From FutureMaker to the Goldfields

Imagination Exploration is created by the celebrated Melbourne experimental jazz collective, I Hold The Lions’ Paw. Formed in 2016, the group consists of founder and trumpeter Reuben Lewis, Emily Bennett on synthesiser, keyboard and vocals, Ronny Ferella on drums and – when Helen is not filling in – Adam Halliwell on bass guitar.

‘This group has been a favourite of mine since I moved to Naarm [Melbourne] in 2020, particularly for their playfulness and slight absurdity, so it’s been wonderful to step in as a team player’.

— Helen

The name of their show, Imagination Exploration, captures its playful interactivity. Using jazz and funk as a starting point, the band perform original songs and invite students to respond in the moment, demonstrating to young audiences that they too have the ability to shape composition from their own feelings and ideas. 

Helen explains how the band begins improvising the moment the children enter the space, and watches how the audience reacts. Instantly, there are questions, she says. What is happening? Where are those sounds coming from? How do they do it?!

After songs and games the show builds up to composing a brand-new song shaped by the students’ ideas.  

‘We invite their energy to inform ours, and we depend on their participation to shape the show. Every school and audience is totally different, which definitely keeps us on our toes!’ 

Experimentation, playfulness and embodied music-making are traits in Helen’s solo creative practice as well. During her tenure as a 2023-2024 MVA FutureMaker, she produced the critically acclaimed Headwater, a performance art piece combining double bass, experimentation with the Finnish language, and choreographed movement. Since then, Helen has also collaborated with another MVAIS musician, David Wei Han Dai (featured in Life is an Echo) in performance for double bass, voice and erhu, and scored the Sydney Theatre Company’s 2026 reimagination of Homer’s Iliad starring David Wenham.  

Helen says that her time as a FutureMaker strengthened her interest in audience connection.

‘I have always found it important to consider the audience in all of the different music I play – after all, why else are we doing it?’  

She revels in the enthusiasm of younger audience members. ‘Children can be some of the best audiences for improvisers. They give so much back!' 

Musica Viva Australia In Schools, which celebrates its 45th anniversary this year, has a particular focus on reaching regional and remote corners of the country, ensuring that as many children as possible can experience the power of music. Helen believes strongly in the value of this early exposure. 

‘It’s important to connect early with young children, to shape their relationship with music as something accessible, collaborative and highly creative.'

— Helen

For many students, a visit from MVAIS can be their first encounter with live music, real instruments and professional musicians – an experience that can contribute to their broader learning and development, while sparking the kind of interest and curiosity that can lead to discovering their own passion for music or the arts. Having grown up in a family of musicians herself, Helen understands that ‘music, as a part of early learning, builds community, expression and creative agency’. 

The annual MVAIS tour of the Kalgoorlie-Boulder area is made possible by AngloGold Ashanti, MVA’s partner in Kalgoorlie and the Goldfields region. Since 2018, their funding of MVA’s activities in the region has enabled schools to receive the program at little to no cost, through MVA’s Equal Music Program. Each school also receives access to the MVA Education Resource Platform, an online resource which includes curriculum-aligned lesson activities.    

AngloGold Ashanti maximise MVA’s local impact by supporting professional development opportunities for teachers in the region and offering generalist teachers scholarships for MVA’s Music Education Skills for the Primary Classroom course, equipping teachers who have no musical background with the skills to implement classroom music programs themselves in their own classrooms. 

Imagination Exploration will tour for the rest of 2026 on the East Coast, before returning to WA in May 2027. Kalgoorlie & the Goldfields will receive a visit from another show, Music of the World, in Term 2 of 2027.

 As we look to the future, Musica Viva Australia is proud to continue its work in the Goldfields, and incredibly grateful to AngloGold Ashanti for their ongoing support. Together, we are nurturing creativity, supporting teachers, and enriching young lives through music.