In the lead up to Bold Stage’s The Shift on Friday 5 September, we caught up with Uncle Robbie Bundle, CEO of Songlines.
Victoria’s peak Aboriginal music body, Songlines was formed in 1994 by Aboriginal musicians and community leaders, and is a 2025 MRC Bold Stage partner, with Robbie taking the reigns as Artistic Director of this year’s showcase.
Tell us about Songlines Aboriginal Music and its core goals.
Songlines Music Aboriginal Corporation has been around for 30 years on the musical journey representing and assisting First Nations Artists to create and promote their craft and tell a story of resilience and survival through the lens of first Nations musicians and performers.
How are you feeling about the upcoming Bold Stage performance The Shift?
I am really excited about the performance on September 5th in the Primrose Potter Salon. When I was approached to design a performance piece, I thought that bringing together a group ensemble would be interesting. I felt it was a great opportunity to involve young musicians from different cultural backgrounds and perform a totally unknown musical score. It’s been an amazing experience so far as the rehearsals have indicated – this will be something really special for both artists and audience.
How would you describe the performance in one sentence?
Improvisation through musical interaction – a nucleus of ideas that permeates the Soul.
Tell us a little about the musicians you’ve assembled.
This has been such an amazing time and having assembled a collective of musicians who are navigating their way through a not so complex musical score with such awareness and creativity – they are just brilliant. They bring a creative formula that is expressive and creative and sits comfortably in the space in which they occupy. A truly wonderful group of young people on a journey.
Speaking of a journey, where will you be taking audiences during this showcase?
I would think that the formula for such a journey lies in the very essence of what the human experience can teach each of us about connectivity. About why Music is so important to all humans, and what we do in our everyday life. This musical journey will be of a sensory feeling, that when unleashed is unstoppable, in its own creativity.
How do you hope audiences will feel following the performance?
I sometimes have a vantage point of seeing and feeling responses that have a direction of inner, rather than outer, simply by their expressive way of communicating their gratitude for being in the space they occupy with a group of musicians, who have given their heart and soul as an experience.
How are rehearsals going?
The rehearsals have been fun, with such positivity and daring, to go to levels of such creativity, but with simplicity, and the team bring something new each time. The last rehearsal was such an experience with a song that is the centre piece to this production, called ‘The Stones That Build, and The Stones That Fall’. It encompasses such creative musicianship and spontaneous connectedness.
The Shift is part of Bold Stage, Melbourne Recital Centre’s major Community and Creative Engagement project, partnering with organisations working with underrepresented artistic communities. Looking to nurture, grow and highlight the voices and stories of emerging musicians that are seldom heard, Bold Stage includes artist support such as venue tours, mentoring, concert tickets, rehearsals, and production meetings leading up to major showcase events.
Don’t miss this special Bold Stage event on Friday 5 September, 7pm at Melbourne Recital Centre. For more details, click the button below.