Magic Realism
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Friday, 2 May 2025
8:00 pm
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The Street Theatre
15 Childers St, Canberra ACT 2601
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General Admission $70,
Concession $65
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In Association with
Presented in association with The Street Theatre and TURA
Two performances – Thursday 1 May and Friday 2 May 8pm.
PROGRAM
O Spectabiles Viri (15 Minutes)
Hildegard von Bingen arr. Erkki Veltheim
O Spectabiles Viri (O men of sight—what a sight!) is a significant work composed by one of the most prominent women in medieval church history and the first identifiable composers in western music, Hildegard von Bingen. It combines soaring melodies with rich harmonies and showcases her ability to convey profound emotional depth through music. In this performance we depart from the original male choir version to hear a contemporary and magical reinterpretation of the work by soprano Jane Sheldon arranged by Mungangga Garlagula co-creator Erkki Veltheim.
Interval
Mungangga Garlagula (70 Minutes)
Co-Created and Performed by Mark Atkins and Erkki Veltheim
Mungangga Garlagula is a collaboration in music, sound and story by legendary Indigenous performer Mark Atkins and renowned Australian/Finnish composer and performer Erkki Veltheim.
Audiences are invited to join Mark by the “campfire”, and to travel with him as he takes us across the border between day and night, dream and reality, the reverberating past and the emerging future.
Together with a company of exceptional Australian musicians who have created a shifting bed of sound for the work, Mark and Erkki lead us into a nocturnal world of memories, echoes, spirits and dreams. Mungangga Garlagula is an evening of rich storytelling and yidaki (didjeridu) that restores the experience of listening with the whole body.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Jane Sheldon photo credit – Shaya Bendix Lyon
Mark Atkins and Erkki Veltheim photo credit – Kristian Gehradte
Details at The Street Theatre web page. Run time 105min including interval.
Click here to BECOME A MEMBER.
Accessibility information – www.thestreet.org.au
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Friday, 2 May 2025
8:00 pm
-
The Street Theatre
15 Childers St, Canberra ACT 2601
-
General Admission $70,
Concession $65
ARTIST Learn more about the artist
Artist Erkki Veltheim - composer/performer
Erkki Veltheim is an Australian/Finnish composer and performer. His practice spans noise, audiovisual installation, improvisation, notated music, electroacoustic composition, pop arrangements and cross-disciplinary performance. Erkki has been commissioned by the Adelaide Festival, Vivid Festival, Australian Art Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Musica nova Helsink and composed the orchestral works for celebrated Australian indigenous musician Gurrumul’s posthumous album Djarimirri.
Photo by Aaron Chua
Artist Mark Atkins - yidaki (didjeridu)
Acknowledged as one of Australia’s finest yidaki (didjeridu) players, Mark Atkins is also recognised internationally for his collaborative projects with some of the world’s leading composers and musicians. A descendant of Western Australia’s Yamitji people, as well as of Irish/Australian heritage, Mark is known not only for his masterly playing, but also as a storyteller, composer, percussionist, visual artist and instrument maker. Mark has performed alongside and composed with artists such as Led Zeppelin, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, Sinead O’Connor, Philip Glass, Donald Lunney, Ornette Coleman, Peter Sculthorpe, the Blind Boys of Alabama, Gondwana, Jenny Morris, John Williamson, James Morrison, and the Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO). He is a founding member of Black Arm Band.
Photo by Kristian Gehradte
Artist Jane Sheldon - soprano and composer
Jane Sheldon is a soprano and composer who has established an international reputation for highly specialised, groundbreaking art music for voice. Jane’s compositional output includes electronic music, chamber music, opera installations, works for dance companies and large-scale sound installations for museums. Described as “riveting” (New York Times) and “gripping” (Limelight Magazine), Jane’s compositions focus on the experience of altered or transformative states. Her latest album is I am a tree, I am a mouth (“conceptually brilliant… a vocal and compositional triumph, beautifully realised with splendid restraint” – Limelight Magazine). The release was listed in the New Yorker’s Notable Recordings of 2022. Her next album, Flowermuscle, is due out late 2024.