2025 Metropolis Festival Program
16–17 April 2025
Melbourne Recital Centre
2025 Metropolis Festival
Acknowledging Country
In the first project of its kind in Australia, the MSO has developed a musical Acknowledgment of Country with music composed by Yorta Yorta composer Deborah Cheetham Fraillon ao, featuring Indigenous languages from across Victoria.
Generously supported by Helen Macpherson Smith Trust and the Commonwealth Government through the Australian National Commission for UNESCO, the MSO is working in partnership with Short Black Opera and Indigenous language custodians who are generously sharing their cultural knowledge.
The Acknowledgement of Country allows us to pay our respects to the traditional owners of the land on which we perform in the language of that country and in the orchestral language of music.
About Long Time Living Here
As a Yorta Yorta/Yuin composer, the responsibility I carry to assist the MSO in delivering a respectful acknowledgement of country is a privilege which I take very seriously. I have a duty of care to my ancestors and to the ancestors on whose land the MSO works and performs. As the MSO continues to grow its knowledge and understanding of what it means to truly honour the First People of this land, the musical acknowledgment of country will serve to bring those on stage and those in the audience together in a moment of recognition as we celebrate the longest continuing cultures in the world.
—Deborah Cheetham Fraillon ao
Our musical Acknowledgment of Country, Long Time Living Here by Deborah Cheetham Fraillon ao, is performed at MSO concerts.
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is Australia’s preeminent orchestra, dedicated to creating meaningful experiences that transcend borders and connect communities. Through the shared language of music, the MSO delivers performances of the highest standard, enriching lives and inspiring audiences across the globe.
Woven into the cultural fabric of Victoria and with a history spanning more than a century, the MSO reaches five million people annually through performances, TV, radio and online broadcasts, as well as critically acclaimed recordings from its newly established recording label.
In 2025, Jaime Martín continues to lead the Orchestra as Chief Conductor and Artistic Advisor. Maestro Martín leads an Artistic Family that includes Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor—Learning and Engagement Benjamin Northey, Cybec Assistant Conductor Leonard Weiss, MSO Chorus Director Warren Trevelyan-Jones, Composer in Residence Liza Lim am, Artist in Residence James Ehnes, First Nations Creative Chair Deborah Cheetham Fraillon ao, Cybec Young Composer in Residence Klearhos Murphy, Cybec First Nations Composer in Residence James Henry, Artist in Residence, Learning & Engagement Karen Kyriakou, Young Artist in Association Christian Li, and Artistic Ambassadors Tan Dun, Lu Siqing and Xian Zhang.
The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra respectfully acknowledges the people of the Eastern Kulin Nations, on whose un‑ceded lands we honour the continuation of the oldest music practice in the world.
First Violins
Tair Khisambeev
Acting Associate Concertmaster
Di Jameson OAM and Frank Mercurio*
Anne-Marie Johnson
Acting Assistant Concertmaster
David Horowicz*
Peter Edwards
Assistant Principal
Sarah Curro
Dr Harry Imber *
Peter Fellin
Deborah Goodall
Karla Hanna
Lorraine Hook
Kirstin Kenny
Eleanor Mancini
Anne Neil*
Mark Mogilevski
Michelle Ruffolo
Anna Skálová
Kathryn Taylor
Your MSO
Second Violins
Matthew Tomkins
Principal
The Gross Foundation*
Monica Curro
Assistant Principal
Dr Mary Jane Gething AO*
Mary Allison
Isin Cakmakçioglu
Tiffany Cheng
Glenn Sedgwick*
Freya Franzen
Cong Gu
Andrew Hall
Robert Macindoe
Isy Wasserman
Philippa West
Andrew Dudgeon AM*
Patrick Wong
Cecilie Hall*
Roger Young
Shane Buggle and Rosie Callanan*
Violas
Christopher Moore
Principal
Di Jameson OAM and Frank Mercurio*
Lauren Brigden
Katharine Brockman
Anthony Chataway
Peter T Kempen AM*
William Clark
Morris and Helen Margolis*
Aidan Filshie
Gabrielle Halloran
Jenny Khafagi
Margaret Billson and the late Ted Billson*
