Kristen Sutcliffe

In July 2023, the Canberra Symphony Orchestra launches Music to Your Ears, as part of the ACT’s inaugural Uncharted Territory festival. Nicknamed the ‘Big Ear Project’, this interactive experience explores the science of hearing from a classical music perspective.

“…the conceit of the piece takes the form of Beethoven himself being subjected to a present-day audiology test. [The composer famously wrote about his diminishing hearing in the Heiligenstadt Testament (1802).] In his head, the blips and blurts of the test compete with a melody that strains to emerge, but never quite manages to do so, no matter how hard Beethoven pushes to the limits of the bassoon’s uppermost register.”