Music Lane (formerly Forest Dwellers Disco)

Where Complexity meets Simplicity Join us for a trip down the complex simplicity found in the musical journey of Burrinja's new Creative Director & CEO, Gareth Hart. A bit about Gareth. Gareth has many years experience in the arts sector, and their experience includes leading a range of arts projects and festivals, creative direction, programming and contemporary arts practice. With a Masters of Choreography and 15 years experience as a practicing artist, in the creation and delivery of award winning choreographic/installation work, both here in Australia and Europe, they have a distinctly unique perspective on what it means to make art. Most recently, Gareth has been leading regional arts organisation, Arts Mildura, as Executive Director and has earned a national (and increasingly international) reputation as a thoughtful, innovative and strategic leader within the arts industry The threads of Gareth’s creative journey are deeply woven through the Dandenong Ranges community and its arts scene, they see becoming Creative Director at Burrinja as their next step in engaging with the Hills community through the arts. Here is the link [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SE1pSiOJ2oY]to the YouTube of Philip Glass so you can access the comments that Gareth spoke about.

In this episode we speak with Samantha Dunn who says she loves being part of the Dandenong Ranges community and is a passionate advocate in community and environmental matters. She’s been a 3 term Yarra Ranges Shire Councillor, and also served a term in the Victorian Parliament. She has been on a number of boards and is a champion of good governance, integrity and open and transparent decision making and most importantly environment. She has also led extensive community engagement campaigns during her time in local government and the state parliament. Samantha has campaigned on forests for nearly two decades, passionate about environmental protection, including biodiversity, water security, climate change, air quality, tourism and recreation. She currently works in the disability sector in an organisation whose work is based on therapeutic horticulture and nature based therapies. She loves music and has from a very young age, has long supported the creative community in the hills and dedicates much of her time inspiring others to love nature. 📸 Samantha Dunn with Mary Tonkin at her exhibition at Burrinja.

Episode 2 of the podcast has us chatting with local Upwey publican, Ian Fern, about the music that has influenced his life. His stories take us from Winchester to Bristol, and the music from Getto Rap to Folk. We hope you enjoy. A quick run down of all things Fern (in Ian's words): Born in 1980 in Winchester on the south coast of England. Grew up in a small village called Netley Abbey. My mum worked as a physiotherapist (now retired) and my dad still owns his barber shop. I have an older sister called Claire that studied acting and is now a drama teacher at the local school. I studied business and IT and went into the software industry. During 2003/2005 I went back packing around the world and met Helena in Perth, WA. We are now married and live in the stunning Dandenong Ranges on the cusp of Belgrave and Selby. I have since left the IT industry and now run The Fat Goat, a small pub, nestled in the foothills in Upwey. I love craft produce and have been lucky enough to join together a passion and work whilst embedding into the amazing hills community.

Lloyd Spiegel joins us for Forest Dwellers Disco Ep-1 exploring his journey as an artist through some of the music that has shaped him as a person and his career.

Music Lane (formerly Forest Dwellers Disco) is Burrinja’s homage to the BBC’s Desert Island Disks, with our own twist. We will be chatting visual and performing artists, musicians, local luminaries and other hills folk. Exploring each person’s musical journey through a series of questions and songs, finally asking them to choose their song of songs, that one song that you could have on repeat if it was all you had.