One of the Clarence Valley’s most promising musical talents, Sumira Mahoney will say farewell to the region with a special concert including family and friends titled ‘Text Me Back’ at the Harwood Hall on January 31, before she leaves to study musical theatre in Sydney.
Fresh from performing in the 2024 Schools Spectacular as a featured vocalist with her younger sister Alora, Sumira told the CV Independent she has an amazing night planned as part of her participation in the Talent Development Project.
The Talent Development Project (TDP), which began in 1991, is a not-for-profit foundation developing and igniting the creativity and musical talents of young singers, songwriters, theatre performers, and instrumentalists from NSW Government high schools.
Following a challenging audition process that attracted hundreds of applicants, Sumira was one of 35 participants selected to travel regularly to Sydney in both 2023 and 2024.
Students move through the phases and remain in the program depending on individual progress at workshops, and she is now part of a group of 16 students tasked with organising and starring in a professional show!
Reflecting on the title for her show, Sumira explained that a TDP homework task was to write a 2 minute and 11 second song, with specific words.
“I wrote my 2 minute 11 second song using five words they gave me, and I came up with the title ‘Text Me Back’, it’s a quite different style to what I usually write songs in.”
She said her family’s musical talents helped.
“The song came from the inspiration of my brother Hendrix, who was home from Uni, when he picked up the guitar and started playing and I said, ‘that’s really cool, keep playing it, I’m going to improvise over it’,” she said.
“So, I looked at the words and did a bit of improvising and I came up with ‘Text Me Back.’
“I would describe it as a bit clever, sarcastic, and funny; it’s very youthful and after more improvisation and cleaning it up a bit, I had a really great song that needed a little bit of tinkering.”
Sumira, who was one of four Maclean High School students to obtain a band 6 in Music in the HSC, said she has developed and diversified her performances and original song writing for the show.
“Since last year I have definitely found who I am as an artist a lot more, it’s become a lot clearer to me as I have explored all types and genres of music,” she said.
“Text Me Back is a very ‘Bossanova,’ musical theatre style song, it’s very fluffy and fun and it will be performed at the concert.”
The show will be a chance for Sumira’s sister Alora, brother Hendrix, and friends Sabrina Bowly, Kurt Roberts, and Luke Young to perform together before Sumira leaves the Clarence Valley.
Alora, who is also an up-and-coming musical star will be the main support act performing solo, and also with her all-girl band The Stowaways, featuring Maclean High School year 10 students Maddie Fishburn, Leah Jenkins, and Charlotte Fawks.
“As soon as TDP said ‘Sumira, you’re doing another show,’ I knew that I wanted Alora to open the show for me, she has grown so much this year through the Schools Spectacular, she really is a little powerhouse and I’m so proud of her,” she said.
“Performing with family is always beautiful, and I’ve known Luke Young since primary school, we went to Chatsworth Island Primary School together, he’s a talented drummer and I’m super grateful to have him on board, both he and Kurt are super professional, really keen musos who are well known from the local band Killswitch.
“Every single song is going to be special because it’s like a farewell…so I’ll be inviting Alora and Sabrina to each sing a duet with me, and a trio together.
“With some special guests adding to the variety, the show is also a thank you to this community for supporting youth and the arts.”
Sumira said she chose Humanitix to sell tickets to the concert online as they have donated more than $10.5 million of their profits to humanitarian projects worldwide.
Tickets for the concert from 6pm to 10pm at the Harwood Hall on Friday, January 31 are available for $18 at https://events.humanitix.com/mira-message-received or $20 at the door on the night.
Follow Sumira on all social media @mira_mahoney.
This article appeared in the Clarence Valley Independent, 22 January 2025.