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We were looking for, I guess, the grand metaphor.
Something that we could use to really spark discussion,
awareness of caring
and, you know,
the idea of a 24-hour orchestra appealed on a lot of levels.
We want to create not just an awareness vehicle,
but really to spark broad interest in what it means to care
and what it means to be a carer in Australia.
- Because of the nature of the Impossible Orchestra,
drawing together musicians from all over the place,
we have only have a chance to rehearse all of them once.
Except for the normal breaks
that might occur for a minute or two minutes between pieces
and when a host or compere might be literally talking to the audience,
the music will be continuous for 24 hours.
(CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYS)
- Brett needed a principal cello.
I happened to be playing in Tasmania starting tomorrow night,
and, uh... was passing through Melbourne,
and it was just...
I thought it's a great idea to... give awareness to carers
because they always do the work, but nobody talks about them.
Participating in this event,
and see there's thousands of people who will come and hear us play,
and present them this gorgeous music we play
because the most popular classical music.
(CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYS)
- I will be playing in three concerts,
plus the rehearsal,
so it's a total of four inside a 24-hour period.
And that amounts to playing the cello for 12 hours out of 24.
- I think I'm on at 2:00am and 11:00am
and it's...a wonderful idea.
- I'll be taking a nap in the back room in between.
- It's just after 1:00 in the morning,
which is quite early on a Sunday morning.
Yeah, seemed like a great idea to come along and...
..a nice, spontaneous thing to do after a party.
(CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYS)
- Being part of the Impossible Orchestra project, I can't deny,
is very bizarre.
It's...I've never - I don't think - played during AM hours.
In a lot of ways that actually really does reflect
the nature of what you have to do for someone with special needs,
because you do bizarre things at bizarre hours,
and quite often you'll do them with absolutely no-one else ever knowing.
It can be quite a lonely sort of existence sometimes.
I've done my very long stint of 4.5 hours.
Now I have 4.5 hours break,
where I hope to get some sleep,
and then I'll be back on 6:30am.
- Gotta do 4.5 hours now,
and, um...I've just had my sleep shift, which wasn't so successful.
(CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYS)
- We're on now.
Move camera B.
- James, let's cue that one.
OK. It's up.
- We're sort of walking in blind.
We don't know what's going to happen,
and I think that's sort of the exciting bit of it.
- It's nice to kind of have a bit of chill time
after being in a nightclub.
- We are here thanks to a Care Aware initiative
for the 2.6 million family carers around Australia.
These people are mothers and fathers, grandparents,
and they are even and often
sons and daughters and nephews and nieces.
- Participating in the Impossible Orchestra
has just opened my awareness so much more
to how many carers there are in Australia.
We care for our...my mum, who's 82.
My wife and I have two children.
The eldest is 13, and he has quite severe Autism.
- In my family, there are two caregivers.
My godmother is a caregiver right now.
She's always supported my musical ambitions.
Yeah, so...I thought to come and dedicate this effort to her.
- When I first found out that Mag was sick,
she actually - to give you a bit of an insight -
she got mugged up the street.
A guy came up from behind her and put a knife up against her throat
and said, "Your money or your life."
- I really was aware that I wasn't this so-called natural parent.
It was hard work for me.
So to suddenly have this role of carer on top
was something that really frightened me.
My dad left when we were little, so Mum was our only support,
and we needed to support her.
So the roles are kind of reversed -
we became the parents and Mum became the child.
- Having a break is extremely important.
I didn't have it before.
So I had my little mini break - I call 'em mini breakdowns -
because I was working full-time as well.
There wasn't a second to spare.
We're all going to need carers at some point.
I am overwhelmed with what actually Care Aware does for people,
and make people aware of the situation other family have.
(CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYS)
I think it was a really good selection.
I was hoping that they had some good stuff for the night, and they did.
- I thought it was going to be quite surreal,
and I wouldn't probably stay the three hours,
but I found that I couldn't leave.
It was quite entertaining with the different conductors.
(CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYS)
- Good. Very good.
(MUSIC SLOWS)
(TEMPO INCREASES)
(CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYS)
(AUDIENCE CLAPS IN TIME)
- Carers tell us that it's all well and good to be recognised,
but they need to be supported.
It's a tough gig.
And we as a community need to stand up and say,
"Actually, we're going to support you
"in the same way that you support your loved one."
I hope that this is the start of something.
And I think when the concert's finished tonight,
I think we'll all feel tired and relieved and hopefully elated.
But it's not the end.
We've created this to be the beginning of something.
We really wanna make change through this,
so...it's hopefully the start of something
that is continuing and meaningful.
(CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYS)
(WILD CHEERING, APPLAUSE)
- (BELL RINGS) - (CHEERING, APPLAUSE)