Fiona Sargeant
Cellos
David Berlin Principal
Rachael Tobin
Associate Principal
Elina Faskhi
Assistant Principal
Di Jameson OAM and Frank Mercurio*
Rohan de Korte
Andrew Dudgeon AM*
Sarah Morse
Rebecca Proietto
Peter T Kempen AM*
Angela Sargeant
Caleb Wong
Michelle Wood
Double Basses
Jonathon Coco Principal
Stephen Newton
Acting Associate Principal
Rohan Dasika
Acting Assistant Principal
Benjamin Hanlon
Suzanne Lee
Flutes
Prudence Davis
Principal
Jean Hadges*
Wendy Clarke
Associate Principal
Sarah Beggs
Piccolo
Andrew Macleod Principal
Oboes
Michael Pisani
Acting Associate Principal
Ann Blackburn
Margaret Billson and the late Ted Billson*
Cor Anglais
Rachel Curkpatrick
Acting Principal
Clarinets
David Thomas Principal
Philip Arkinstall
Associate Principal
Craig Hill
Rosemary and the late Douglas Meagher *
Bass Clarinet
Jonathan Craven Principal
Bassoons
Jack Schiller
Principal
Dr Harry Imber *
Elise Millman
Associate Principal
Natasha Thomas
Patricia Nilsson*
Contrabassoon
Brock Imison Principal
Horns
Nicolas Fleury Principal
Margaret Jackson AC*
Peter Luff
Acting Associate Principal
Saul Lewis
Principal Third
The late Hon Michael Watt KC and Cecilie Hall*
Abbey Edlin
The Hanlon Foundation*
Josiah Kop
Rachel Shaw
Professor Gary McPherson*
Trumpets
Owen Morris Principal
Shane Hooton
Associate Principal
Glenn Sedgwick*
Rosie Turner
Dr John and Diana Frew*
Learn more about our musicians on the MSO website. * Position supported by
Trombone
Don Immel
Acting Principal
Richard Shirley
Bass Trombone
Michael Szabo
Principal
Tuba
Timothy Buzbee
Principal
Timpani
Matthew Thomas Principal
Percussion
Shaun Trubiano Principal
John Arcaro
Tim and Lyn Edward*
Robert Cossom
Drs Rhyl Wade and Clem Gruen*
Harp
Yinuo Mu Principal
Pauline and David Lawton*
Benjamin Northey conductor / curator
Benjamin Northey is the Chief Conductor of the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra and Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor – Learning and Engagement of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. This year he took up the position of Conductor in Residence with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.
He studied conducting at Finland’s Sibelius Academy with Leif Segerstam and Atso Almila, completing his studies at the Stockholm Royal College of Music with Jorma Panula in 2006.
He appears regularly as a guest conductor with all the major Australian symphony orchestras, Opera Australia (La bohème, Turandot, L’elisir d’amore, Don Giovanni, Così fan tutte and Carmen), New Zealand Opera (Sweeney Todd) and State Opera South Australia (La sonnambula, L’elisir d’amore and Les Contes d’Hoffmann). He is also active in the performance of new Australian orchestral music, having premiered dozens of new works by Australian composers, and is a driving force in the performance of orchestral music by Australian First Nations composers and performers.
His international appearances include concerts with the London, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Malaysian philharmonic orchestras, Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, National Symphony Orchestra of Colombia, and the New Zealand and Christchurch symphony orchestras.
An Aria, Air Music and APRA–AMCOS Art Music awards winner, Benjamin Northey was voted Limelight magazine’s Australian Artist of the Year in 2018. His many recordings can be found on ABC Classic.
PHOTO: SHARA HENDERSON
Liza Lim composer / curator
2025 COMPOSER IN RESIDENCE
Liza Lim am is a composer, educator and researcher whose music focusses on collaborative and transcultural practices, and who is widely commissioned by pre-eminent orchestras and ensembles worldwide. Beauty, rage and noise, ecological connection, and female spiritual lineages are at the heart of works such as Sex Magic (2020) for flautist Claire Chase; the orchestral cycle Annunciation Triptych: Sappho, Mary, Fatimah (2019–22); and Multispecies Knots of Ethical Time (2023) for gestural performer, film and ensemble. Extinction Events and Dawn Chorus (2018) has found especially wide resonance with performances by groups from Melbourne to Berlin, New York to Helsinki, and in Mexico.
