2, 3 August 2025
Wonthaggi
Southbank, Melbourne
The Poetry of War Program
The Poetry of War
Saturday 2 August at 2:30pm
Union Theatre, Wonthaggi
Sunday 3 August at 11:00am
Iwaki Auditorium, ABC Southbank Centre
Artists
Sarah Curro violin and curator
Dennis Coard actor
Elyane Laussade piano
Andrew Macleod flute
Shane Hooton trumpet
Kirstin Kenny violin
Gabrielle Halloran viola
Michelle Wood cello
Program
Music and poetry exploring the human response to the futility of war, curated and introduced by Sarah Curro.
Turn to page 8 for details.
There will be a one-minute silence in the middle of the program. Please hold your applause until the end of the concert.
Running time: Approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes without interval.
The MSO’s Wonthaggi performance is supported by AWM Electrical, Freemasons Foundation Victoria, the Robert Salzer Foundation, Estate of the late Blanch Brooke Hutchings, and Perpetual Foundation – Alan (AGL) Shaw endowment.
Sarah Curro violin Dennis Coard actor
Sarah Curro graduated in 1994 from the Queensland Conservatorium of Music, where she was awarded the Conservatorium Medal for Excellence. In 1997, she won the Dorcas McLean Travelling Scholarship for Violinists, which led her to study and later teach at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. From 1999 to 2002, she was a member of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. In Australia, Sarah has performed with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Queensland Philharmonic and Symphony orchestras, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and Orchestra Victoria, and she is currently a full-time member of the MSO.
Beyond traditional violinist roles as a performer and educator, Sarah’s ventures focus on the discovery, purchase and promotion of new, mostly local, creations across various art forms, particularly music. In recent years she has commissioned a series of 40 solo violin pieces, VOLUME, intended to showcase the unique semi-acoustic instruments of Melbourne’s Spur Violins. In addition to her own performances of these pieces, presenting them in modern venues to an ever-widening audience, their publication as The VOLUME Collection – a COVID project – has enabled more adventurous violinists to explore the exciting sound worlds of contemporary music.
Position supported by Dr Harry Imber
Dennis Coard was born in Ireland and arrived in Australia with his parents in 1964. At age 35 he threw away a perfectly good career in outback telecommunications to attend the Victorian College of the Arts, graduating with a Diploma in Dramatic Art.
Since then, he has enjoyed a rich and varied career in Australia and overseas, performing in everything from soapies to Shakespeare. He has appeared in most Australian television dramas, including Blue Heelers, Monash, The Forgotten Anzac, Home and Away and Five Bedrooms. On film he has appeared in a dozen feature films, including San Andreas, Ride Like a Girl, Noise and the leading role of Noel in Return Home.
His stage credits include productions in every state, notably four for State Theatre Company South Australia (including Marat Sade and Comedy of Errors) and a dozen for the Melbourne Theatre Company (including Macbeth and The Cherry Orchard).
Dennis regularly tours his self-devised solo show The Fall of the Roman Umpire. He is delighted to be working with the MSO for the first time.
Elyane Laussade piano Andrew Macleod
A graduate of the Juilliard School, pianist Elyane Laussade has delighted audiences on five continents with her imaginative and strongly individual playing. Originally from the USA, she has now established herself as one of Australia’s finest performers. She has performed on numerous occasions with the MSO and has appeared as a featured artist in ABC Classic and 3MBS studio recordings and direct broadcasts.
As a soloist, Elyane has performed in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, China, Japan, South Africa, the USA, Taiwan and Europe. As a recording artist, she has recorded a solo album Just for You, These Little Things with Sydneybased violinist Jemima Littlemore, and Humanation with Melbourne cellist Luke Severn.
Her current endeavour is the Mozart Project, which will see her perform all 27 Mozart piano concertos with orchestras throughout Australia. She also enjoys a rich chamber music involvement alongside her solo career. Her love for the musical experience as a close encounter has inspired her to run a special series of intimate recitals at the Laussade Studio in Melbourne, performing as a soloist and in collaboration with Australian and international musicians.
flute
Andrew Macleod was appointed Principal Piccolo of the MSO in 2003. He has appeared as a guest with the Oslo and Malaysian philharmonic orchestras, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Auckland Philharmonia, and the Christchurch, Sydney, Adelaide, Tasmanian and Queensland symphony orchestras, and has performed with the Australian World Orchestra.
He studied flute and piccolo with Jeanette Manricks at the University of Queensland, earning a first-class honours degree in Music, followed by a Master of Philosophy (Music) before continuing his studies in the UK with renowned pedagogue Trevor Wye.
Andrew’s solo appearances with the MSO include the premiere of Paul Stanhope’s Piccolo Concerto (2013). The concert recording (MSO Live), was nominated for an ARIA (Best Classical Album) in 2014.
