ABOUT
THE THIRD VOICE
Photo by Angie Contini
The Third Voice - Three strong female voices, mainly unaccompanied, that weave, blend, caterwaul and serenade with new and pre-loved songs that will both challenge and soothe. Gemma Turner, Clarita Derwent and Christina Mimmocchi have followed various musical paths including songwriting, a cappella singing, fronting bands and choirs and confronting diverse musical settings. They share a love of voices in harmony and music for the body as well as the mind. All previous members of the world renowned A Cappella group Blindman's Holiday, The Third Voice launched in December 2021 with a series of live gigs in Sydney at the Gaelic Club and The Loaded Dog Folk Club
Christina Mimmocchi
Christina is a songwriter and musician, and has been a choir-maker for close to 20 years. She writes for her own solo projects, in collaboration with trio Strawberry Thieves and with composer/guitarist Greg White, and for various choir and community projects.
She has a special interest in social history and folklore. She held the National Folk Fellowship - a collaboration with the National Library of Australia and the National Folk Festival - in 2009-10.
As a community choir leader she currently has seven weekly choirs and has organises special place-specific weekends (Sing Cockatoo, Sing Canowindra, Sing Dubbo, Forbes Festival, April Sun in Cuba) which combine community harmony singing and exploring place and culture through song.
Clarita Derwent
Clarita has been an educator and vocal trainer for over 26 years. She specialises in A-cappella, Cuban Son, Latin American music, and has particular interest in singing in languages other than English. She also has a background in Music Theatre and studied classical violin and piano.
Clarita has taught community choirs, festival choirs and festival workshops
and runs Singing Adventure Tours with choirs to Cuba twice a year for workshops and vocal courses plus performances.
She has been Musical Director of the CONverge program since inception in 2005 at the Conservatorium of Music & Sydney University teaching voice and stage craft .
The highlight of past performances being Inaugural Sorry Day Concert 1998 performance (Sydney Opera House) with Kev Carmody, Archie Roach, & Ruby Hunter.
Gemma Turner
Gemma is a Sydney-based singer and singing educator in the many styles that come under the umbrella of contemporary popular music. There is a special place in her heart for acappella singing and songwriting and her current creative project is The Third Voice. For three decades, she's toured nationally and internationally with Blindman's Holiday, The Transylvaniacs, Kengugro and Tokakros ensembles. She has coached beginner singers to advanced professionals in a variety of contexts including postgraduate tertiary education, community music and mental health. She is also an independent academic researcher with a PhD from Sydney University and was a lecturer and postgraduate supervisor at the Australian Institute of Music 2011-2020. Her work has been published internationally. Current research interests are group singing for mental health, singing as part of Australian Indigenous language revitalisation and ecomusicology. If you are interested in her research, please check out her profile on Researchgate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Gemma-Turner-6
