Sharing her lifelong passion for song

Naomi Summers returns home to honour her mentor

For Naomi Summers her love of music dates back to childhood. While some of us were reading books under the covers with a flashlight, she was in a bunk bed with her older sister, listening to recordings of Elaine Paige singing musicals and the work of Elton John.

She fell in love at that early age and that passion only grew – as did the realisation she didn’t just love music, she was a talented vocalist and she is bringing those talents back to the Limestone Coast on August 26 for a special performance titled Close To Home at Parker Estate in Coonawarra. While Naomi’s career is littered with solo performances, being part of a choir has always been close to her heart.

“This started early in primary school and continued throughout my life, until I started singing in opera ensembles,” Naomi said. “I was always in the school choirs, and I participated in the amazing high school productions at Grant High school, as an ensemble member and backstage crew.”

And it those early forays as part of choirs where Naomi’s talent was first recognised.

“Our school principal, who also directed the choir, extended an invitation for me to lead singing regular at church as a soloist,” Naomi said. “Initially, singing was merely a source of enjoyment, but exploring and learning music theory at Grant High School revealed a deeper love towards music and its many facets. These lessons laid the foundations for my successful achievements at university.”

There was another key player in laying the groundwork for Naomi’s music career – the late, great Pamela Walker OAM and not surprisingly Naomi is incorporating some of her much-loved mentor’s own works at her Coonawarra performance.

“Pamela saw my talent and nurtured it, so I could find my voice and through her encouragement and support, I was able to continue my singing,” Naomi said. “She has been an integral influence in my life. I first met her when was in the school choir at St. Paul’s Primary School in Grade 4 and a few years later she became my first private singing teacher and subsequently, she invited me to join the Southern Heritage Singers.

Over the years she nurtured and encouraged me, like all her other students, to find my voice and pursue music.

“Pamela established and maintained a supportive and joyful environment for the young and young at heart to make music together for over 25 years for the Southern Heritage Singers and through her own compositions.

“Under her guidance, we achieved incredible things and I cherish every memory we made and the lifelong friendships and bonds created because of Pamela. She was an incredible woman to whom I am indebted forever and I wouldn’t be the person I am without her love and support.”

And while Naomi was blessed to have Pamela guide her through the early years of her music education – there was also a lightbulb moment that proved to the young singer that she had what it takes.

“The pivotal moment that ignited my path toward classical singing unfolded during my participation in the local Showcase competition,” Naomi said. “It was here that the adjudicators, most notably the renowned Australian tenor Thomas Edmonds, detected a distinctive quality within my voice that set it apart.

“Their encouragement urged me to pursue classical singing. Little did I know that would be the sound of an operatic dramatic soprano, a unique sound that would define my artistic journey.”

That injection of confidence, along with the continued support from Pamela Walker saw music become a major part of Naomi’s life.

“Music has played a major role in my life since leaving school and whilst still living in Mount Gambier, I was a member of the Southern Heritage Singers and Mount Gambier Choral Society and was for a brief period before relocating to Melbourne, I was the Musical Director of the Choral Society,” she said. “Since leaving Mount Gambier, music has taken me around the world.

Relocating to Melbourne to undertake university studies at the Melba Conservatorium of Music and subsequently the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) and then studying singing in Germany and seeing some of the greatest opera singers in the world perform.”

For the past decade, Naomi has been part of running and performing in an opera company in Melbourne – XLArts Inc.

“We provide a space for artists to develop their craft in a supportive environment with industry professionals assisting in their development and we are advocates of championing Australian composers who are rarely performed,” she said.

But there has been so much more to Naomi’s career – a career which could be described as eclectic and diverse and she has loved every minute thus far.

“I have had the pleasure over my career so far to perform with very talented singers and musicians in a wide range of venues from amazing theatres and churches to football clubs and every performance has its highlight,” she said. “Performing with community choirs through Jonathan Welch’s Play it Forward and School of Hard Knocks initiative is always a highlight for me, seeing the joy that music brings them.

“Performing my cabaret was also a highlight as it allowed me to sing many genres of music whilst comically telling my life story, not taking myself so seriously.” And when you talk the varying genres Naomi turns her talents to – they are many and varied.

“Growing up, my exposure to music was primarily contemporary pop music and musicals and I was a latecomer to classical music, so I would have to say they are my favourite genres,” she said. It means Naomi’s list of favourite composers and songwriters is long – Peter Allen, Rogers and Hammerstein, Sondheim and Lloyd Webber and then classically Barber, Menotti, Hanh and Strauss and when it comes to opera, Puccini, Wagner and Verdi emerge as her favourites.

Returning to perform to hometown audiences is not confined to this August 26 concert – she has made it a habit.

“It’s always a delight to come home to perform, no matter the occasion, it’s extra special to be invited back home to perform with the Limestone Coast Symphony,” Naomi said. “I have now had the pleasure of performing with the orchestra on three occasions, under the baton of Angus Christie, since its inaugural concert in 2013. Performing with the orchestra in front of a very supportive audience is wonderful. Walking out onto the Sir Robert Helpmann Theatre stage feels like home.”

Naomi also treasures her Penola Festival performances in 2011 as the Southern Heritage Singers celebrated 25 years.

“Pamela Walker and I created a gala program that showcased singers who had been involved with Southern Heritage Singers over the ye

ar and the concert culminated in a performance of excerpts from Les Miserables, which I performed and directed,” she said. “It was also that weekend when I performed a piece that Pamela had composed especially for my voice, which was truly an honour.”

Close to Home will feature not only Pamela Walker compositions but some of Naomi’s more recent colleagues and mentors.

Internationally renowned dramatic contralto Liane Keegan has been her singing teacher, mentor and friend for many years; mezzo soprano Juel Riggall, who Naomi met through XLArts Inc.

and pianist Isaac Mouskovias, with whom she has performed concerts and recitals together on several occasions and writing and performing that cabaret show together entitled ‘Misfit Diva’ are all joining Naomi for the Parker Estate afternoon performance.

“Music has consistently served as a way for me to forge connections with others throughout my life,” Naomi said. “Throughout my education, music connected with people and form friendships and I have gained a wealth of knowledge

and experience through these connections.”