He teaches at Melbourne University, the Australian National Academy of Music and Sydney Conservatorium of Music, and as Co-Director of The Complete Flute, develops and leads courses for performers and teachers. Andrew also holds a degree in Human Resource Management and has been a qualified yoga instructor since 2021.
A Yamaha Artist, Andrew plays a Yamaha YFL–877 custom handmade flute.
PHOTO: LAURA MANARITI
Shane Hooton trumpet Kirstin Kenny violin
Shane Hooton is Associate Principal Trumpet of the MSO, a position he has held since 2009. Prior to this he was Principal Trumpet of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra for four years. Shane undertook his Bachelor of Music studies at the Queensland Conservatorium with Graham Ashton, Richard Madden, John Hoffman and Paul Rawson.
He has performed as a guest principal with all the Australian symphony and opera–ballet orchestras. He has also been a guest of the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, Auckland Philharmonia and Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa in Japan,
His international touring includes the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra’s 2009 USA tour and the MSO’s 2007 Europe tour; he also toured Europe as Principal Trumpet with both the Australian and Queensland youth orchestras. Shane was a founding member of brass quintet Brass On Tap, touring extensively throughout Queensland and to Korea.
Position supported by Glenn Sedgwick
Kirstin Kenny has been a member of the MSO’s First Violin section since 1993. She grew up in Adelaide and began playing the violin during primary school. She later studied at the Elder Conservatorium of Music with Ronald Woodcock, earning a Bachelor of Music (Performance) degree with Honours.
While studying, she performed regularly as a casual with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, Adelaide Chamber Orchestra and West Australian Symphony Orchestra. Since moving to Melbourne she has also performed with the Melbourne Academy, Australia Pro Arte and Australian Chamber Soloists, and she is a regular performer in the MSO’s Chamber Series.
Gabrielle Halloran viola
Gabrielle Halloran studied viola at the Victorian College of Arts with Lawrie Jacks and at the Mozarteum Salzburg with Thomas Riebl. During her time in Salzburg, she also performed in various chamber ensembles and was tutored by members of the Hagen Quartet. She gave chamber concerts in Paris for the Mozart Bicentenary in 1991 and toured Europe with the Salzburg Sinfonietta.
In 1993 Gabby was appointed to the MSO Viola section. She returned to Europe in 1996 on an MSO Friends study grant, attending summer schools in Salzburg (with Thomas Riebl) and Siena (with Yuri Bashmet). She also had lessons with David Takeno in London and Karen Tuttle in New York. Gabby is a regular performer with the MSO Chamber Players and enjoys a busy musical life in Melbourne.
Michelle Wood cello
Michelle Wood has been a member of the MSO Cello section since 2009. As a founding member of the internationally awarded Tinalley String Quartet, she spent her early career immersed in chamber music. Following prizewinning performances at the Banff and Australian (now Asia-Pacific) chamber music competitions, the quartet performed for over a decade, appearing in major venues across Europe, North America and Asia, including the Vienna Musikverein and Amsterdam Concertgebouw.
She has appeared as Acting and Guest Associate Principal with the Melbourne and Adelaide symphony orchestras, and performed with the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra as soloist and section leader, as well as touring with the Australian World Orchestra.
In 2018, she co-founded Concerts Sans Frontières (Concerts Without Borders), a chamber series hosted by the Australian Embassy in Paris that brought together Australian and international artists in intimate cross-cultural performances. As a teacher and mentor, Michelle works with students of Melbourne University, ANAM and the AYO, as well as adult amateur musicians.
Michelle performs on ‘Charlie’, an 1849 French cello by Charles Boullangier.
Position supported by Andrew and Theresa Dyer.
PHOTOS: LAURA MANARITI
Today’s Program
The Poetry of War is not a traditional concert – it is a poetic and dramatic journey. Drawing on 20th-century war poetry and music composed in response to conflict, this uninterrupted performance invites you into an act of collective remembrance. Please hold your applause until the end.
This is not a narrative, nor does the program follow a chronological arc. It does not aim to provide answers or resolution. Rather, it serves as a living memorial – an experience of listening, absorbing and bearing witness. Some musical works directly respond to the poems they follow; others have been selected for mood, offering space for reflection and resonance. Here, music acts as underscore – amplifying tone, deepening silence and framing the emotional terrain.
At its heart, this is a poetry reading supported by music. The texts include the voices of Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon and Eleanor Farjeon, as well as lesserknown figures such as Charlotte Mew and May Herschel-Clarke. John Schumann’s lyrics for ‘I Was Only 19’ and Barry Heard’s ‘Ode to Vietnam’ bring the legacy of war into contemporary focus, reminding us that the echo of conflict extends far beyond the Great War. These modern voices join those of earlier generations in a shared chorus across time.
