In 2017, seven-year-old Tasch had been learning violin for less than a year when Tura came to Kununurra.
As part of Tura’s schools program, she had the chance to play alongside leading violinist, composer and improviser Erkki Veltheim. For a young violinist learning remotely via Skype, the opportunity to make music with another violinist, and an artist of Erkki’s calibre, was rare. Tasch still remembers the workshop:
“I can remember we were trying to make our own composition, the whole band together. We were exploring what sounds we could create with our instruments, waterfalls, insects, and it was really cool seeing what noises could be made and having someone like Erkki to do it with. Just having someone else that plays the same instrument as me was a really rare opportunity.”
Nine years later, Tasch is still playing and has recently passed Grade 6 violin. Last week, she came along to Wanim in Kununurra, catching up with Tura and meeting the musicians who had travelled north for this year’s tour.
For more than 20 years, Tura has worked across the Kimberley, bringing leading musicians and sound artists into schools and communities as part of its ongoing artistic program in the region. Young people have the opportunity to make music alongside artists from across Australia, encounter instruments and musical practices they may rarely experience locally, and explore their own ideas through sound.
“Every year since, we’ve been keen to see which musicians Tura was bringing up.”
For Tasch, those visits became something to look forward to. From playing alongside Erkki at seven to passing Grade 6 violin nine years later, Tasch’s story is part of a much longer history of young people encountering Tura artists across the Kimberley, sometimes for an afternoon, sometimes again and again over many years.