‘I can’t think of many other composers today who, on a grand scale, combine her mastery of colour and form with sensitive engagement to where we’re at ecologically.’ Gramophone, 2023
The first musician to be awarded an Australian Research Council Laureate Fellowship, she will lead a five-year program to encourage engagement with urgent climate and social issues through music. She is Professor of Composition and Sculthorpe Chair of Australian Music at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, and in 2023 was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for her contribution to Australian music. Her music has been published by Ricordi Berlin since 1992 and has been released on 40 CDs including ten portrait albums.
Liza Lim lives in Naarm (Melbourne).
PHOTO: MARIA STURM
Welcome to the MSO’s 2025 Metropolis Festival
Since 1995, the MSO’s Metropolis New Music Festival has introduced music lovers to new and contemporary music by the brightest local and international composers.
This year we showcase today’s Australian composers who listen, feel, respond and make music that transforms city rhythms, ancient poetry and natural wonder into living, breathing music.
Through their music and in conversation with these artists, we’ll discover the inspiration behind their work, and explore the fabric of Australian society through the diverse cultural backgrounds represented.
We’ll also experience the ancient sounds of the guzheng and didgeridoo coming into new alignment with the colours and energies of the orchestra, played by two of the finest exponents of these instruments, Mindy Meng Wang and William Barton.
These concerts represent a microcosm of modern life – diverse, interconnected, and constantly evolving. We’re so pleased that you’ve joined us to discover new music and celebrate the creative voices of our time.
Liza Lim and Benjamin Northey 2025 Metropolis Festival curators
Artists
Composing Australia: Night One
Wednesday 16 April at 7:30pm
Melbourne Recital Hall
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
Benjamin Northey conductor / curator
Liza Lim* curator
Mindy Meng Wang guzheng
Program
Holly Harrison Hi Vis [10’]
Ella Macens The Space Between Stars [14’]
Fiona Hill Śūnyatā [8’]
Jessica Wells Concerto for Guzheng and Orchestra** [20’]
* 2025 Composer in Residence
** World premiere of co-commission by Liza Lim and the MSO
CONCERT EVENTS
Post-concert conversation: Join us in the foyer after the performance for a discussion hosted by Benjamin Northey and Liza Lim.
For a list of musicians performing in this concert, please visit mso.com.au/musicians
Running time: 1 hour and 20 minutes, without interval. Timings listed are approximate.
Mindy Meng Wang guzheng
Mindy Meng Wang is a Chinese Australian composer and pioneering contemporary performer on the guzheng (ancient Chinese zither), bringing this instrument into many Western genres as well as improvisation. Her work explores the fertile space between traditional and contemporary practices, and is part of a movement of Chinese musicians redefining and reinvigorating their musical tradition. She is a strong voice for young female composers and artists of Chinese heritage on the global stage.
In Australia, she performs regularly in many events and festivals, including the Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Darwin, Adelaide, OzAsia, Mona Foma, Dark Mofo, TEDx Sydney and AsiaTOPA festivals. Her collaborators include Regurgitator, Paul Grabowsky, Tim Shiel, Deborah Cheetham Fraillon, Australian Art Orchestra, Orchestra Victoria and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. In the UK, she has collaborated with artists such as Gorillaz and performed in the O2 Arena and London’s Barbican Centre. She also performs regularly in festivals in Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, and France.
Her many accolades include the 2022 Sidney Myer Fellowship, Best Musician in the Music Victoria Awards, and Arts & Culture winner in the Asian-Australian Leadership Awards, as well as a nomination for the Melbourne Prize for Music. In 2022 and 2023 she was Artist in Residence at the Melbourne Recital Centre.
