Jenny performs with her ensemble Halcyon

Now in its 26th year, Night Tides is a rare chance to hear the chameleonic forces of Halcyon. The ensemble will perform intimate chamber works that evoke the beauty of the natural world and the cycles of time and tide.  The program features trios and quartets by Australian composers Gordon Kerry, Christine McCombe, Kevin March, Lisa Cheney and Paul Stanhope and includes the Australian premieres of works by Hilary Tann [UK/USA], Jeremy Thurlow [UK] and Tõnu Kõrvits [EST].

ARTISTS
Jenny Duck-Chong mezzo-soprano and artistic director, Amy Moore – soprano, Jane Bishop – flute, Alex McCracken – clarinet, Maria Lindsay – violin, James Wannan - viola, James Larsen – cello, Kirsty McCahon – double bass, Stephanie McCallum - piano, Kaela Phillips – harp, Alison Pratt - percussion

Night Tides
Saturday 13 April at 7pm
Chippen St Theatre, Level 1, Chippen St, Chippendale

Tickets $55 full price/ $45 senior concession/ $30 student concession
Book here
Seating is limited so book early!

All enquiries: info@halcyonartmusic.com.au

In their latest lunchtime program Close to Home, Flametree takes you on a guided tour of Australian Art Song, featuring composers most closely associated with the artists.

Close to Home is the first in a series of all-Australian program programs Flametree is developing to showcase the breadth of vocal writing in this country, both historic and contemporary. 

Presented in their usual relaxed and engaging style, join Nicole, Jenny and Jo for a delightful program of songs and stories.

Works by Katy Abbott, Don Banks, Nigel Butterley, Peter Dart, Ross Edwards, Andrew Ford, Stuart Greenbaum, Dulcie Holland, Claire Jordan, Ruth McCall, Kate Reid, Peter Sculthorpe, Margaret Sutherland, Alan Tregaskis, Martin Wesley-Smith and Sally Whitwell.

Read more news about the composers and the program on the facebook event page here

BOOKINGS: https://www.trybooking.com/COSZO

Date 24 February at 1pm
Venue Church St Studios,
62-68 Church St, Camperdown

 Ticket prices
$42 full price/$32 senior concession /$26 student concession
Early bird and group booking discounts available.

Flametree is Nicole Thomson soprano, Jenny Duck-Chong mezzo-soprano and Jo Allan piano 

Flametree is passionately committed to the presentation of appealing recitals in intimate settings.  Each new program encompasses a wealth of repertoire spanning several centuries, woven together with introductions to highlight key themes.

Flametree was created so we could share our joy in music and music-making with everyone – both those who may know the works and composers well and those who are just discovering them. We hope there will always be something new to experience, alongside the joy of old favourites.

Australian Art Song Resource

Soprano Nicole Thomson and mezzo soprano Jenny Duck-Chong are developing the Australian Art Song Resource, in order to provide a practical toolkit to assist teachers and students of singing looking for new Australian repertoire.  Their initial survey, to members of the Australian National Association of Teachers of Singing (ANATS), has provided fascinating data to develop the first stage of this resource. 

As part of the 2024 Lunar Festival, Jenny will be performing the world premiere of Corrina Bonshek’s The Silences Inside Me at the Chinese Gardens in Sydney with cellist James Larsen and yehu player Nicholas Ng. The program, curated by composer/performer/researcher Nicholas Ng, will feature Corrina's new piece and other small works for voice, erhu, yehu and cello. 

Commissioned by Jenny Duck-Chong and developed by Corrina in collaboration with writer/director Tasnim Hossaim, it uses Jenny’s Chinese heritage as the frame for the work.

Corrina says:
“"The Silences Inside Me (2024), was born from a collaboration with Jenny and Tasnim that sits with the complex relationships with ancestry in the context of 1st and 2nd-generation Australians with migrant roots. Each collaborator has heritage / family in different parts of the world, and it was fascinating to chat and reflect on our shared and different experiences with family stories, cultural rituals, and the absence of these. I love the way that silence in the music is multifaceted - evoking the gaps in memory or absence as well as a space of joyful possibility in reimagining/rebuilding and growth."

