With her album and show “Migrating Bird”, violinist-composer Véronique Serret takes us on a musical journey inspired by Australian nature, deep listening and her own multicultural roots. Mainly carried by Véronique’s violin and voice, this work also features, on certain tracks, the unique collaboration of William Barton: an Australian didgeridoo virtuoso, renowned for blending Aboriginal tradition and contemporary music. In this interview, she recounts how birdsong, the forest and human encounters have nourished this unique project, which will soon be presented at the Brisbane Festival (and at Bleach Festival tonight).
Véronique, how long have you been playing the violin? What made you choose the violin originally?
I’ve been playing the violin since I was three years old. My family isn’t musical at all, but my cousin, who looked after us when we were little, played the piano and a little violin. I don’t know if I already loved the violin or if it was because of him. I went everywhere pretending to play the violin when I was three, and when people saw me, they said to my parents, ‘She should start.’ They said, ‘No, she’s just a child.’
Well, there’s a Suzuki method. Maybe you know this method? It’s a Japanese method where young children start playing. So I started there at the age of three and in fact you learn it more like a language. So you learn the violin as if it were a language. And then, well, I learned the violin, dance, and that’s why.
And why did you decide to make it your profession?
I’ve been playing since I was three years old. I’ve always played, but in fact, at the end of school, I decided not to do music because I think everyone believed that I was going to play the violin and I said to them, ‘No, not true. No, I don’t want to do that, actually.’ I did a few other things because I like languages and I wanted to be a diplomat or something else.
And in fact, I stopped for about half a year, but then I missed it. I was studying law at university, I stopped and went back to the violin. My training is very classical, so I didn’t know there were all these different things. When you play the violin, you have to learn classical violin at first, so you can learn all the techniques and things like that.
But I guess at university, I met a lot of different people, different kinds of people. So I was still doing my classical studies, of course, but I met composers I worked with and I also started a kind of band and started improvising at university. And that’s why I suppose I still play the violin, because yes, I do all the classical things, but I do a lot of other things too. And in fact, the violin is found in the music of all different countries, Egyptian music, a lot of folk country, there’s jazz… There are really many, many things.
Also, because I’ve been playing the violin for so long, it’s really part of my body and part of my emotions. And it’s really my way of expressing myself to others. And now it’s become my job. I also do classical things, but it’s also my way of expressing myself musically.
And to talk a little bit about your upcoming show at the Brisbane Festival. First, there was the album Migrating Bird, which was conceived during lockdown during the pandemic. You listened to the sounds of the forests of Mount Coot-Tha and Mother Nature became your teacher. What did she teach you?
Everything. Really. Because before that, I travelled everywhere, all over the world, playing, but mostly in cities. I was living in Sydney at the time, but I had work all over the country. When we were in Sydney, we couldn’t travel [during lockdown]. So I actually lived in Brookfield, which is in Brisbane, and all I did was walk, walk, walk a lot in Mount Coot-Tha forest, because I had nothing else to do.
There’s a movement called ‘Deep Listening’. I worked with a lady in Canada on Zoom. It’s really about listening in great detail. So I spent a lot of time doing that. Nature taught me a lot. Also even just by looking. Because of course, I played a lot of music, but even just looking at the trees and the patterns they form and things like that. I composed like that, and many mornings I woke up, listened to the birds, and recorded that. And actually a lot of the sounds on the album are the sounds of Brookfield that I recorded and put on the album. And the rain. The first part of the album is about land. The second part is more so water. So, there are songs which are more like water. Then it’s nature and birds.
And you sing for the first time on this album. What made you decide to do that?
Actually, I have sung before, but it wasn’t words. It was just sounds like that on my album. Before that, I made sounds. I created a bit of poetry. There were just things I wanted to say, and it’s more like poetry. It’s not really telling a story or anything like that; it’s just the story of the forest, my story during that time.
And of course in Australia we have different birds compared to other countries. Have you considered doing follow up albums with the bird sounds of other countries?
No but maybe something else. I didn’t know what I was going to create, so I just walked and sometimes I went home, and the music came out. So I would go out, and then I come right back down, and then I work on it. But the idea is really just that I walked and listened and just spent my time in nature. But also, it was a very different time because I didn’t have all the other stuff outside; I didn’t have other people to distract me. And so all of that makes a big, big difference not having distractions or even travelling. And I hardly spoke to anyone.