PHOTO: GU STUDIO
Program Notes
Holly Harrison (born 1988)
Hi-Vis (2021)
Hi Vis is inspired by night roadworks. For the majority of 2020 (and beyond!), major roadworks took place outside my Western Sydney home from 9pm to 4am each night: flickering lights, continuous drilling, humming, reversing, beeping and grinding. Yet, amid lockdown times, I found the rhythms of machinery strangely comforting and exciting, and a gentle reminder of the existence of other people!
Hi‑Vis is a musical re-imagining of these sights and sounds, but also a celebration of all things hi-vis, musical and otherwise. Think fluorescent, luminescent and neon colours, LED traffic batons, and of course, workers in hi-vis vests. I began to imagine what road workers might be listening to, and how the contrast between the strobing lights and dark sky conjured up an almost nightclub-like environment. The piece loosely draws on ‘hi-vis’ elements of electronic dance music, brass fanfares, boot-scooting and disco, all filtered through the constant on-and-off of earmuffs.
Holly Harrison © 2021
About the composer
Holly Harrison is an award-winning Australian composer from Western Sydney. Her music is driven by the nonsense literature of Lewis Carroll, embracing stylistic juxtapositions, the visceral energy of rock, and whimsical humour. Her music is highly in demand and frequently performed across Australia, Asia, Europe and the USA. She has worked with all the major Australian orchestras and was the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra’s Composer in Residence (2020–22). This year she is the lead mentor for Ensemble Offspring’s Hatched Composer Intensive.
Her music has been performed by a diverse range of artists including the Oslo Philharmonic, Eighth Blackbird, City of Birmingham Orchestra, Alarm Will Sound, the US Army Band, Nuremburg Symphony Orchestra, Manchester Camerata and the Australian String Quartet. Highlights for 2025 include a world premiere by theremin virtuoso Carolina Eyck and the Australian Chamber Orchestra, as well as performances by the Melbourne, Queensland and Sydney symphony orchestras. Holly Harrison holds a Doctor of Creative Arts from Western Sydney University and is currently Composer in Residence at the King’s School.
Ella Macens (born 1991)
The Space Between Stars (2017)
This piece was composed for a workshop opportunity with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra in conjunction with the Sydney Conservatorium of Music’s inaugural National Women Composers Development Program (2016–17). When I began composing this work, I imagined the listener lying in an open field, the earth in total stillness. I imagined them gazing up at the night sky, watching as it glowed with millions of bright shining stars. Through this piece I wanted to convey the energy and magic of our night sky, and explore the power I believe it holds. This piece is dedicated to my grandfather Arturs, who passed away while the work was being composed. May you rest peacefully among the stars.
Ella Macens
About the composer
Ella Macens draws on elements of her Latvian heritage, fusing these with her love of popular and classical music to create a language rooted in a deeply evocative and sensitive musical aesthetic, for which she is becoming well-known in Australia and beyond. Her list of commissions and performances includes collaborations with the Sydney, Melbourne, Tasmanian and Canberra symphony orchestras; the Flinders and Goldner string quartets; Ensemble Apex, Muses Trio, The Song Company, Sydney Chamber Choir, The Australian Ballet, Sydney Festival and the Canberra International Music Festival.
Internationally, her works have been performed by the Ulster Orchestra, Brunel Sinfonia, Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra, Richmond Delta Youth Orchestra, State Choir Latvija, the Riga Cathedral Girls’ Choir, the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music Chamber
Choir, and the XV Latvian Canadian Song and Dance Festival, among others.
She holds a master’s degree in composition from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, where she is also an Associate Lecturer in Composition. She was a participant in the Sydney Conservatorium’s inaugural Composing Women program and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra’s Australian Composers School. Her accolades include the Frank Hutchens Scholarship for Composition and the 2MBS Fine Music Sydney Young Composer Award. In 2023 her orchestral work Release was a finalist in the Australian Art Music Awards.
PHOTO: DARWIN GOMEZ
Fiona Hill (born 1976)
Śūnyatā (2021)
By connecting with the deepest parts of myself and the natural world throughout the process of composing this work, while also surrounding myself with symbols from Neolithic Goddess mythology, I resonated with the concept of a deep spiral which grounds us to the earth and traces lines to our ancient ancestors.
