FRIENDS OF METROPOLIS
Simone Slattery and Anthony Albrecht:
'Where Song Began'
a musical celebration of Australia’s birds and how they shaped the world
Sunday, March 25, 2018
1 Rivington Street / 2nd Floor (Buzzer #1) / New York, NY
12:00pm (doors) / 12:30pm (event)
Tickets: $20 General / $15 Students
On the program
Arvo Part: Fratres
Sarah Hopkins: Reclaiming the Spirit
Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending
Chris Williams: birds, songs, seas
Ross Edwards: Ecstatic Dance II
Johann Heinrich Schroeder: Cucu
J.S. Bach: Suite no. 1
David Lang: Anthochaera carunculata
Ngarra burra Ferra: traditional indigenous Australian hymn
Inspired by leading ornithologist Tim Low’s award-winning book, this performance explores the Australian origins of songbirds, ‘the birds that can sing’. Such is their evolutionary significance, ‘one may ask whether human music would have reached the heights it has, had the first songbird not sung in an Australian rainforest.’
This work encourages the audience to contemplate the origin of birdsong and the importance of Australia's rich and colourful bird history. The program includes music spanning 300 years, performed on period instruments, enhanced by a film of evocative landscape stills, moving images and bird call field recordings sourced from the Cornell Ornithology Lab. Learn more.
Banner Artwork: Eugene Von Guérard, Ferntree Gully in the Dandenong Ranges 1857, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Gift of Dr Joseph Brown AO OBE 1975
CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS
