CO-PRESENTED BY HALCYON & KAMMERKLANG
Join Halcyon and the Geist String Quartet for the world premiere of The Art of Disappearing, a poignant new song cycle by Sydney composer, Cameron Lam inspired by the raw and profound poetry of Queensland writer Sarah Holland-Batt.
The composer writes, "Written for and dedicated to mezzo soprano Jenny Duck-Chong after years of mentorship and friendship, The Art of Disappearing is an hour-long song cycle for voice and string quartet. I was drawn to the poetry of Queensland writer, Sarah Holland-Batt for its intimacy, musicality, and immense sense of self. The striking thing about Sarah’s poetry for me, was that it was arresting, it stopped me in my tracks – it sang all by itself and I just wanted to add to that.”
Limelight Magazine has described Cameron’s music as “a fantastical world in which mythological stories comes to life”. But drawn to the raw and profound poetry from Sarah’s collection Aria, in this new work he has set aside mythic grandeur and has delved deep into the traditions of art song and string quartet repertoire in search of a work of intimate connections. These eight songs and four instrumentals together tell stories of reminiscence, loss and grief through time. The cycle doesn’t present loss as something to solve; instead, it paints the inexorable journey from stasis, as we learn to move again…
Halcyon first worked with Cameron back in 2010 in his Kammerklang VOX project and we are looking forward to this opportunity to present a very beautiful new work created and crafted especially for us. Though we recorded the work last year, this is the first time we will be performing the full work in front of a live audience.
Join us for The Art of Disappearing.
ARTISTS
Jenny Duck-Chong mezzo-soprano
Geist String Quartet: Sonia Wilson violin I, Mia Stanton violin II, Hayasa Tanaka viola, James Larsen violoncello
Read more about the project on Kammerklang’s website or the facebook event page
Date: 1 June at 8pm
Venue: Annandale Creative Arts Centre, 81 Johnston St, Annandale