Singer made the 8500km move from South Africa finding a new appreciation for the arts in Great Southern

For singer and performer Heidi Marques, music has always flowed through her veins. Growing up in South Africa, her family was in a band which toured across Natal playing in different hotels every weekend for a year. As a young girl, she spent many nights falling asleep in a piano case as her parents travelled around the province. “In those days we didn’t really wear seatbelts. We’d drive four hours to a hotel every weekend for a year and I’d lie on top of a piano case right up against the roof of car,” Marques said. “But it was worth it because we’d spend the weekend at a five-star hotel.” With her mother a bass player and father a pianist, the band performed a variety of genres from jazz, rock, country and folk. After relocating to Albany in 2014, a whole bunch of musical opportunities opened up — more than she would ever have access to in her hometown. “My husband got a job here. We never intended to move to Australia but we are so thrilled we came, we absolutely love it,” Marques said. “The art and music scene in Albany has been fantastic — so many opportunities for me.” When the singer first arrived in the Great Southern, she started a contemporary duo with a friend singing in pubs. In February 2018, the Rainbow Coast Big Band formed and Marques became one of its vocalists as they performed around the region. The big band’s next gig is happening this Friday at the Stirling Club — a night full of “wining, dining and dancing”, according to Marques. The Albany woman is a key element of group with pianist Adrian Kenyon called Spindrift which will open the gig with a 45-minute set. With years of experience in singing at pubs, she is glad to be performing with different groups in different settings. Marques left South Africa to seek a better life, away from political unrest. She said there was not a lot of disposable income for entertainment in her home country. “There would be singing in certain pubs, but I reached the point in my life I was over singing at a pub with drunk men, singing the same songs — it was soul-destroying,” she said. “In South Africa, there was very little community opportunity for performing in bands. When I came to Albany, I couldn't believe it, coming here there’s such an appreciation for music. “There’s a huge artistic community in South Africa but I think politically, socially and economically, it just doesn’t have what it needs for support.” A mother of three, her family has always come first. “Now they are older I have more opportunities to do my music,” she said. She is fully immersed in the musical community as a member of David Rastrick’s band Southern Soul, and the Living Water Church’s music director and pianist. “It’s exhilarating. What I love most is the cohesion of singing with a bunch of really passionate gifted musicians, being part of the beautiful integration of all instruments and singing,” she said. With a particular passion for jazz, Marques said the genre was “unique” and an expression of freedom. “Studying music history I found jazz very fascinating,” she said. “It always had a little part of me and also I think a lot of songs entrenched in me as child were these songs, so there’s a lot of emotional attachment.” One of her career highlights was performing with Spindrift at the Harbourside Concert Series at Albany Entertainment Centre last year. “Adrian and I chose songs I’m passionate about and love singing, that move me in every possible way,” she said. Spindrift will start their set at the Stirling Club at 7pm on Friday followed by the Rainbow Coast Big Band from 8pm-10pm.