Fantasia. Photo: Canberra International Music Festival.
A program of exquisite contemporary Australian works alongside masterpieces of string orchestra repertoire.
A new violin concerto by one of Australia’s most respected composers, Richard Mills, who has conceived the work with Melbourne Chamber Orchestra Artistic Director Sophie Rowell as the soloist.
The MCO musicians will collaborate in the second half with Canberra’s Ellery String Quartet and Festival ensemble-in-residence Flinders Quartet, sharing the stage for the timeless Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis by Ralph Vaughan Williams.
Molly Jalakbiya and Paul Stanhope’s Dirrari Lament is based on a Bunuba language song about a mother black Cockatoo, grieving for her baby.
The song also works as a lament for Jandamarra, a Bunuba man who led a resistance movement against European invasion in the late 19th Century in Western Australia.
Originally for string quartet, then expanded for string orchestra, the work reaches a new depth with the inimitable Mark Atkins who narrates an introduction to “Dirrari Lament” which sets the historical scene to this moving threnody.
Special thanks to June Oscar and Patsy Bedford who are the custodians of this song who gave permission to use it here.
MCO also presents composer-in-residence Olivia Davies’ work Crystalline, the rebellion against tyranny and oppression in Beethoven’s Egmont Overture and finally Jessie Montgomery’s Strum.
The Details
What: Fantasia – Canberra International Music Festival
When: Wednesday 30 April, from 7.30pm
Where: Snow Concert Hall, 40 Monaro Cres, Red Hill, ACT 2603
Cost: General Admission $78. Tickets available via Canberra International Music Festival.
