Stephanie Nicholls 3/7/26 Stephanie Nicholls 3/7/26

Her Sound, Her Story: Building Community Through Music in the Wheatbelt

Over four months, Mirabilis Collective worked alongside the communities of Narrogin and Wagin to create seven original songs, build lasting connections, and celebrate women's stories through music. Discover the story behind Her Sound, Her Story.

Watch the video above.

Experience the creativity, connection and community spirit of Her Sound, Her Story in this short documentary capturing Mirabilis Collective's four-month Wheatbelt music initiative.

From January to May 2026, Mirabilis Collective had the privilege of working alongside the communities of Narrogin and Wagin on one of the most ambitious and rewarding projects in our history.

Together, we created seven original songs, built a community choir and vocal ensemble, reached hundreds of people through schools and community engagement, and celebrated the voices and stories of women across the Wheatbelt.

Her Sound, Her Story began with a simple idea: to create opportunities for Wheatbelt women to tell their stories through music.

What followed became something much bigger.

Seven local women wrote original songs inspired by their lives, families, communities and experiences. Together with Mirabilis Collective, those songs were developed, arranged and brought to life through months of workshops, mentoring, rehearsals and creative collaboration.

The project culminated in two sold-out public performances, but the concerts were only one part of the story.

Throughout our residency we visited primary schools, aged care facilities and community organisations, sharing music with hundreds of people across the region. We watched strangers become collaborators, experienced musicians mentor emerging songwriters, and community members discover confidence they didn't know they possessed.

By the final performances, it was difficult to tell who had learnt the most.

At the heart of the project were seven original songs by Wheatbelt women.

Each songwriter brought something unique: stories of love, belonging, resilience, migration, hope, identity and place.

These songs were then reimagined for performance with Mirabilis Collective and the Her Sound, Her Story Vocal Ensemble, creating a powerful collaboration between local songwriters and professional musicians. A community choir, formed especially for the project, also featured throughout the concerts, joining Mirabilis Collective for the finale performance of Julia Nicholls’ Accelerate.

For many participants, it was the first time hearing their own music performed by professional musicians. For us, it was a privilege.

Although the project initially focused on mentoring young women, it quickly evolved into something beautifully intergenerational. Women in their twenties worked alongside women in their seventies. Experience met fresh perspectives. Stories crossed generations.

This became one of the defining strengths of Her Sound, Her Story.

It reminded us that creativity has no age limit, and that every generation has something valuable to contribute.

Community connection sat at the centre of every aspect of the residency.

From January to May 2026, Her Sound, Her Story delivered:

24 individual songwriting and mentoring workshops
32 workshop participants
Seven original songs developed and performed
Five community outreach performances in schools and aged care
Two public concerts
Approximately 450 people reached through community engagement
Around 180 audience members across the public performances

Perhaps more importantly, participants described increased confidence, new friendships, creative growth and a renewed sense of belonging.

One participant wrote:

"A wonderful gift... bringing our voices to life."

Another reflected:

"I've learnt so very much... Best of all — THE JOY!!!"

Many also spoke about the importance of having meaningful arts experiences available locally, recognising how projects like this strengthen connection within regional communities.

Projects of this scale are never created by one organisation alone.

We are enormously grateful to Arts Narrogin, the Shires of Narrogin and Wagin, our funding partners — The Department of Creative, Industries, Tourism and Sport (CITS), Synergy and Racing WA Community Giving Funds, volunteers, venues, production team, Regional Arts WA, WAAPA, and every individual who contributed their time, expertise and enthusiasm.

Most of all, thank you to every singer, songwriter and participant who trusted us with your stories. Your courage, generosity and creativity shaped this project.

Watch Her Sound, Her Story | The Wheatbelt Song Project | Mirabilis Collective

The beginning of something bigger

Her Sound, Her Story has strengthened our belief in the power of regional partnerships and artist-led community collaboration. The relationships we've built, the stories we've shared, and the music we've created together will continue to shape Mirabilis Collective's work. As we now turn our attention to our next major project, Hear Her Now , we do so inspired by everything we've learnt in the Wheatbelt.

Hear Her Now (8–19 October 2026), will continue that vision, bringing together professional musicians from across Australia to celebrate 100 works by 100 women in Australia's first chamber music festival dedicated entirely to music by women.

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.

Stephanie Nicholls 22/3/26 Stephanie Nicholls 22/3/26

Inside the Programme

Mirabilis Collective's Artistic Director Stephanie Nicholls goes behind the scenes of programming Hear Her Now Festival — fifteen events, one hundred works by women composers, four world premieres, and more music than she can fit in.

I love programming. I mean it — it's one of my favourite parts of being Artistic Director with Mirabilis Collective. So when I tell you I'm counting down to Easter so I can spend a chunk of it with a spreadsheet and a pile of recordings, please understand that is not a cry for help.

Hear Her Now has a goal: one hundred works by women composers across fifteen events. I'm about halfway through the programming now, and what strikes me most is how different the reality has been from what I expected.

Everyone assumes the hard part is finding the music. What I've actually found is that I can't fit everything in. I keep finding amazing composers, getting excited about their works, discovering three or four pieces I'd dearly love to programme — and then having to choose one, knowing the others will have to wait for next time. That kind of decision takes care and thought, and it happens again and again across fifteen performances

One hundred works by women composers turns out to look a lot like any serious curatorial challenge: rich material, finite space, and the constant, slightly bittersweet work of choosing.

The festival spans early music to brand new Australian commissions, sacred music to contemporary song, art song through the ages to a dedicated concert celebrating LGBTQI+ composers and songwriters. There's a standalone concert drawn entirely from the AMEB syllabus, pop-up performances by UWA Conservatorium students and community musicians, and an opening concert devoted to West Australian women composers — including world premieres of newly commissioned works by Katherine Potter and Mia Brine. Across the festival, Julia Nicholls and Rose Russell also premiere new commissions. Four world premieres in a single festival. I'm still slightly pinching myself about that.

Something else I've been quietly thrilled about is Open Stage — a really important event we're developing across the whole festival.

Community musicians come into the room with us, work alongside Mirabilis Collective musicians in workshops and rehearsals, and perform music by women composers as part of the festival itself. Their contribution sits at the heart of the hundred works, as genuine festival performers.

What I love about this is that it sits somewhere genuinely different from a masterclass or a community concert. Participants are making music with us, working through repertoire by women composers, building ensemble skills through the doing of it. The knowledge transfer happens in the rehearsal room, and it's the kind that sticks — because it's experiential, relational, and the evidence on participatory music is unambiguous about that.

Most community musicians in WA have spent their entire musical lives in ensembles where music by women composers was simply absent from the repertoire placed in front of them. Open Stage puts it directly in their hands. And then they take it home to their choirs, their school orchestras, their chamber groups. That's the part that genuinely excites me.

For now, the Easter spreadsheet awaits. I cannot wait.

Join us for the launch of Hear Her Now on Sunday 12 April at 3:30pm at the Wigmore Studio, UWA Conservatorium of Music. Enjoy festival previews, short performances by Mirabilis Collective, refreshments, and a first glimpse of Australia’s first chamber music festival devoted entirely to music by women.

https://events.humanitix.com/hear-her-now