The music has been chosen with care and restraint – from Ravel’s Tombeau de Couperin and Britten’s Rhapsody for string quartet to Elyane Laussade’s arrangements of wartime songs. Familiar tunes like ‘Pack Up Your Troubles’ and ‘We’ll Meet Again’ are presented not with irony but as historical artefacts of resilience, a poignant contrast to the rawness of the surrounding text.
A dark turning point comes with ReVerse Butcher’s fractured poem, read by actor Dennis Coard against the haunting strains of music by Webern. The disjointed structure of the music mirrors the broken, near-nonsensical language of the text. This is not resolution – it is the closest one might come to the emotional disintegration of having truly seen war.
Relief emerges in the form of a painted violin – an artwork by ReVerse Butcher and violinist Sarah Curro. On this instrument, Curro performs Hugh Crosthwaite’s Counterpoise, a meditative solo work that offers space for reflection and calm.
The performance closes not with resolution, but contrast – the ensemble coming together for a nostalgic waltz by Ivor Novello. This is a space for reckoning, remembrance and, perhaps, peace.
Sarah Curro © 2025
In Wonthaggi, we acknowledge the Bunurong people of the Kulin Nation, and in Southbank, the Wurundjeri and Bunurong peoples of the Eastern Kulin. This land sits near a contested boundary, and we honour the complexity of shared custodianship. We pay our respects to Elders past and present, and invite you to reflect with us on what reconciliation might truly mean as we begin this journey together.
music – piano
Maurice Ravel (1875–1937)
Prélude from Le Tombeau de Couperin (1914–17)
In memory of First Lieutenant Jacques Charlot, who transcribed Ravel’s Ma Mère l’oye for piano solo.
poem
Charlotte Mew (1869–1928)
‘May 1915’ (1929)
At the time, it was put forward by officials that the Great War would easily be won, and indeed be over by Christmas 1914. This was not to be.
music – flute
Claude Debussy (1862–1918)
Syrinx (1913)
poem
Eleanor Farjeon (1881–1965)
‘Easter Monday (In Memoriam E.T.)’ (1917)
E.T. refers to Farjeon’s very intimate friend Edward Thomas, who was killed in battle in 1917.
music – piano
Maurice Ravel
Forlane from Le Tombeau de Couperin
In memory of First Lieutenant Gabriel Deluc, a Basque painter from Saint-Jean-de-Luz.
poem
May Herschel-Clark (1894–1955)
‘The Mother’ (1917)
This poem, offering a mother’s perspective, is based on Rupert Brooke’s 1914 sonnet ‘The Soldier’: If I should die, think only this of me: That there’s some corner of a foreign field That is for ever England...
music – flute and piano
Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921)
Romance for flute and piano, Op. 37 (1871)
Saint-Saëns performed in many fundraising concerts in France and abroad from 1913, raising money for war charities.
poem
Siegfried Sassoon (1886–1967)
‘Glory of Women’ (1917)
Sassoon met and became friends with war poet Wilfred Owen at the war hospital in Craiglockhart, Scotland.
wartime song – the ensemble
Jack Judge (1872–1938) and Harry Williams (1873–1924)
‘It’s a Long Way to Tipperary’ (1912) arranged by Elyane Laussade
poem
Wilfred Owen (1893–1918)
‘Futility’ (1918)
wartime song – the ensemble
Music by Felix Powell (1878–1942)
Words by George Henry Powell (1880–1951) writing as George Asaf
‘Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit-Bag’ (1915) arranged by Elyane Laussade
three poems
Wilfred Owen
‘The Letter’ (1918)
The poem begins: ‘With B.E.F. Jun 10. Dear Wife…’ (B.E.F. refers to the British Expeditionary Force)
Wilfred Owen ‘Disabled’ (1918)
Wilfred Owen
‘The Parable of the Old Man and the Young’ (1918)
wartime song – trumpet and piano
Ross Parker (1914–1974) and Hughie Charles (1907–1995)
‘We’ll Meet Again’ (1939) arranged by Cathy Stamegna
poem
Wilfred Owen
‘But I was looking at the permanent stars’ (1917)
This unfinished poem was begun during Owen’s time at Craiglockhart Hospital, Scotland, where he met fellow poet Siegfried Sassoon.
poem with music – string quartet
ReVerse Butcher (born 1983)
‘Prophecies, a glum re-run’ (2016)
In his War Requiem, Benjamin Britten set poetry by Wilfred Owen together with the Latin Mass for the Dead. ‘Prophecies, a glum re-run,’ combines the Owen poems with anagram poems made from the Latin texts – remixed, cut up and collaged by ReVerse Butcher in what she calls a re-imagined poem. (This poem forms the basis of the painted violin shown on these pages and featured later in this concert.)