The resulting work, a little like the elegant simplicity of a calligraphic gesture, has pared back the text to its essence, taking the listener on an evocative and reflective journey of discovery.  Halcyon is delighted to present this work for the first time in this picturesque setting, in a program of Chinese and Chinese-inspired works.

Sunday 11 February at 12.30pm and 1.30pm
Peace Boat Pavillion
Chinese Garden of Friendship
Pier St Cnr of Harbour St
Darling Harbour

COST
$12 garden entry
The free program will be performed at 12.30pm and 1.30pm. 

For more information click here

Jenny performs with Halcyon in their 25th birthday concert.

Featuring artistic director and co-founder, Jenny Duck-Chong, alongside an extended cast of Halcyon friends and familiars, 25 years of craft, collaboration and creation are at the heart of this celebration of art music. The Dance of Life is a celebration of existence in all its varied shades, and a tribute to Halcyon’s longevity, as well as the rich diversity of music and people that have characterised its history.

A collection of intimate chamber music, from Elliott Carter’s spectral atmospheres to Ross Edwards’ lush depictions of nature, the duet is the starring form of the program. Halcyon’s ensemble, a chameleon in its configuration, evolves and blooms across the program, the narrator of life from its smallest corners to its largest, most symbolic networks. As it blossoms, life is reflected in the smallest flutter of insect wings in Rachel Clement’s fracture, to the spellbinding glow of the moon in Rósa Lind Page’s ‘Claire de Lune.’

The culmination of the program, Elliott Gyger’s This Kind of Life, is a nod to both these moments of simplicity and to the significance of connection and friendship. This culinary narrative, a series of letters between chef Julia Child and her pen-pal, Avis DeVoto, is part of a long history of collaborations between Elliott Gyger and Jenny Duck-Chong, friends since university. Commissioned by one of Halcyon’s most significant supporters, Ian Dickson, for his partner Reg Holloway as a birthday gift, the piece was premiered in Halcyon’s 20th year and Elliott’s 50th.

Each of the works in The Dance of Life are as much a celebration of the growth and perseverance of the ensemble as they are a testament to the cultivated circle of musicians, artists and people who have become part of Halcyon’s community. Join Halcyon for a jam-packed concert of reminiscence and celebration.

The program features works by Kaija Saariaho, Rósa Lind Page, Rachel Clement, Alisha Redmond, Elliott Carter, Nigel Butterley, David Lumsdaine, Ross Edwards and Elliott Gyger.

Artists
Jane Sheldon soprano, Jenny Duck-Chong mezzo soprano, Jane Bishop flute, John Lewis clarinet, James Larsen cello, Rowan Phemister harp, Jo Allan piano, Jack Symonds conductor

The Dance of Life
Friday 20 October at 7pm
Choirs Rehearsal Studio, Walsh Bay Arts Precinct
Wharf 4/5, 15 Hickson Rd Dawes Point

For more information click here

Image: ‘Fireworks’ © Kathryn Cooper.
’Fireworks’ depicts a flock of starlings reacting to a bird of prey. Click on the link to learn more about it. Or read more about her fascinating work with starling murmurations here.

Jenny performs two Halcyon-commissioned works in Melbourne, written for her by long term friends and colleagues, Katy Abbott and Elliott Gyger.

The New Music Studio and Halcyon collaborate to present two vocal chamber works by Conservatorium composition staff spanning almost 15 years. No Ordinary Traveller (2006), composed by Katy Abbott to a libretto by Jacki Holland, was inspired by shipboard letters and diary entries, written by 19th-century European settlers on their way to Australia. It captures their vulnerability and uncertainty as they navigate the transition between their old and new lives. Elliott Gyger’s Autobiochemistry (2019), for voice and cello, sets words from the collection of the same name by Sydney poet Tricia Dearborn. Each poem is titled after a chemical element, exploring its resonances with human experience via biology, personal anecdote and vivid metaphor. It was the winning work in the 2022 Paul Lowin Song Cycle Prize. Both works will be sung by mezzo-soprano Jenny Duck-Chong, for whom they were written.

