Listening, Remembering and Looking Ahead

29 Dec

Closing 2025 and Making Our FRINGE WORLD Debut

As the year draws to an end and we look ahead to a significant new chapter for Mirabilis Collective, I wanted to share some reflections on the work that shaped 2025 and the ideas guiding us into 2026.

Throughout 2025, we found ourselves reflecting on a year shaped by listening — to stories that have been overlooked, to voices that deserve more space, and to the communities who continue to meet our work with generosity and curiosity.

This moment of reflection also coincides with an important milestone for Mirabilis Collective. In early 2026, we will make our FRINGE WORLD debut, presenting two contrasting works that sit at the heart of our artistic practice.

2025 was a year defined by depth, collaboration and connection. Across the year, Mirabilis Collective continued to build work that brings music, story and people into close conversation.

We began the year with Her Sound, Her Story for International Women’s Day, a landmark project that brought together Mirabilis Collective and 160 students from Methodist Ladies’ College, St Mary’s Anglican Girls’ School, and St Hilda’s Anglican School for Girls. Through rehearsal, collaboration and performance, students worked alongside professional musicians to bring women’s music to life on a large scale. The project exemplified our commitment to intergenerational music-making and to creating meaningful performance experiences for young women at a formative stage of their musical lives.

In April, we were honoured to present Sounds of Her as part of the Boorloo Heritage Festival, continuing our collaboration with Perth Wesley Church during celebrations marking the church’s 155th anniversary. The program situated music by women within a broader reflection on place, history and community.

Education and mentorship were also key threads throughout the year. Our residency at Christ Church Grammar School allowed us to work closely with students over an extended period, sharing repertoire, rehearsal processes and professional insights. Spending time in the classroom and rehearsal room reinforced the value of sustained engagement, and the energy, curiosity and commitment of the students made this residency particularly rewarding.

Collaboration continued to shape our creative work. Finding Connie grew through close work with UWA composition students, whose creativity and insight added new layers to the project. We were also delighted to be invited to present a feature performance at the APSMER Conference, sharing our work with music educators and researchers from Australia and the Asia–Pacific region.

Our concert program expanded in both scope and ambition. Clara Schumann: Notes from an Extraordinary Life brought together chamber music and narrative in a deeply personal portrait, featuring Opera Australia star Annie Aitken, alongside outstanding young musicians Ellie Malonzo and Jessica Casey. The generosity and artistry of everyone involved made this project especially meaningful.

We were also proud to present our community concert debut, Listening Room, made possible with the support of the City of Stirling. This new format allowed us to reimagine how audiences encounter chamber music, creating an intimate, welcoming space for listening and conversation.

Southern Stars was a celebration of contemporary Australian women composers and songwriters, featuring a world premiere composition by Katherine Potter and live on-stage conversations with ABC Radio’s Joanna Trilling. The dialogue between music, ideas and lived experience sat at the heart of this event.

We were honoured to present the final concert in the Winter Series for Grove Classics, celebrating the series’ 15th anniversary at The Grove Library in Peppermint Grove. Grove Classics has long been recognised for its intimate, accessible concerts and its carefully curated programs, making it a special context in which to share our work.

Across all of these projects, one of the great joys of 2025 was the chance to connect with audiences beyond the performance itself — sharing conversations, reflections, and, more often than not, bubbles and brownies after the concert. These moments of informal exchange continue to shape how we think about community, hospitality and the role of live performance.

This moment of reflection also coincides with an important milestone for Mirabilis Collective. In early 2026, we will make our FRINGE WORLD debut, presenting two contrasting works that sit at the heart of our artistic practice.

FRINGE WORLD 2026: Our Debut Season

Our FRINGE WORLD debut brings together two works that approach women’s stories from different perspectives, while sharing a common impulse: to listen closely and to give voice.

Finding Connie: Songs of a Lost Genius appears in a new cabaret-style version for sextet, featuring newly created arrangements by Julia Nicholls. This 60-minute concert-theatre work explores the life and music of Connie Converse, a pioneering singer-songwriter whose work largely disappeared from public view during her lifetime. Through live performance and narration, the show traces Connie’s songs alongside the mystery of her disappearance, inviting audiences to reflect on recognition, creativity, and what it means to be heard.

Alongside this, She Said What? offers a contemporary counterpoint. This hour-long performance presents a curated selection of outstanding songs by Australian women songwriters, heard through intimate acoustic reimaginings. Drawing on music that ranges from reflective to defiant, the program foregrounds women’s words and the clarity that comes from stripping songs back to their essence.

Together, these two works mark an exciting first step for Mirabilis Collective at FRINGE WORLD, and an opportunity to share our approach to storytelling and live performance with new audiences.

Looking Ahead: Hear Her Now

Much of what Mirabilis Collective has been building over recent years now comes into focus through our next major chapter: Hear Her Now.

Launching in October 2026, Hear Her Now is a chamber music festival celebrating music written by women — across genres, generations, and stories. From early music to contemporary voices, the festival brings together performance, storytelling, education, and community engagement, led by an intergenerational ensemble of professional women musicians.

Hear Her Now represents a natural evolution of our artistic vision: deepening our commitment to amplifying underrepresented voices, building audiences, and creating meaningful connection through music. We’re excited to begin sharing the story of the festival, with further program details to be announced in 2026.

We invite you to explore Hear Her Now on our website and follow the story as it unfolds.

Regional Momentum

We are delighted to share that Mirabilis Collective has been awarded a Synergy Community Giving Fund Grant, supporting the next stage of Her Sound, Her Story through performances and community engagement in Narrogin and Wagin.

This funding enables us to extend our regional work through residencies, workshops and collaborations with local choirs and young women musicians. Attending the award ceremony was a meaningful moment for our team, and we are grateful for support that recognises the value of long-term, place-based engagement.

As we close the year, we do so with a strong sense of continuity. From revisiting lost voices, to amplifying contemporary ones, to deepening relationships with regional communities, the through-line remains clear.

We look forward to making our FRINGE WORLD debut in 2026, and to sharing what comes next.

Thank you for being part of the journey.

Hear Her Now marks the next major chapter in Mirabilis Collective’s work. You can explore the festival and follow its development on our website as we share more over the coming months.

About the Author
Stephanie Nicholls is the Artistic Director and founder of Mirabilis Collective, an oboist, pianist, and advocate for women in music. She founded the ensemble in 2022 to champion works by women composers and mentor young women musicians entering the profession.