Australian Music Centre | Breaking sound barriers

Event Details

The Canberra Symphony Orchestra’s Australian Series at the National Portrait Gallery is a trailblazing moment in the history of Australian music. To say that it is a bold step to create an ongoing series wholly made up of Australian composition is not an understatement.  This has never been done before!

The Australian Series has been conceived, and will be compered by eminent Australian composer and Deputy Head of School at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Dr Matthew Hindson AM.  Hindson will curate three concerts of original, emotional and sometimes thought provoking music during the Australian Series; each of which will be paired with a special exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery (NPG).

The first Australian Series concert, ‘Companion Pieces’, complements the hugely successful NPG exhibition ‘The Popular Pet Show’; and like dog and man, these fundamentally different pieces work together in intriguing ways.

‘Companion Pieces’ will be performed by quintet Arcadia Winds, one of the rising stars in the Australian music scene.  Included in the repertoire is a newly commissioned work from Dr Natalie Williams, an award-winning composer with international accolades, who is currently based in Canberra.

“Natalie Williams is an outstanding composer whose music I have followed for a long time.  In addition, she has a way of constructing music that somehow seems more relevant to me as an Australian citizen living in the 21st century than most other music from elsewhere.” Matthew Hindson, AM

Following the one hour concert, the audience is invited to merge the aural experience of the Australian Series with the visual, in a private after-hours viewing of the featured NPG exhibition ‘The Popular Pet Show’.

The Canberra Symphony Orchestra very much looks forward to presenting the Australian Series at the National Portrait Gallery.  We hope you can join us for what promises to be a refreshing and dynamic musical experience.

Further information for this event is available online at the event's website or by phone on (02) 6247 9191 or by email to tickets@cso.org.au

Featured Australian Works

	Animalia : suite for wind quintet (2017) by Natalie Williams — World premiere — performed by Arcadia Winds
	Dawn interlude : solo horn in F (1999) by Paul Stanhope
	Echoes and lines : wind quintet (2017) by Lachlan Skipworth — performed by Arcadia Winds
	Jasper and Charlie : a scene from a novel for wind quintet (2015) by Paul Dean — performed by Arcadia Winds
	Light music : for woodwind quintet (2007) [Strobe] by Matthew Hindson — performed by Arcadia Winds
	From Ash to Embers by Gabriella Vici

Featured artists

• Music of Gabriella Vici
• Performer Arcadia Winds