In Halcyon’s 25th birthday year, the program celebrates long working relationships and demonstrates Halcyon’s continuing commitment to showcasing Australian composition of the highest calibre.

For more information click here

ARTISTS
Jenny Duck-Chong, mezzo-soprano
Rosanne Hunt, cello
Patrick Vaughan, clarinet
Leah Columbine, percussion
Tina Tao, piano

Wednesday 5 April at 7.30pm
Hanson-Dyer Hall
Level 3, The Ian Potter Southbank Centre
43 Sturt St, Southbank

Image: © Linden Gledhill

Jenny performs in Halcyon’s Autobiochemistry featuring the world premiere of Elliott Gyger’s Autobiochemistry, winner of the 2022 Paul Lowin Song Cycle Prize

For more details click here

Jenny performs two song cycles - Don Banks Five North Country Folk Songs and Peter Dart’s Four Short Songs - with pianist Daniel Herscovitch in a concert at the Sydney Conservatorium to celebrate the release of these two recent CDs through Toccata Classics.
Don Banks: Vocal and Chamber Music and Peter Dart: Chamber Music and Songs

Flametree perform A Bouquet of Songs as part of the Sydney Conservatorium’s inaugural 4-day Festival of Art Song, 29 September -2 October 2022

The program includes an eclectic collection of songs, duets and piano solos from across several centuries inspired by the seasons of the year and the flowers that bloom in them.
Works by Delibes, Mahler, Mendelssohn, Melissa Hui, Schubert, Rorem, Montsalvatge, Quilter, Poulenc, Mompou, Grainger, Rachmaninov, Barber and Ross Harris

Flametree is Nicole Thomson soprano, Jenny Duck-Chong mezzo-soprano and Josephine Allan piano.

Jenny performs in Halcyon’s After Dark

Halcyon returns to the stage with After Dark - new Australian music for voice and cello. The program features works that have been a long time in limbo. Four works commissioned by Halcyon early in 2020 will receive their long-delayed premieres - Luke Styles’ Starfish, Anthony Moles’ Mantoux, Cameron Lam's Persephone as a Whistling Moth and Ghosts, a new song cycle by Nicole Murphy. The performance also includes premieres by Aristea Mellos, Alisha Redmond, Brad Taylor-Newling and Andrew Ford and recent works by Alan Holley, Gordon Kerry and Gillian Whitehead.

For more information click here

ARTISTS
Jenny Duck-Chong mezzo-soprano
James Larsen cello

DATE: Saturday Sept 10 at 7pm
VENUE: Summer Hill Church
2 Henson St Summer Hill

Jenny and pianist Jo Allan will present a short recital of French song from the Belle Epoque as part of Fine Music Live on Saturday 29 February. Features Bizet, Gounod, Chausson, Debussy, Faure, Hahn and Poulenc.

This is a selection of works from our Songs of the Belle Epoque program, originally developed for performance in the grand drawing room of the Victorian mansion, Abbotsford House, which features a beautiful interior and period piano. It is one of several programs (including some with trio Flametree) that we are now taking into private homes in order to share this beautiful music in more intimate and informal settings.

Read more about the program here

Jenny appears with Flametree in The Exquisite Hour

2 February 2020 at 5.30pm

Flametree presents this delightful program of music inspired by the night, in an intimate and informal performance hosted in a private home.