Fragments of text from the book The Myth of the Goddess: Evolution of an image by Anne Baring and Jules Cashford further inspired my conceptualisation:
‘The Bird Goddess appears as the vessel that is both labyrinth and door to the dimension beyond human life.’
‘The cosmic egg of the universe was laid by the cosmic Mother Bird, and its cracking open was the beginning of time and space.’
‘She [the Goddess] governed the fecundity of woman.… She was an enduring image both of renewal in time and timeless totality.’
The title Śūnyatā is a Sanskrit word with multiple meanings depending on its doctrinal context. It is generally described as ‘emptiness’ and relates to the concept of the world being empty of a self or anything relating to a self.
Fiona Hill
About the composer
Fiona Hill studied composition at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, completing her PhD with Liza Lim, following a Master of Arts degree in Screen Composition from the Australian Film Television and Radio School. She currently serves as a Lecturer in Composition for Creative Industries at the Sydney Conservatorium.
Her diverse catalogue includes Circumstance 2020 (a site-specific filmed work by choreographer Sue Healy), which received the 2022 Stelvio Cipriani International Film Scoring Award and Best Music at the 2022 Seoul International Short Film Festival. Jill Sykes (Sydney Morning Herald) described her work as ‘the best match-making between commissioned music and dance that I have come across in years’.
Meanwhile, her distinctive orchestral writing features in multiple works for the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra (Śūnyatā, Where I Find Myself, Disruptor), and her live electroacoustic compositions explore spatialisation and gestural controllers, as in her duo In:Flux with accordionist Gary Daley. Her versatility extends to compositions for the JACK Quartet, Ensemble Offspring and soloists Alicia Crossley (recorders) and Lamorna Nightingale (flutes), and her innovative chamber work Lost in the Darkness was praised by Limelight as ‘deeply unsettling and emotionally impactful’.
Fiona Hill’s research centres on a phenomenology of listening, which she translates into emotive, textural sound worlds that push boundaries across both acoustic and electronic domains.
PHOTO: MAJA BASKA
Jessica Wells (born 1974)
Concerto for Guzheng and Orchestra (2025)
Mindy Meng Wang guzheng
Composed for leading contemporary guzheng artist Mindy Meng Wang, this groundbreaking new concerto delves into the supernatural realms of ancient Chinese folklore, exploring two ancient tales of demons and ghosts and their interaction with a travelling scholar.
Taking inspiration from ‘The Haunted Pavilion’, the orchestra embodies the character of the Scholar, who travels to a village where the empty pavilion is said to cause the death of those who attempt to take shelter in it. The Scholar meditates overnight, and hears within the walls of the Pavilion the voices of three demons. In the morning he vanquishes the demons, who’ve inhabited the bodies of a Scorpion, a Black Sow and a Red-Crested Rooster.
The Scholar continues his journey and encounters a beautiful female Ghost who is sent to seduce men and bring them to her mistress, a terrifying Tree Demoness.
This ‘Ghost Story’ is famous in China and is told in many variations. The Ghost performs a swaying dance to woo the Scholar, and then joyously dances as she falls in love with him. But they fall foul of the Tree Demoness, who engages them in battle, the outcome to be determined by the musical storytelling.
In this concert, Mindy performs on two guzhengs – a traditional D–pentatonic instrument and another with an innovative, non-traditional tuning devised by the composer – bringing to the work her mastery of both traditional techniques and the contemporary methods she has invented. In some sections she will add spontaneous improvisations, infusing the performance with unique, live energy.
Drawing on her film-scoring expertise, Jessica Wells intricately weaves these contrasting sounds, creating vivid, immersive textures and haunting melodies which embody the narrative, taking you on a spellbinding journey where tradition meets modern artistry.
Concerto for Guzheng and Orchestra was commissioned by Liza Lim and the MSO.
