Reys, a descendant of the Gugu Yimithirr Nation, Western Yalandji, Badjala, and Djirrabal people of Queensland spent 18 months transforming the well-maintained instrument.
She turned the Australian-made Beale piano into a showpiece canvas and storyteller with more than 11 cultural stories featuring on the piece, titled, It's Time To Listen, Let Me Tell You Another Story.
While at this year's Cairns Indigenous Art Fair (CIAF) Ms Reys, who was displaying her artwork, it was a special moment, particularly when visiting QSO student Jonathan Platz, who took his seat to play a special treat for fairgoers.
It was a further boost for her to secure a sale to QPAC where the piano will now call home after being played tomorrow for its first official performance by QSO ensemble students.
The QSO Connect Compose Project is designed to introduce secondary school students to composing for orchestral instruments, extending students in the senior phase of their schooling beyond the general requirements of the curriculum.
QSO musician and composer and Connect ensemble leader Craig Allister Young happened across Ms Reys' gallery, K'gari 3 Sisters, during which he met the artist and admired her artwork in progress on the piano.
Mr Allister Young and fellow program leader Timothy Tate, conductor Katie Betts and QSO musicians, then led a series of workshops and face-to-face activities with 22 students.
The students were given the opportunity to write compositions, based on Ms Reys' stories, for the 21-piece QSO Connect ensemble. The final compositions were featured in Saturday's performance which was attended by Ms Reys.
In giving this musical instrument a new lease on life, Ms Reys said she could not be happier or have envisioned a more pleasing outcome.
"Right from the beginning, my vision and purpose for this project was about sharing our stories and culture with the public.
"This was about creating something interactive and showing how amazing and intricate we are as a First Nations people.
"And now, being able to translate our stories and culture into the universal language of music is beyond what I could have envisioned," Ms Reys said.
(Image: supplied by CIAF)
CIAF's Artistic Director Francoise Lane said this artwork by Susan Reys, musical compositions of cultural stories by QSO and acquisition by QPAC embodies the success of CIAF.
"Empirically, there is nothing more convincing than this artist's experience for an event like CIAF which is a platform for storytelling, knowledge sharing and influencing change.
"It gives artists a voice, a place to show and sell their work while focussing the spotlight on Queensland and its incredibly rich and distinct Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people," Ms Lane said.
Ms Reys piano and other artworks formed part of CIAF's 2023 Weaving our Future: Claiming our Sovereignty Art Fair exhibition.
Across the 12 art centres and five independent galleries, two commercial galleries and 12 independent artists in the Art Fair plus 40 market stalls, notable sales reported across the event included the QPAC acquisition of Susan Reys' hand-painted piano.