For further information on the program click here

Saturday 19 October at 5pm

Dating from the late 1800s till WWI, the peaceful and prosperous era of the Belle Epoque has been described as “a golden age of French creativity”. This explosion of artistry spanned the creative spectrum of dance, visual art, architecture, fashion and music; it saw the rise of the Folies Bergère and the Ballets Russes; of artists and writers such as Monet, Gauguin, Matisse, Toulouse-Lautrec, Rodin, a young Picasso, Verlaine, Mallarmé and Apollinaire; and the development of the Art Nouveau movement.

Presented in the grand drawing room of Abbotsford House, a magnificent Victorian mansion, La Belle Epoque features sumptuous fin de siecle melodies by Duparc, Fauré, Hahn, Debussy and more.

Join mezzo-soprano Jenny Duck-Chong and pianist Josephine Allan for an exquisite afternoon of song, followed by light refreshments, an informative historical talk about the building and opportunity to view the principal rooms.

Don’t miss out on this opportunity to hear some exquisite music in a picturesque setting rarely open to the public.

Tickets $50 through Halcyon
Please note: Numbers are strictly limited so book early.

Enquiries 0416 295 508

Jenny appears with Flametree in The Exquisite Hour

Sunday 8 September at 3pm

Evening has long been a source of inspiration for poets and composers around the globe; a time of serene beauty in nature, and for contemplation of matters of the heart and mind.

Come and join Flametree for a wonderfully diverse afternoon of night-inspired music featuring works by Schubert, Strauss, Barber, Debussy, Britten, Butterley, Le Gallienne and others.

Artists:
Nicole Thomson soprano, Jenny Duck-Chong mezzo-soprano, Jo Allan piano

Flametree is passionately committed to the presentation of appealing recitals in intimate settings. Each new program encompasses a wealth of repertoire spanning several centuries, woven together with introductions to highlight key themes.
Flametree was created so we could share our joy in music and music-making with everyone – both those who may know the works and composers well and those who are just discovering them. We hope there will always be something new to experience, alongside the joy of old favourites.

For more information click here

Jenny joins the Song Company for The Arrow of Song

From early chant to contemporary forms of a cappella singing, The Arrow of Song takes audiences on a fascinating journey of how 'a cappella' has transformed itself over thousands of years of rich musical history.

For more information click here

Date: 10 August 2018
Venue: The Art House, Wyong

As Halcyon celebrates 20 years of exceptional music-making, come and join us for a midwinter evening of intriguing and eclectic new chamber music. 

The program features Australian premieres by mid-career composers Japanese-born Dai Fujikura and Belgian Annelies Van Parys alongside a couple of songs from our Kingfisher project and a brand new work by Elliott Gyger, celebrating his 50th birthday this year. 

Halcyon’s long and fruitful relationship with composer Elliott Gyger, spanning more than three decades, has produced a series of outstanding vocal works.  Beginning with From the hungry waiting country in 2006 (commissioned for Halcyon by the first Aurora Festival) through giving voice (winner of the 2013 Paul Lowin Song Cycle Award) to Un poilu australien in 2015 (for our War Letters project), these pieces have been some of the most challenging and rewarding works in Halcyon's repertoire. Each one is a tour-de-force for both performers and composer, as Elliott descirbes here:

“From the hungry waiting country (2006) weaves together fifteen texts – seven in English, eight in ancient languages – each sung by a different soloist or subset from its female vocal quartet; at times two or three texts are superimposed, working in independent tempi.  Petit Testament (2008), by contrast, comes as close as possible to multitracking a single voice in live performance; Jenny and Alison are called upon to play vocal hide-and-seek with one another, merging into a single line featuring unison, heterophony and interior dialogue."

This year as the ensemble and composer both celebrate significant milestones, it seemed the perfect time to join forces again.  

"This kind of life (2018) is written once again for Alison and Jenny’s voices, but rather than blending and blurring they are kept quite distinct, as they sing the words of two people in dialogue with one another.  Each is supported by her own miniature ensemble of two instruments (clarinet and piano with the soprano; cello and harp with the mezzo), although as the work progresses these ensembles begin to overlap and fuse. 
A musical celebration of friendship, This kind of life seems an apt choice for a program highlighting the rich network of collaborations that has developed across Halcyon’s 20-year history – a network which I am grateful and proud to be part of.