About the composer
Jessica Wells is one of Australia’s most sought-after composers and orchestrators for concert and screen. A recipient of the 2025 AACTA Award for Best Original Score in a Documentary (Mozart’s Sister) and the 2024 Art Music Luminary Award (NSW), she has established herself as a leading figure in Australian music.
She was born in Florida, USA, and migrated to Australia at the age of 11. She studied Composition at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, graduating with first-class honours, subsequently obtaining a Master of Music degree in Composition (Sydney Conservatorium) and Master of Arts degree in Screen Composition (Australian Film Television and Radio School).
She has worked with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra on various projects, including her arrangements of Katie Abbott’s Hidden Thoughts 2 (2024) and Joseph Tawadros’ Concerto for Oud and Orchestra (commissioned and premiered by MSO), as well as her complete re-orchestration of The Man From Snowy River score for live performances with the film. She also worked as orchestrator and co-producer for Nigel Westlake’s film scores for Paper Planes and Blueback, both recorded by the MSO. She is honoured to be bringing her original compositional voice to MSO audiences in this new concerto.
She is currently writing her first full-length ballet, Butterfly Effect, to be premiered by the West Australian Ballet in September. In 2024, she celebrated her 50th birthday at The Nielson (ACO Pier 2/3 in Sydney) with a chamber music concert featuring works
ranging from her early Seven Pieces for Wind Quintet to her score for the 1914 Annette Kellerman silent film Neptune’s Daughter. She also conducted the Sydney Symphony Orchestra’s recording of her original score for a soon-to-be-released Australian nature documentary.
Other recent concert works include Kandinsky Blue Painting 1924 (Ensemble Offspring), Emu in the Sky (Artology), Heartbeat (Australia Ensemble), Dancing with Diaghilev for saxophonist Amy Dickson and the Australian String Quartet, Uplift (Sydney Symphony Orchestra’s 50 Fanfares project) and Zodiac Animalia (Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra).
Her business of 20 years, Jigsaw Music, provides music preparation services for clients throughout Australia and overseas. She also works as a recording producer and conductor. She has orchestrated more than 70 films and wrote the theme music for ABC TV’s Q&A, Dream Gardens and Compass.
PHOTO: STEVEN GODBEE
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Artists
Composing Australia: Night Two
Thursday 17 April at 7:30pm Melbourne Recital Hall
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
Benjamin Northey conductor / curator
Liza Lim* curator
William Barton yidaki (didgeridoo), voice
Program
Liza Lim Annunciation Triptych: I. Sappho / Bioluminescence [20’]
Peggy Polias Arachne [13’]
William Barton and Matthew Hindson Kalkadungu [24’]
* 2025 Composer in Residence
For a list of musicians performing in this concert, please visit mso.com.au/musicians
Running time: 1 hour and 20 minutes, without interval. Timings listed are approximate.
William Barton composer / yidaki (didgeridoo), voice
William Barton is Australia’s leading yidaki (didgeridoo) player as well as a composer, instrumentalist and vocalist. He learnt the instrument from his uncle, Arthur Peterson, an elder of the Wannyi, Lardil and Kalkadunga people, and worked from an early age with traditional dance groups and fusion–rock jazz bands, orchestras, string quartets and mixed ensembles. In a diverse career, he has forged a path in the classical musical world, from the London, Berlin and Bremer philharmonic orchestras to historic events at Westminster Abbey (Commonwealth Day 2019), Anzac Cove in Gallipoli and the Beijing Olympics. He has released five albums on ABC Classic, including Heartland (2022) with violinist Véronique Serret and the words of his mother, Aunty Delmae Barton. He has been developing a new musical language, which is epitomised in this recording.
In 2023 he was named Queensland Australian of the Year and was an Australian of the Year nominee. In 2022 he was recognised for his work with the Australian Chamber Orchestra on the soundtrack from the film River, which won Best Soundtrack Album and Best Original Song Composed for the Screen (APRA–AMCOS Screen Awards), Best Original Score in a Documentary (AACTA Awards) and Best Original Soundtrack (ARIA Awards). Other awards include the Australia Council’s Don Banks Music Award (2021), Best Original Score for a Mainstage Production (2018 Sydney Theatre Awards) and Best Classical Album (ARIA) for Birdsong at Dusk in 2012. William Barton holds honorary doctorates from Griffith University and the University of Sydney.
