photo by Karen Steains

Dale Caldwell is a singer and performer who has worked for over eighteen years defining her distinctive voice.

Listen to her sing now if you like: Wild Is the Wind

She is a founding member of the Sydney-based, 18-voice singing and drumming band Voices from the Vacant Lot who have been performing for over 18 years. In 1998, Voices released their acclaimed CD Dance on Your Bones, which was nominated for an Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) award.

Voices have regularly performed at the Maleny Folk Festival (Qld), National Folk Festival (ACT), the Sydney and Melbourne Acappella Festivals, and the Sydney Fringe Festival. In 1997, they toured the Northern Territory as part of Playing Australia, a Commonwealth Government funded program that aims to present performances to isolated communities around Australia. In July 2002, Voices conducted a ten day, four city performance tour of the island of Java, sponsored by the Australia Indonesia Institute.

Dale has also been singing with the 20 voice Bulgarian women's group, Martenitsa, led by Mara and Llew Kiek, since 1996. Martenitsa has a demanding performance schedule. They performed for ten nights as part of the Sydney 2000 Olympics companion arts program and at Brisbane's Energex Festival 2000, as part of Homeland , a collaboration with Legs on the Wall, which was directed by Nigel Jameson. Dale performed as one of five of Martenitsa's principal singers for this production in Berlin at the Literatur WERKstatt Festival in June 2003.

During 1994-1997, Dale performed in the experimental voice and double bass duo Ballads of the Fallen at the Sydney Fringe Festival, at Tilleys (ACT) and at the Naked Voice Festival, exploring her voice in pop, spiritual, and eastern and middle eastern styles of vocal improvisation.

Dale has recorded with Ed Kuepper (The Saints, Laughing Clowns, The Yard Goes on Forever), Daniel Morphett (El Duende, Craven Fops), Dave Studdert (Tactics, The Inside Up) and performed with iOTA at the launch of his CD The Hip Bone Connection. Dale has performed with Theatre of the Deaf and at the Australian Women Composers Festival in a piece written by Sydney performer Michele Morgan.

In 2006 Dale collaborated with Ben Fink ( The Whitlams, King Clam, Voices from the Vacant Lot) and Kate Adams (Naked Without my Cello) on the music and lyrical development of a 45 minute suite for piano, cello and voice called "Seasongs" which was performed and recorded at the Old Darlington School in August 2006.

Dale is currently focusing on writing her own material for performance and collaboration with other performers, musicians and composers. Her passions are voice, film, theatre, visual arts and the work of Elvis Costello.