PROGRAM
Elliott Gyger This Kind of Life  WORLD PREMIERE
Dai Fujikura  Being as One  AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE
Annaliese Van Parys  Three Mew Poems  AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE
Ross Edwards The Tranquil Mind
Rosalind Page Aquila’s Wing

ARTISTS
Alison Morgan soprano, Jenny Duck-Chong mezzo-soprano,  Laura Chislett flute, David Rowden clarinet, Georgina Oakes bass clarinet, Geoffrey Gartner cello, Jo Allan piano, Rowan Phemister harp

Image: Linden Gledhill

Date: 21 July 2018 at 8pm
Venue: Music Workshop, Sydney Conservatorium of Music

Flametree presents an afternoon recital celebrating the floral delights of the changing seasons

Featuring songs and duets by Schubert, Mahler, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Fauré, Poulenc, Samuel Barber and others

Nicole Thomson soprano
Jenny Duck-Chong mezzo-soprano
Jo Allan piano

Date: Sunday 24 June 2018 at 3pm
Venue: Hunters Hill Congregational Church

Flametree is passionately committed to the presentation of appealing recitals in intimate settings. Each new program encompasses a wealth of repertoire spanning several centuries, woven together with introductions to highlight key themes.
Flametree was created so we could share our joy in music and music-making with everyone – both those who may know the works and composers well and those who are just discovering them. We hope there will always be something new to experience, alongside the joy of old favourites.

Presented in collaboration with Inventi Ensemble and Melbourne Recital Centre

A Child of Earth and Heaven celebrates two generations of Australian vocal writing, showcasing works by award-winning composers Nigel Butterley and Elliott Gyger inspired by childhood and the natural world.

In an all-new collaboration, drawing together renowned performers from around the country, Inventi Ensemble (Melbourne) and Halcyon (Sydney) with guest conductor Matthew Wood (Darwin) present two intriguing song cycles for voice and chamber ensemble.

Gyger’s Paul Lowin Award winning composition, giving voice (2013), is an intimate exploration of the theme of early childhood. With diverse texts drawn from eight female Australian writers including his own daughter Sophia, giving voiceencapsulates a roller-coaster of emotions – such as fear, wonder, joy and frustration – in eight highly individual songs. Drawing inspiration from the Orpheus myth, Butterley’s Orphei Mysteria (2008) is a work of great beauty whose subtlety painted colours bring forth a richly evocative soundscape and show a master craftsman at the height of his powers.

PROGRAM
Elliott Gyger - giving voice (2013)
Nigel Butterley - Orphei Mysteria (2008)

ARTISTS
Matthew Wood  conductor  Alison Morgan  soprano  Jenny Duck-Chong  mezzo soprano  Vladimir Gorbach  guitar  Inventi Ensemble

Date: 15 November 2017
Venue: Salon, Melbourne Recital Centre

Jenny and flautist Sally Walker perform the world premiere of David Banney'‘s Psalms as well as music by de Falla and a Benjamin Britten-arranged folksong.

For more information click here.

22 October 2017 at 2.30pm
Christchurch Cathedral
Newcastle

Presented by the Sydney Conservatorium of Music

The fire in which we burn is an all-Australasian program featuring works by Ross Edwards, Sadie Harrison, Tim Dargaville and Gillian Whitehead with texts that span two centuries, seven countries, and the complete cycle of seasons.  By reflecting on the cycles by which we live, we gain a glimpse of the turning wheels of history seeing ourselves mirrored in the shifting backdrop of the natural world.