PHOTO: TANJA BRUCKNER
Liza Lim (born 1966)
Program Notes
Sappho / Bioluminscence (2019–20)
Part 1 of Annunication Triptych for orchestra (2019–21)
Sappho / Bioluminescence was co-commissioned by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra with the Tectonics Festival (Glasgow) and the WDR Symphony Orchestra, and was premiered in April 2022. It is the first part of an orchestral trilogy called Annunciation Triptych (2019–22), celebrating three icons or lineages of female spirituality: Sappho’s world of erotic trance and hallucination, Mary’s visitation by the angel and passion play, and the Lady Fatimah’s wedding and lamentation.
Sappho / Bioluminescence is a kind of extended neural network that binds together the erotic trance of Sappho’s poetry, animals and plants that glow in the dark, and the memory banks of the orchestra to create hallucinatory images in sound.
Lim says: ‘My works are often made up of imagined composites of plants, animals,
elements, spirits and more, and these kinds of real-fictional assemblages have been a fruitful way for me to open up a space for speculation in my composing.’
Most of the Ancient Greek poet Sappho’s poetry is now lost, yet her words have gained iconic power over the ages and compel with their extraordinary beauty. The extant fragments are like depth charges: powerfully explosive in their intensity while often dealing in the most delicately suggestive lyrics celebrating the Goddess Aphrodite and her realms of feminine beauty and luminescent passion.
Bioluminescence is the production and emission of light by a living organism as the result of a chemical reaction. In the Hawaiian Bob-tail squid, blue luminescent specks act as a form of ‘invisibility cloak’ to prey and predators – the squid blends with moonlight on a starry night. The orchestra comes into play as Sappho’s ‘orchard’: a grove, a holy place filled with the flickering of living light where every sound, every silence connotes the pure presence of eros.
Turn to page 9 to read about Liza Lim
An ancient Greek terracotta lekythos (oil flask) c. 550–530 BCE showing two women working at an upright loom
Peggy Polias (born 1981)
Arachne (2023)
This work takes inspiration from the story of Arachne in Ovid’s Metamorphoses (Book 6), a tale of a weaving duel between skillful mortal (Arachne) and proud goddess (Minerva). It is a minimalist and texture-driven work, meditating on rhythms and processes in the textile art of weaving, framed around the two artistic weaves produced by each of the women.
The first main section, Minerva’s Weave: Audacity, unfolds musically as a representation of the stories Minerva selects to weave, scenes of mortal pride ending with disaster or downfall, sending a message to the proud but capable Arachne. Musically, the orchestra undulates line by line, thread by thread, only comprehending the full image much later in the process, when the evolving melody is played in full by the violas.
Arachne’s Weave: List of Names follows, with a highly decorated texture gradually building up, punctuated violently by tutti chords that reflect the naming and shaming of numerous rapes from ancient Greek and Roman mythology as represented by Arachne in her woven image. This aspect of the story feels very current in terms of #MeToo and the act of divulging gendered violence.
Recurring sections titled Phocaean Purple are like the edging to the two main scenes. Such details are described in vividly in Ovid’s story, and Arachne’s father is said in the story to have made his living as a merchant of this particular colour dye (Tyrian purple).
The metamorphosis in this story occurs after an enraged Minerva rips Arachne’s weave to pieces, unable to find fault with it. A graphic notation section devised using multicoloured real embroidery threads was used in the musical section
Torn to Pieces. Arachne is so devastated she tries to hang herself, but a regretful Minerva takes pity and instead turns Arachne into a spider to weave forevermore. Gossamer is a meditation on this arachnid state, fragile, beautiful, natural and organic.
Dr Peggy Polias © 2023
About the composer
Peggy Polias (she/her) is a composer, academic, music librarian and engraver, residing and working on Dharug and Eora lands in Sydney. In 2022 she graduated with a Doctor of Musical Arts (Composition) from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, where her creative research under the supervision of Liza Lim has focused on themes of safety, secrecy and journaling in sound and in the creative process.
