Fantasia
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Wednesday, 30 Apr 2025
7:30 pm
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Snow Concert Hall
40 Monaro Cres, Red Hill, ACT 2603
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In Association with
A program of exquisite contemporary Australian works alongside masterpieces of string orchestra repertoire. A new violin concerto by one of Australia’s most respected composers, Richard Mills, who has conceived the work with Melbourne Chamber Orchestra Artistic Director Sophie Rowell as the soloist.
The MCO musicians will collaborate in the second half with Canberra’s Ellery String Quartet and Festival ensemble-in-residence Flinders Quartet, sharing the stage for the timeless Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis by Ralph Vaughan Williams.
Molly Jalakbiya and Paul Stanhope’s Dirrari Lament is based on a Bunuba language song about a mother black Cockatoo, grieving for her baby. The song also works as a lament for Jandamarra, a Bunuba man who led a resistance movement against European invasion in the late 19th Century in Western Australia. Originally for string quartet, then expanded for string orchestra, the work reaches a new depth with the inimitable Mark Atkins who narrates an introduction to Dirrari Lament which sets the historical scene to this moving threnody. Special thanks to June Oscar and Patsy Bedford who are the custodians of this song who gave permission to use it here.
MCO also presents composer-in-residence Olivia Davies’ work Crystalline, the rebellion against tyranny and oppression in Beethoven’s Egmont Overture and finally Jessie Montgomery’s Strum.
Program
Ludwig van Beethoven
Egmont Overture (arr Sreten Krstič for string orchestra)
Olivia Bettina Davies
Crystalline
Richard Mills AO
Violin Concerto Sinfonia Sacra. Four Portraits of the Blessed Virgin
I. At the Message of Archangel Gabriel
II. At the Visit of the Magi
III. At the Via Crucis
IV. Regina Caeli
intermission
Mark Atkins solo yidaki
Molly Jalakbiya and Paul Stanhope
Dirrari Lament from String Quartet No 3 (new version for string orchestra and narration)
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis
Jessie Montgomery
Strum
Artists
Melbourne Chamber Orchestra
Sophie Rowell, violin
Mark Atkins, yidaki and narration
Flinders Quartet
Ellery String Quartet
This concert is generously supported by Lynlea and Clive Rodger.
Visit ACCESSING THE SNOW CONCERT HALL for information on PARKING and ACCESS. LOCATION MAP
ARTIST Learn more about the artist
Artist Melbourne Chamber Orchestra
Directed by celebrated Australian violinist and concertmaster Sophie Rowell, the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra is Victoria’s preeminent professional chamber orchestra. In more than 50 performances each season, the orchestra brings leading Australian musicians together in inspiring programs of uncompromising artistic quality, finesse, and passion.
The MCO’s mainstage season is presented at Melbourne Recital Centre and broadcast on ABC Classic and 3MBS FM. The ensemble also hosts A Feast of Music, an annual spring chamber music festival in Daylesford, as well as a range of chamber programs that tour extensively across Victoria and beyond.
Photo credit – Jessica Trump
Artist Ellery String Quartet
The Ellery String Quartet is a dynamic group of musicians, formed at the end of 2021 and based on Ngunnawal/Ngambri land (Canberra). With their “youthful exuberance and fearless approach” (Canberra CityNews), they aim to push the boundaries of the classical string quartet through programs of contemporary classical and folk music across diverse performance spaces. The quartet have a particular fondness for Scandinavian folk music, and modern works from composers such as Caroline Shaw, Ella Macens and Holly Harrison.