You are again accompanied on this album by William Barton who plays didgeridoo. How did you first meet and what made you decide to collaborate together? Because the didgeridoo and the violin is a beautiful collaboration but not something you’d necessarily think of.
It’s perhaps a little bizarre, yes, but in fact, we’ve known each other for a long time. But my album before this one, was with him. We wrote the album together. For me, it’s not necessarily the instrument, it’s two people who can think of or imagine something together. For me, the didgeridoo is also a kind of nature too, because it’s the landscape, it’s the music like that. So I try with my violin, and when we play together, it’s to create even more of that. It’s a fairly low-pitched instrument and the violin isn’t a very high-pitched instrument, but it can go high and low. So together, I think it creates something very beautiful. And we also sing together and understand how we work musically together.
And you’ve been playing together for a long time now, I think?
Yes, quite a long time.
The album has been nominated for an ARIA award? Congratulations, firstly. What does that nomination mean for you?
Thank you. Actually, it was also nominated in the classical music category, and for me that’s a big deal because it shows respect from everyone, which is great. It also means that lots of people can hear it and there’s interest in it. And actually, it’s a very original genre of music, but quite easy to listen to. Also, I used the violin in a way that perhaps no one had thought of before. It’s great, I’m happy. Why not?
And you’ve got Mauritian roots?
Exactly. Yes.
And the song Dodo, is a wink to those roots I think .
Yes.
How do your Mauritian roots influence your music?
I don’t know if they influence my music much actually. I was born in Australia but in my family, I didn’t speak English until I started learning violin and went to school because my parents didn’t speak it. There was also always Mauritian music at home. So, that’s the music that I knew. But I feel a part of this Mauritian environment of water, sky and island, these sorts of things.
Do you go there often?
No, I’ve only been twice. I did my studies in France, and I’ve been to France many times. But Mauritius, I’ve not had had the chance to work there. I need to go there. I hope to go back soon.
What can Brisbane Festival audiences expect from your concert? Is it the album played live from beginning to end? Are there visuals? What can they expect?
Yes, it’s the album from the beginning to the end. On the album, it’s just me and also William – there is the didgeridoo sometimes, but it is especially me. But for the show, there are visuals that are more abstract, but they’re nature things created by a great man, Samuel James. He has taken nature photos but they change and there are different colours and they are really beautiful and it’s great! I am really happy with it!
And then there is a guy, Richard Daniels, who lives in Brisbane, who makes sounds, percussions and drums but with a lot of sounds of nature too. And also, I’ve got a band. There is a girl who plays double bass too. And of course, William will play with me. And his mother lives in Brisbane, so she will sing a song with us.
Does she often get on stage with you?
Sometimes, when we are in Brisbane or when she is Sydney, she will sing with us.
And how do you hope that Brisbane Festival audiences will connect to the themes of migration, nature and belonging?
For me, it’s really special to play in Brisbane because I wrote a good part of the album there and it was really in Brookfield, and the nature and the people in Brisbane who supported me during that time. I believe, when you listen, you can really feel the nature and all of the visual stuff too….
So I hope that Brisbane audiences can come. And also that they feel like they’re in Brookfield and feel a part of the nature from there.
Anything else you’d like to say?
Come, come. It will be really great.
According to the website, tickets are selling fast.
I am happy to know that because it’s really part of that time and part of Brisbane. For me, it’s really special. I have always wanted to play it there, with the sounds, the visual and all. So yes, I hope people will come to see us.
And it’s only at Brisbane for the moment. There’s no tour planned.
I will be performing on the Gold Coast at Bleach Festival on 8 August. For the moment, it’s just 8 August and then Brisbane on 14 September.
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We thank Véronique Serret for this interview and we hope to see the show if it tours.
KEY INFO FOR MIGRATING BIRD
Bleach Festival
WHAT: Migrating Bird at Bleach Festival 2025
WHEN: 7pm, Friday 8 September 2025
WHERE: Studio 1 – HOTA Central, GOLD COAST
HOW: Buy your tickets for Migrating Bird at Bleach Festival here
HOW MUCH: Ticket prices are the following:
- Adults $49
- Seniors $39
- Children $39
Brisbane Festival
WHAT: Migrating Bird at Brisbane Festival 2025
WHEN: 14 September
WHERE: Brisbane Powerhouse, BRISBANE
HOW: Buy your tickets here
HOW MUCH:
The price of tickets are the following:
- Adults $35 $
- Concession $25
- Mobtix $25
