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Teacups and teaspoons, keys turning in old locks and the post office’s beep-beep machine will all join the orchestra when Burra Rhapsody is performed at Burra Town Hall on Saturday, October 17.
The piece is an original work written with the town itself, through the Burra Orchestra Project, which has run across 2026. It is a concert, a community artwork and a time capsule all at once, and it will be recorded live on the historic town hall stage.
It all started with a deceptively simple question. What does Burra sound like?
Burra-based composer and musical storyteller Jodie O’Regan has led the year-long project well past the concert hall, with five interactive installations around town drawing about 70 written contributions.
Workshops, school sessions and visits to community groups and businesses followed, and out of all those conversations came the idea of making music out of Burra itself, rather than a song about it.
For Jodie, it’s personal. She and her husband Emlyn arrived in 2022, drawn first by the acoustics of an old stone church and then by the town around it.
“Burra Rhapsody is my thank-you,” Jodie said.
“Together, we will make a truly Burra soundscape. It’s going to be a piece of music, in the town, for the town.”
Twelve local groups, businesses and individuals have contributed the soundscapes and songs woven through the finished work.
The Burra Men’s Shed has built instruments especially for the performance, and primary school students have written their own lyrics with Jodie.
Performers range from children to people well into retirement, and experienced musicians will share the stage with locals who never imagined themselves in an orchestra.
Some of South Australia’s leading musicians will lift the performance further, including a string quartet from Adelaide Baroque and singer Mark Oates, whose credits include State Opera South Australia, Opera Australia and the Adelaide Cabaret Festival.
Entry is free, with a limited number of tickets at the door, so booking online is the surest way in.
The night will be professionally recorded as well, leaving the town a keepsake of its own voices, sounds and people as they are right now.
Burra Rhapsody
When: Saturday, October 17, 7pm
Where: Burra Town Hall
Price: Free entry, limited tickets at the door
For more information, click here.
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