By Kathryn Sutherland
Music and theatre have always been a liferaft for me. I went to school in Ballarat where the music department was a good 3-minute walk from the rest of the campus. I was a good girl, so no-one questioned me when I’d say I ‘had a singing lesson’ just to hang in the foyer with the musos. It felt like home.
At Melbourne Uni I studied Arts and Creative Arts. I performed under Susie Dee, Eddie Perfect and Lachy Woods. I worked with playwrights including Declan Greene and artist Gabrielle de Vietre. I performed at the Comedy Festival, travelled to Edinburgh, sang beside Nicole Carr and graduated sitting next to Amy Lepahmer.
Like many young people looking for ways to ‘keep options open’, I enrolled in law. During my first year of the JD, I was Artistic Director of UMMTA and played Cinderella in Into the Woods. That year I attended a lunchtime seminar on ‘studying law’. I asked how to study without necessarily aiming for top marks (to leave room for outside passions). I was bluntly told ‘if that was my attitude, I was at the wrong law school’.
That was a turning point for me. I dropped theatre and threw myself into study. The pressure was intense – most memorably when I had a panic attack at a 100% Property exam and collapsed at the Melbourne Exhibition Building.
I graduated, got a clerkship, and somehow found myself in construction law on the 20-something-th floor of a CBD tower, networking with property developers and digesting engineering specs much like a plate of steamed veggies (they’re good for you!). But I’d lost my creative community and my heart wasn’t soaring in quite the same way.
The turning point came via an old friend from UMMTA. She lived around the corner in Yarraville and performed with me in my very first musical at uni Merrily We Roll Along. She told me about Pitchface, a women’s choir in Yarraville where you could just turn up and sing. The rehearsals felt like a blast of oxygen, a low-commitment friend that gives you a hug even when you haven’t texted for months. But more importantly it was run and attended by women in high-pressure professions (including law). Turning up each fortnight planted a seed – if they had found a way to infuse creativity into their busy lives, maybe I could too?
Fast forward four years. BottledSnail Productions Inc., a not-for-profit run by lawyers to improve wellbeing through the arts, was looking to revive its choir after COVID. Together with Footscray musician Susie Kelly, we revived Habeas Chorus – Melbourne Lawyers’ Choir. We adopted Pitchface’s ethos: just turn up, we’ll get you singing. Two years on, we’ve attracted a whole range from the legal profession and beyond from barristers and partners to students and retirees, public servants and even an egg farmer, Tom.
This casual catch up has grown into something I could never have predicted. BottledSnail will present the Australian premiere of Nils Lindberg’s Requiem, a jazz-infused choral work for big band, choir and soloists.
I chose this piece because it has never been performed in Australia before and no-one I know (except for Bryce Ives – another old theatre friend and Yarravillian) had heard it before. I discovered it while on exchange in Berlin, rehearsing it with the university choir over a term then bused to an old church somewhere in Germany where we spent a day piecing our parts together with the jazz band and soloists. It’s stayed with me ever since.
This project has given me the chance to reconnect with my old creative friends and deepen relationships with new ones. Susie Kelly has been a rock from the start. Steve Hodgson, Artistic Director of the Consort of Melbourne and fellow Westie) has fuelled me with coffee and pep talks when grant applications fell through. When I asked if I was mad he said, ‘Yes. But you need to be mad. And you have access to a big band so you have to do this.’ Loclan MacKenzie Spencer, newly of Footscray and the Associate Musical Director of Beetlejuice, recorded practice tracks for our singers who don’t read music and need to sing in seven part harmony. My singing teacher Lisa-Marie Parker helped me reach a high D for the first time in my life. And my husband, Ed, has become my unofficial co-producer.
The performance will bring together over 60 musicians including lawyers and locals (both professional and amateur) alongside the Melbourne Lawyers’ Big Band. It’s a labour of love, but also a tribute to our community here in the West.
The Lindberg Requiem is presented by BottledSnail Productions Inc, sponsored by the Victorian Legal Services Board and Commissioner, Carina Ford Immigration Lawyers, Parnell’s Barristers, Slades & Parsons and Slater & Gordon.
The performance is on Saturday 8 November 2025 at Williamstown Town Hall. Doors open at 6pm, performance starts at 7pm, with an interval. There will be cabaret-style table seating and you are able to bring your own snacks and drinks (including alcohol). Tickets are available at events.humanitix.com/lindberg-requiem.
