Sandra France Portrait, 2025.
This concert features chamber music by Tuggeranong resident and classical composer, Sandra France. The concert includes the solo cello meditation piece, a playful and boisterous piano trio, and a piano sonata celebrating the bustling life of the Lanyon Homestead in the early 1900s. It also includes the world premiere of The Hardening of a Beautiful Soul, a solo piano piece that calls us to remember the values of acceptance and peace in our wonderful multicultural country. Alongside Sandra on piano, the concert features the talents of recent ANU School of Music graduates, Gabriel Fromhyr and Tanya Boag.
Program
Lanyon Suite
Fluctuating States of Calm
The Hardening of a Beautiful Soul
Three Miniatures for Piano Trio
Performers
Sandra France: Piano
Tanya Boag: Violin
Gabriel Fromhyr: Cello
About the works
The Lanyon Suite was commissioned by Dr Jennifer Gall. It celebrates the pianos in Canberra’s Historic Museums and is the creative outcome of an ArtsACT Heritage Grant. Specially composed for the Broadwood piano at Lanyon Homestead, in Tuggeranong, The Lanyon Suite reflects the importance of the piano as the centrepiece of parlour rooms in the early 1900s, around which many an evening may have been enjoyed by the Cunningham family at Lanyon Homestead.
Fluctuating States of Calm was composed for Canberra based classical musical legend, cellist David Pereira. Sandy wrote this piece as young mother trying, who was trying to find calm in her busy and demanding world. It is a through-composed meditative work.
The Hardening of a Beautiful Soul is programmatic piece composed in response to the disturbing display of anti-Semitism in Australia immediately following the 2023 October 7 attacks on Israel. I was deeply disturbed by the violent protests, bombings, vandalism and hate speech I witnessed, in a nation that prides itself on multiculturalism and acceptance. This concert is the world premiere of the work.
Three Miniatures for Piano Trio was first presented at the National Festival of Women’s Music in 2001 at the National Gallery of Australia. A three-movement work which explores a variety of textures on all three instruments, including the inside of the piano, this work is a playful exploration of sound and colour.
About Sandra France
Canberra based composer, Sandra France, has over 30 years professional experience as a composer, educator and performer. She has been commissioned by many of Australia’s finest musicians and organizations, including the Australia Council, ArtsWA, ArtsACT and ArtsVictoria. France’s classical CD, Fluctuating States of Calm, Tall Poppies (2005), includes recordings of her symphonic and chamber works. In 2014, her opera From a Black Sky received a Canberra Critics Circle Award for Composition and was a finalist in the Australian Art Music Awards – Vocal Work of the Year. France’s most recent work, Flight Memory, was awarded a Canberra Critics Circle Award. Created in collaboration with lyricist Alana Valentine, the 2019 world premiere performance featured jazz vocalists Michelle Nicolle, Leisa Keen and Liam Budge. Sandra is excited to be presenting a world premiere at the Tuggeranong Arts Centre and honoured to be able to share her music with classical music lovers in the area.
The Details
What: Sandra France: Calm
When: Thursday 23 October, 6 pm (Bar open from 5 pm)
Where: Tuggeranong Arts Centre, 137 Reed Street North
Tickets: $38 / $32. Book now.
Find out more at Tuggeranong Arts Centre.
