A chorus of connection
by JAMES POYNER
9th December 2024
NAMED after the local purple and black wildflower that smells like chocolate, Dichopogon strictus, for three decades, community choir the Chocolate Lilies has been entertaining communities at events around the Green Wedge.
The choir celebrated its 30th birthday in November with a workshop day at the Warrandyte Mechanics’ Institute Hall.
Founder and Music Director for the group, Nerida Kirov, formed the Chocolate Lilies while studying for a Diploma in Jazz and Composition.
“We started at Allwood Neighbourhood House in Hurstbridge,” Nerida told the Diary.
“There were around 15 members at the time, and numbers grew strongly each year, to currently around 35 to 40 singing members.”
Over that time, the group has met in and ultimately outgrown a number of spaces across the Green Wedge.
In 2000, the group moved to Warrandyte Neighbourhood House.
Today, the Chocolate Lilies have two groups.
The Warrandyte group rehearse at the Warrandyte Mechanics’ Institute Hall, while the Hurstbridge group rehearses at the Hurstbridge Uniting Church Hall.
Nerida said other than location, there is no real difference between the two groups.
“We perform together as one choir and often come together for workshops and social events.”
Both groups rehearse on Mondays, the Hurstbridge group in the morning and the Warrandyte group in the evening.
With a background in community development, Nerida says the choir provides community connection and a platform for social justice.
“Being a community choir for me is important.
Being connected into the wider community and also bringing awareness to issues of social justice in all its forms is evident in our members and also a lot of the material I choose and write myself for the choir.
This also sometimes includes singing in other languages, including indigenous languages, with songs I have sought permission for the choir to sing.
A few years ago, someone local asked one of the choir members why we sing in other languages.
I feel, that not only does it connect us to the many different communities that now make up a rich diversity to this country, but also, I point out, it opens new neural pathways.
This can only be a good thing!”
Today, community connect for the choir is best expressed through their performances at community events, festivals, and Anzac Day commemorations.
But after Black Saturday, Nerida said the choir was able to use singing to keep hurting communities connected.
“We ran singing workshops out in the St Andrews and Strathewen areas.
The experiences of that time will stay with me forever.
Music and, in my direct experience, voice can be a deeply profound way of giving space to people to rest, feel, slowly heal, and to find their ‘voice’ in a non-threatening way.
This led to members of these communities joining the Lilies on an ongoing basis, particularly Strathewen, where we have done performances at each memorial for the lives that were lost during and after that horrendous event.
Many deeply profound things happened to us during that time that are beyond words.
On the 10th Anniversary, we were invited to sing at the State Commemorative event for dignitaries, including the Prime Minister, Governor General, emergency service workers, and members from all the communities affected by the Black Saturday fires held at the Royal Exhibition Building.
There were a few thousand people, and it was a televised event.
We sang three songs — it was extremely difficult to emotionally keep it together.”
The hallmark of the towns that make up Manningham’s Yarra Ward and the Nillumbik Green Wedge is the connectedness of the people who live there.
For 30 years, Nerida and the Chocolate Lilies have demonstrated the power of community connectedness and the joy that being and singing together can bring, and judging by the turnout on November 10, this community choir still has a lot to sing about.
