Born to proud parents, Rae spent her youngest years in the small town of Gisborne in close precinct to the infamous Hanging Rock. Growing up on 10 acres of country land with the peaceful blue silhouette of Mount Macedon and winery region as a backdrop, she was exposed to a life of small town mentality coupled with International culture-ation due to her fathers’ worldwide travel as a bonus of his occupation description and her mothers’ worldly knowledge.
As a young child, Rae learned naturally, a real sense of what it means to love, be compassionate and FEEL the world around her. This heightened awareness was the first piece of the puzzle that would eventually become an integral part of the musician that she is today.
Rae’s first musical experience was had during a concert that her young ballet class staged in 1979, in which she was to execute the life force of a flower coming into bloom – quite a common, cute and somewhat comical performance to behold for all parents in the audience. However, it was during these preparations, that Rae realized that is was a life on stage that she most desired. From the children’s ballet class at the local ‘Mechanics Hall’, Rae went on a quest to fill the void that called upon her constantly to fulfill its urges and desires to express itself. This manifested itself into a desire to play the guitar. Being inspired to do so after seeing her Grade 2 teacher play the guitar whilst singing the sad and lonesome ballad ‘5 Hundred Miles’ by Peter, Paul & Mary...Rae commenced guitar lessons at age 8 after a long ‘few months’ wait to receive a guitar for her 8th birthday. During the following years that she continued to learn Guitar, her teacher required her always to sing whilst she played any number of Australian Ballads and Traditional Folk tunes.
From this pivotal point, Rae was catapulted into the world of teen influence and discovered a passion for singing that she hadn’t fully embraced until the ‘Top 8 at 8’ blasted through every teenage stereo system and commanded her to sing the anthems of the 80’s along with her friends. In every garage and in every loungeroom, girls across Australia were making up dances to Madonna, Cyndi Lauper and Foreigner.
It was an awakening of consciousness for Rae, after comments from friends and family about her singing talent, that lead her to first audition for the local Theatre Company ‘The Mount Players’ who were staging their first performance of ‘Fiddler On The Roof’. It was in this Musical production that she would eventually star as ‘Chava’, the youngest of the acting/singing roles...a role that would throw her before the joys, wonders, trials and tribulations and ultimate exhilaration of life on-stage. This was the moment of truth – the point of no return – ground zero.
After 2 years with ‘The Mount Players’, some guest appearances and a growing reputation as a singer, she auditioned and was accepted at age 16 into the Melba Memorial Conservatorium of Music as a private singing student. It was also at this time that she made a decision to further her options as a musician by attending Footscray City Secondary College where the music department far outweighted the facilities available at her local high school...Here, she studied mostly Rock music and a little Alternative Funk and Pop.
After graduating from Footscray, Rae was awarded a Scholarship at 'The Melba' and studied under the director for 3 years at which point she was again, accepted for further study at the Victorian College of the Arts where she completed a Graduate Diploma in Opera - Oh yes, very much a 'Jack-of-all-trades' this one!
After years of performance in Opera, Theatre, Concerts and a whole range of other gigs, It's time for Rae to introduce you to her world. |
