Resonate Magazine | Australian Music Centre

Image: Alice Chance  

Composer Alice Chance's Peggy Glanville-Hicks Commission Until We Gather Again has been picked up in the US, presented on 17 March in a new version by the St Louis Symphony Orchestra and the Pulitzer Arts Foundation, as part of a series of three short films featuring composers' exploration of 'home'. This version of Until We Gather Again featured musicians from the SLSO's two resident choruses, the IN UNISON Chorus and the Symphony Chorus.

Chicago-based Australian musician and St Louis Symphony Orchestra's Creative Partner Tim Munro had a part to play as curator of this series, Alice Chance explains.

'A couple of years ago, Tim Munro reached out to me over email and we became what I'd call artist penpals. We would often share things we're working on or projects we find exciting with each other. This is how he came to curate a performance of my piece Comfort Music with musicians at ANAM, in late 2019 when he visited Australia, which was our first time collaborating with each other. During this process I felt my music was in great hands, and I looked forward to the next time we could work together. So after I shared Until We Gather Again with Tim and he suggested we pitch it to St Louis Symphony, I readily agreed! Without Tim and the way he thoughtfully champions new music in all he does, this would not have happened', she says.

The original Until We Gather Again was launched in July 2020 as the first of 13 Peggy Glanville-Hicks Commissions, created in collaboration with the Leichhardt Espresso Chorus under the direction of Michelle Leonard OAM. Watch it on YouTube and read a longer article by Alice Chance about this work on Resonate.

> Alice Chance - AMC profile

> 2020 Peggy Glanville-Hicks Commissions - AMC Online