Leah Flanagan

Flanagan identifies as Indigenous Australian due to her Aboriginal (Alyawarre) heritage.[1][2]

She studied classical music at the Elder Conservatorium of Music in Adelaide.[3]

Flanagan has released several albums and has toured Australia with her music and as a part of festival ensembles.[4][5][6] She has collaborated with Sinéad O'Connor, Meshell Ndegeocello, poet Sam Wagan Watson,[7] The Black Arm Band,[8] Paul Kelly and Ursula Yovich, and recorded a duet with Marlon Williams of Archie Roach’s "I’ve Lied".[4]

From 2009 to 2011, Flanagan performed in the productions Murundak, Hidden Republic, and Dirtsong with the touring company The Black Arm Band[8] at many major festivals across Australia. Her performances in this period included one at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.

In 2010 she appeared at the Melbourne International Arts Festival's production Seven Songs To Leave Behind with John Cale, Rickie Lee Jones, Snead O'Connor, Meshell Ndegeocello, and Gurrumul with Black Arm Band members Ursula Yovich, Dan Sultan, and Shellie Morris. [9]

Flanagan was invited by Deborah Conway to be part of her Song Trails project for the 2009 and 2011 Queensland Music Festivals, which led to her collaborating with Australian artists Peter Farnan (Boom Crash Opera), Robert Forster (The Go-Betweens) and Rebecca Barnard (Rebecca's Empire) to deliver a series of workshops and to perform concerts across regional Queensland.[10]

Flanagan composed a show entitled Midnight Muses, based on the work of Brisbane poet Samuel Wagan Watson, for the Adelaide Cabaret Festival in 2011. [11] It later appeared at the 2013 Sydney Festival. [12]

Flanagan in 2012

She was invited to perform as a featured soloist in the first Australian production of Leonard Bernstein's MASS at the 2012 Adelaide Festival. [13]

In late 2015 Flanagan was invited by Archie Roach to record a duet of his song "I've Lied" with Marlon Williams for the 25th Anniversary release of Charcoal Lane. Rolling Stone Australia gave the anniversary album four-and-a-half stars.[4]

In 2017 she featured in 1967: Music in the Key of Yes alongside Dan Sultan, Adalita, Thelma Plum, and Ursula Yovich, as part of the Sydney Festival. The show celebrated the 50th anniversary of the 1967 Australian referendum through song.[14]

In December 2019 Flanagan was appointed as national manager of the APRA AMCOS Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Music Office.[1][2]

In January 2020 Flanagan was appointed First Nations export producer at Sounds Australia. The role entails attending key international events such as SXSW, The Great Escape Festival, Folk Alliance International, and WOMEX, as well as establishing an international bursary program for Indigenous artists. Her first assignment in the role was attending the International Indigenous Music Summit[lower-alpha 1] in New Orleans, United States.[1][16]

Flanagan has appeared on the Australian TV music quiz shows Spicks & Specks and RocKwiz; on the latter performing Elvis Costello's Shipbuilding in a duet with composer David Bridie.[17] Faboriginal and RocKwiz.[18]

She has also appeared on the light comedy sports programme Marngrook Footy Show, performing a version of Stevie Wonder's For Once in My Life.

• Official website
• Black Arm Band bio (archived March 2012)