As a composer, she has had works performed by artists such as Bernadette Harvey, Rohan Dasika, The Riot Ensemble (UK), Sydney Chamber Opera and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. She has also released two digital albums with Kammerklang: Picnic at Hanging Rock Suite and Hive. Recent works include Anguilla (2024) for solo double bass, composed for the Australian National Academy of Music Set 2024, and tonight’s work Arachne for the SSO’s 50 Fanfares.
Peggy Polias is the Canberra Symphony Orchestra’s 2025 Composer in Connection.
PHOTO: STEFANIE
William Barton (born 1981) and Matthew Hindson (born 1968)
Kalkadungu (2008)
I. Warrior Spirit I –
II. Songman Entrance –
III. Bleached Bones –
IV. Warrior Spirit II –
V. Spirit of Kalkadunga
William Barton voice, yidaki (didgeridoo)
The history of the Kalkadunga people (based around what is now Mount Isa in Queensland) and European settlers is by no means a happy one. The Kalkadunga tribe were renowned as fierce and determined warriors, and in the 19th century they maintained a 15-year guerilla campaign against the incoming pastoralists and colonial authorities. The unfortunate conclusion to this conflict took place in 1884 with an attack by the Queensland Police on the Kalkadungu tribe as retribution for the killing of a pastoralist and five troopers. As many as two hundred tribespeople were killed in this battle, and according to some accounts, the bleached bones of the dead could be seen lying on the ground up to fifty years later.
William Barton is a member of the Kalkadunga tribe. This composition is based on a song he wrote in his native language when he was 15. Written when he was in the Kalkadunga country, the song was inspired by his culture and the landscape. It is concerned with the passing of culture from one generation to the next, and as such, forms the starting point for this work which aims to present Australia’s rich cultural heritage within a cultural context, as well as exploring the general subject of past, present and future songlines.
Kalkadungu is organized into a number of sections which are played without pause. The opening of the piece is entitled
Warrior Spirit I and is characterised by a generally aggressive mood. The sections of the orchestra often play in rhythmic unison, suggesting battalions of armed forces facing off in battle. The combined troopers’ whistles signal an abrupt change to the Songman Entrance, which includes the recitation of the original song.
Bleached Bones features solos for viola and cor anglais and was inspired by the vision of survivors of the Kalkadungu attack mourning for the loss of their kin, their tribe and their culture.
Warrior Spirit II briefly evokes the legendary fierceness of the Kalkadunga people and the events of 1884, as if these events have now become a violent flashback.
The drama of Warrior Spirit II prepares the entrance of the didgeridoo, which is later joined in a primal duet with a bass drum in Spirit of Kalkadunga. This extended section is continued by the orchestra in a reflection upon the relationship between Aboriginal and European cultural practice in contemporary Australia. The conclusion is not especially triumphant or grand – this would not be appropriate given the programmatic content of the work with its historical and contemporary cultures – but nonetheless paves the way for something of an optimistic outcome.
William Barton and Matthew Hindson © 2008
About the composers
Matthew Hindson am is one of Australia’s most dynamic and successful composers. His invigorating sound world is both immediate and direct, and his innate sense for drama, wit and spontaneous joie de vivre has resulted in many of his scores having a significant and continuing international presence. As well as being performed by every Australian orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the London and Royal philharmonic
orchestras, among others, his distinctively original music has been set by dance companies such as the Birmingham Royal Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, National Ballet of Japan, Queensland Ballet and the Australian Ballet. He has also written for soloists and ensembles all over the world.
In addition to his activities as a composer and leading Australian composition educator, he has been the Deputy Dean and Associate Dean (Education) at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, part of the University of Sydney, since 2015. He has also been appointed to substantial government arts funding and advisory roles, including with the Australia Council for the Arts and Create NSW, and in 2006 he was named a member of the Order of Australia (AM).
Matthew Hindson’s current composition interests include writing concertos, music for ballet and dance, and his series of ‘Sad Piano’ albums for pianist Andrea Lam.
Turn to page 21 to read about William Barton
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