chamber music

PARTNER FEATURE / ActewAGL is a key supporter of CSO community initiatives that tap into the therapeutic benefits of music.

I am no longer the same person, composer, soprano as the one who entered into 2020 in good faith. Am I more? Am I less? Time will tell. For now I am content to emerge and see what path can be forged.

Solace considers the accelerated regenerative processes that follow extreme levels of fire and natural disaster. The material functions in orbits, presenting the multi-dimensional process of regeneration that is one of both life and death, beginning and end.

Eric Avery is a creative polymath: a Ngiyampaa, Gumbangirr, Bandjalang and Yuin artist, trained in classical violin, composition and dance. Avery’s work traverses the natural and the man-made, bringing together ancient tradition and language with contemporary technology and production techniques.

The piece was commissioned as a work that could celebrate the natural beauty of the Byron Bay area, alongside a celebration of the voices of women. This suite reflects upon three female figures and interprets their voices musically in a series of ‘songs for the hours,’ musical pieces intended for the passage of the day.

In the lyrics of this piece with the CSO Chamber Ensemble, I am resurfacing old journal entries of Cook and fellow colonists who first invaded, to ultimately challenge listeners on the idea of truth. What is truth? Who can tell it?

Ora was an extremely gifted bass player who performed with great talent and finesse. She was my best friend and we performed together for about 15 years. This composition was an opportunity for me to memorialise and remember her, through this unaccompanied, beautiful composition, Lament.

Bungaree, or Boongaree, (1775 – 24 November 1830) was an Aboriginal Australian from the Kuringgai people of the Broken Bay area north of Sydney, who was known as an explorer, entertainer, and Aboriginal community leader.

Bardju is about the footsteps we each take, and to tell us that we need to tread lightly on Mother Earth and take care of her.