Anton Webern (1883–1945)
II. Sehr langsam [Very slow] from Five Movements for string quartet, Op. 5 (1909)
music – trumpet
Anonymous
The Last Post (published 1790s)
poem
Robert Laurence Binyon (1869–1943)
‘For the Fallen’ (1914)
ONE-MINUTE SILENCE
music – trumpet
Anonymous
Reveille (19th century)
poem
Wilfred Owen
‘The Next War’ (1917)
music – string quartet
Benjamin Britten (1913–1976)
Rhapsody for string quartet (1929)
music – piano
Eric Bogle (born 1944)
‘And the band played Waltzing Matilda’ (1971) re-imagined by Elyane Laussade for solo piano
Eric Bogle writes: ‘I wrote it as an oblique comment on the Vietnam War which was in full swing…but while boys from Australia were dying there, people had hardly any idea where Vietnam was. Gallipoli was a lot closer to the Australian ethos – every school kid knew the story, so I set the song there. …At first the Returned Service League and all these people didn’t accept it at all; they thought it was anti-soldier, but they’ve come full circle now and they see it’s certainly anti-war but not anti-soldier.’
two poems
John Schumann (born 1953)
Lyrics to the Redgum song ‘I Was Only 19’ (1983)
Barry Heard (born 1945)
‘Ode to Vietnam’ (2003)
music – violin
Hugh Crosthwaite (born 1982) Counterpoise (2016) for semi-acoustic violin, painted by ReVerse Butcher Counterpoise is a response to a contemplative poem of the same name by Brian Walters kc, a leading commissioner of music in Melbourne. Sarah Curro will be performing this work on an instrument made by Spur Violins (Melbourne) and painted by multi-genre artist and poet ReVerse Butcher (Melbourne/Ballarat).
poem
Edmund Blunden (1896–1974)
‘Ancre Sunshine’ (1966)
This is thought to be the last poem published by a WWI veteran. The poet is revisiting the part of northern France where he nearly lost his life 50 years earlier. Now the place is peaceful – blue skies, quiet farmland, and two cows, Claire and Miramont, grazing where soldiers once fell. Blunden reflects on what might have happened – that he could have died here and become just another name among the fallen. He imagines trains passing as if they were planets, maybe carrying someone from the past, stepping off to say: ‘The war’s over, chum.’ It’s a gentle, haunting poem about memory, survival and how war stays with a place – even when the fields seem calm.
wartime song – the ensemble
Ivor Novello (1893–1951)
Waltz of My Heart from The Dancing Years (1939) arranged by Elyane Laussade
Ivor Novello and Christopher Hassall’s lyrics are included here for your perusal as a necessary antidote.
The lark is singing on high
The Sun’s ashine in the blue
The Winter is driven away
And Spring is returning anew
Who cares what sorrow may bring What storms may tear us apart
No sadness can kill the wonder and thrill
Of that waltz in my heart
Waltz of my heart haunting and gay
Calling enthrallingly, waltzing away
Ring out your bells for me, ivory keys
Weave out your spell for me, orchestra please
Chorus of wings, thrilling the sky
While you’re inspiring me, time hurries by Joy finds a fire in me, soon as you start
Sweeping your strings, waltz of my heart
The lark is singing on high
The Sun’s ashine in the blue
The Winter is driven away
And Spring is returning anew
Who cares what sorrow may bring What storms may tear us apart
No sadness can kill the wonder and thrill
Of that waltz in my heart
Further Exploration
This is Not a Violin, it is a Doorway (2019) is a multimedia ebook – poetry, art and music – celebrating the creative process that was unleashed when Sarah Curro asked ReVerse Butcher, ‘Can you paint a violin for me?’ The canvas was a Spur semi-acoustic violin by Paul Davies, the concept was a nine-part graphic score of the ‘Dies irae’ movement from Sarah’s favourite piece of music, Britten’s War Requiem. Find it on Apple Books: books.apple.com/au/book/this-isnot-a-violin-it-is-a-doorway/id1487415724
Spur Violins: spur-im.com
ReVerseButcher: reversebutcher.com
Media and Broadcast Partners
Trusts and Foundations
The MSO gratefully acknowledges permission to perform the following copyright material in today’s concert: May Herschel-Clark: ‘The Mother’ by permission of the author; Siegfried Sassoon: ‘Glory of Women’ by permission of Barbara Levy Literary Agency; John Schumann: Lyrics for ‘I Was Only 19’ by permission of Warner/Chappell Music; Barry Heard: ‘Ode to Vietnam’ by permission of the author Cathy Stamegna’s arrangement of ‘We’ll Meet Again’ by Ross Parker and Hughie Charles made by permission of Hal Leonard Corporation.
Elyane Laussade’s arrangement of ‘And the band played Waltzing Matilda’ by Eric Bogle made by permission of Wise Music Classical. Lyrics for ‘Waltz of my Heart’ by Ivor Novello and Christopher Hassall reproduced by permission of Music Theatre International.
Sidney Myer MSO Trust Fund
