It’s not every day that a live performance of opera and classical music pops up in the suburbs.

But it is happening over four weekends during Brisbane Festival – in 23 parks, streets and gathering places across the city. Described as the festival’s gift to the community, Brisbane Serenades started as a Covid initiative but has continued due to popular demand. The program’s remaining performances will feature the chamber music outfit Ensemble Q, neoclassical instrumentalists Yatra, and cross-cultural outfit Kooralbyn, featuring Tibetan musician Tenzin Choegyal.

I attended one of the Brisbane Serenades on the weekend. On Sunday night the crisp air carried the remarkable sounds of home-grown international soprano Nina Korbe and Camerata, Queensland’s Chamber Orchestra at Bardon’s Fletcher Parade Park.

I’m used to hearing Camerata (rather than seeing them) when they accompany Queensland Ballet with 20 to 35 players.

Here they were a more compact unit, perfectly at ease standing centre stage to perform as a quintet – artistic director Brendan Joyce and fellow violinist Jonny Ng, Alice Buckingham (viola), Marian Heckenberg (double bass) and Alison Smith O’Connell (cello).

Introducing the artists and pieces, Joyce proved an amiable host keen to demonstrate that classical music is “a living, breathing and evolving tradition”. Accordingly, the 40-minute concert was an entertaining mix of historical and contemporary music, including compositions by Camerata alumni – Australian Voices AD John Rotar’s Apis Australis Suite and a lively interactive Romanian number by Doch Gypsy Orchestra’s Mark Patterson.

Even without the benefit of surtitles famous arias by Mozart, Puccini and Strauss showcased why Queenslander Nina Korbe, currently a Young Artist with Opera Queensland, is a rising star. Wearing an elegant red gown, she also looked like one.

But it wasn’t just the beautiful music that made the evening special.

Bordered by a traffic-free horseshoe access road for nine homes, it’s a unique spot, an urban oasis throwing back to yesteryear. This niche provides an extended playground for the local kids – an old-fashioned swing dangles from the branch of a towering Moreton Bay fig – and fosters a genuine sense of community.

After 500 attended Fletcher Parade’s first Brisbane Serenades in 2021, flooding devastated the street last year. So the Phoenix-like emergence of the mobile stage from a trailer within 15 minutes seemed a perfect metaphor.

An onstage prelude to the headline acts saw event organiser Amanda French recognised by the festival’s Community Hero program. She saw the encore as a way to thank those who helped when she and husband Steven Cheyne found themselves dealing with a house under water and two-week old baby Byron, plus three-year-old Flynn. It would also be a bittersweet farewell to that happy home, now resumed, and their enclave family.
(Thanks to neighbourhood support, they’ve found another place just 200m away.) The residents’ bond was further represented by Frances Blines – as alter-ego Fern Jungelo – performing her composition The Eucalypt Song, accompanied by the local kids who also feature on its Bandcamp recording.

Although this Serenades session didn’t actually start till 6.15pm, the community kicked-off festivities from three with a fairground atmosphere of festooned lights and streamers, ice-cream and food vans and catchy pop tunes from a bespoke four-piece of local professional musos aptly dubbed One Night Stand.

With even littlies held in thrall (when not dancing or singing), it’s no wonder Joyce declared – “This is amazing – ten out of ten Bardon”. A Brisbane Festival volunteer rated it her best serenades.

However, Joyce did add that it wasn’t a competition and it’s probably more helpful to view Bardon’s event as a template to follow rather than a bar to go under or over.

It encapsulated the sense of community sought by Brisbane Serenades, as well as providing a supportive and diverse audience open to experiencing styles of music they might not otherwise be familiar with. Building that appreciation in youngsters is especially valuable.

Bardon’s initiative to enhance the experience through neighbourhood involvement (including letterbox drops) has demonstrably amplified the immediate experience and its after-effects. Louise Bezzina and her team are dedicated to keeping Brisbane Serenades as part of the festival going forward which is great news for all of us.

Brisbane Serenades continues this weekend and on Saturday September 23
Brisbanefestival.com.au