Sadie Harrison’s With what does winter’s summer’s sing takes us on a journey through the seasonal patterns of nature and love, interspersing them with a series of exaltant ‘calling' songs, reminding us of those moments of joy in the midst of the passing of time. An Australian composer who has been resident in the UK for many years, her song cycle speaks of how the passing of time resonates with our own cycles of love and loss. This has been a common poetic conceit for centuries, with Spring heralding new love and Winter marking the coldness of a dying relationship, or a life which is at an end. Her texts draw on both ancient and modern literature in English translation, creating a fresh vernacular for words that span centuries.

Ross Edward’s Five Senses is inspired by the poetry of Judith Wright, renowned not only as a poet but as an environmental activist. Every poem’s images are so clearly drawn - from the fiery wheel of creation, the ageless columns of dark foreboding rainforest or the delicate dew-encrusted spider webs, right down to the individual flowers on the forest floor. At times ominous and mysterious or exuberantly joyful, it is a celebration of the Australian landscape and the capacity it has to touch us and inhabit our senses.

Gillian Whitehead’s Because of the child, a short unaccompanied song, was composed for a group of people keen to raise awareness of environmental issues and draws our attention to the role man plays in his environment. She spends time between both Australia and New Zealand, and the many natural and cultural references in her life are clearly present in her prodigious body of work.

Tim Dargaville’s Kolam, movement III for solo piano is inspired by the ancient art of Kolam, an art of symmetry, precision, and complexity, where circular patterns of geometric lines are created on the ground using curved lines and dots and drawn with powder made from rice and other natural materials. Often drawn by women at the threshold to the house, throughout the day the drawings get walked on, washed out in the rain, or blown around in the wind only to be re-made the following day. This intricate art reflects both the movement and constant nature of time, but also the renewal it will always bring.

PROGRAM
Sadie Harrison - with what do winter’s summers sing? (2004)
Tim Dargaville - Kolam, Movement III (2014)
Brad Taylor-Newling - Ombrone (2014)
Ross Edwards - Five Senses: Five Poems of Judith Wright (2012)

ARTISTS
Jenny Duck-Chong mezzo-soprano, Bernadette Harvey piano, Joshua Hill percussion

Image: Linden Gledhill

Date: 10 October 2017
Venue: Recital Hall West, Sydney Conservatorium of Music

The Willoughby Symphony gets back to NATURE in this evocative concert program, under the baton of renowned conductor, Matthew Wood.

Iconic mezzo-soprano Jenny Duck-Chong sings the world premiere of 2017 Composer-in-Residence, Daniel Rojas’ work, Cantos Españoles: Three Songs of Garcia Lorca scored for mezzo, the 90 voices of the Willoughby Chorus, and the full forces of the Orchestra.

For more information click here

Date: 17 September 2017
Venue: The Concourse, Chatswood

The Willoughby Symphony gets back to NATURE in this evocative concert program, under the baton of renowned conductor, Matthew Wood.

Iconic mezzo-soprano Jenny Duck-Chong sings the world premiere of 2017 Composer-in-Residence, Daniel Rojas’ work, Cantos Españoles: Three Songs of Garcia Lorca scored for mezzo, the 90 voices of the Willoughby Chorus, and the full forces of the Orchestra.

For more information click here

Date: 16 September 2017
Venue: The Concourse, Chatswood

Soprano Nicole Thomson, mezzo soprano Jenny-Duck Chong and pianist Jo Allan present an afternoon concert of songs celebrating the season of Spring and its floral splendour. Including solos and duets by Schubert, Schumann, Mahler, Mendelssohn, Berlioz and Barber.

Date: Sunday 16 July 2017
Venue: Central Queensland Conservatorium of Music

Flametree is passionately committed to the presentation of intimate and appealing recitals encompassing repertoire from the Baroque to the modern day. We wish to delight the senses with the many musical treasures available, through small scale performances with an immediate audience connection. flametree consists of three longtime friends and musical collaborators, Jo Allan, Jenny Duck-Chong and Nicole Thomson. All have worked extensively in the classical music scene for over 30 years, as performers, teachers and recording artists.