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The Kate Kelly Song Cycle (Kate Kelly), is a chamber opera in five scenes for three soloists, unison chorus, and a small instrumental ensemble. A creative collaboration by composer Ross James Carey and Australian writer Merrill Findlay, Kate Kelly re-interprets the life of one of Australia’s most iconic women, the youngest sister of bushranger Ned Kelly.

The chamber opera emerged from Merrill’s Kate Kelly Project. It was first performed in Forbes (central-west N.S.W.) in September 2011, as the headline act for inaugural Kalari-Lachlan River Arts Festival, beside the lagoon in which Kate Kelly’s body was found in 1898.

Kate Kelly, the sister of bushranger Ned, is a folk hero, an icon, a legend in Australia. She was born in Victoria in 1863, and, by 1880, the year Ned was captured at Glenrowan, was a household name, a teenage celebrity as famous (or infamous) as the celebrities we read about it the populist press today. People queued to meet her and to watch her ride. They bought postcards of her in her mourning outfit, a fashionable black silk riding habit.

And then she disappeared. She fled her fame, her family, her friends, the north-eastern Victorian hill country she had grown up in. She changed her name several times, and re-emerged, in the mid-1880s, on the flat inland plains of New South Wales between the towns of Forbes and Condobolin, where she found a job as a domestic servant at Cadow, a large pastoral station on the Lachlan River.

One or two years later Kate Kelly moved into Forbes and worked as a home-help for several well respected business families—but she always kept her past to herself. She made friends, went out with a couple of local lads, found one who, like her, loved horses, got pregnant, married him, had more babies, lost at least three … and then she disappeared again. She allegedly told a neighbour, Susan Hurley, that “she wanted to go away for a couple of days to get straight” and asked her to look after her four surviving children, including her newborn baby. More than a week later her body was found in the lagoon. It had been in the water for many days. The coroner concluded that she “was found drowned … but there was no evidence to show how deceased got into the water.”

There is little documentary evidence about Kate Kelly’s life and death in Forbes, yet the folklore about her remains tantalisingly rich and alive. Everyone, it seems, has a story to tell about our Kate or, if not about Kate herself, then about her husband William Foster, or Bricky, as he was also known. Bricky outlived his wife by more than forty years, and is remembered by old timers as a man who could never avoid a fight. Circumstantial evidence confirms the hearsay: that Kate endured years of violent abuse in her marriage. She almost certainly also suffered from conditions doctors would now diagnose as anxiety, depression (probably including peri-natal depression), post-traumatic stress and substance abuse. Neither Kate, nor the community she lived in, would have been able to recognise or appropriately treat these illnesses, however.

This work not only honours Kate Kelly herself, but also foregrounds the challenges women of all backgrounds have faced in inland rural Australia. It also acknowledges the diverse cultures of the people who have lived along the Lachlan River for the last forty thousand years or more. The music and lyrics reference many of these peoples, including the Wiradjuri nation, the different groups of Europeans who settled in and around Forbes in the nineteenth century, and the town’s many Cantonese migrants. And, of course, Kate Kelly’s own Irish ancestors — Merrill Findlay

Colin Decio | piano
Ingrid Prosser | performance poet

Rachmaninoff | Op3 No2
Shostakovich | Preludes Op 34 – Nos. 1, 2 and 10
Decio | Prelude for Anne Frank
Decio | Sakura
Khatchaturian | Toccata

with poems by Ingrid Prosser, Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Ezra Pound (from 'Cathay')

October 30th and 31st at 6.00pm

Olveston Historic Home opens the Drawing Room doors again to hear spectacular performances by:

Piano | Tatsuki Tomatsu
Baritone | Scott Bezett
Piano | Mark Wigglesworth
Piano | Adhinath Berry
Soprano | Rhiannon Cooper

Premiering SOUNZ composer Tom Jensen's Harbour Suite and works by Debussy, Chopin, Vaughan Williams, Schubert, Liszt, Rachmaninov, Wagner, Kreisler, Chaminade, Beach, Strauss, Poston, Brahms and Clara Schumann.

Doors open at 5.45 pm
Concert: 6.00pm–8.15 pm

Tea and coffee served during intermission in the Great Hall.

Te Āhuareka o Te Pūoro | Celebration of the Music

Like most ensembles, Inspirare has been not allowed to perform due to Covid-19. This concert will be our only engagement for 2020 and it is a CELEBRATION of the choral scene found in the fantastic capital city of Wellington.

The concert will feature individual sets by Inspirare, Wellington College Chorale, Queen Margaret College Chorale, Celesta (Y7-8 choir) and Quinctus Ensemble, Wellington's newest brass ensemble.

In the second half of the concert, Inspirare will join with the two college choirs to present John Rutter's Gloria with brass, organ, and percussion. The evening will close with David Hamilton's setting of Dona Nobis Pacem, written for double choir, children's chorus, 4-hand piano and percussion. David will be present with us for this concert, which is a very special treat!

Buy your tickets today and don't miss out on the only concert in 2020 for Inspirare!

Britten | Phantasy Quartet for Oboe & String Trio Op 2
Beethoven | String Quartet No 7 in F Op 59 No 1 'Rasumovsky'
Alex Taylor | refrain
Bliss | Quintet for Oboe & String Quartet

In a colourful and energy-filled programme, the Aroha Quartet is joined by Robert Orr, NZSO Principal Oboe, for two British works for oboe and strings: Britten's Phantasy Quartet Op 2, the first piece that brought him international recognition, and Bliss's gorgeous Oboe Quintet. The programme also celebrates the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's birth with his first 'Rasumovsky' quartet, the String Quartet No 7 in F, Op 59 No 1. The fourth work in this programme is refrain, by award-winning New Zealand composer Alex Taylor.

Giordano Bellincampi | Conductor
Ingrid Fliter | Piano

Leonie Holmes | New work
Schumann | Piano Concerto
Tchaikovsky | Symphony No.4

Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony opens with a stark fanfare which, Tchaikovsky said, represented ‘Fate, that ominous power’, adding ‘There is no alternative but to submit to Fate’. His friend and patron, Mme von Meck, heard ‘profound, terrifying despair’ in this music. True, but it has also passion, drama and ultimately catharsis.

The superb pianist Ingrid Fliter returns with Schumann’s ineffably poetic concerto, and to open the concert, a new work from the multifaceted Auckland composer, and former APO composer-in-residence, Leonie Holmes.

Hamish McKeich | conductor

Eisler | Kleine Sinfonie
Simon Eastwood | Quanta
Weill (arr. Bruckner-Ruggerberg) | Suite from Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny
Satie (arr. Debussy) | Gymnopédies Nos. 1 & 3
Schreker | Kammersymphonie

The final Shed Series concert of 2020 celebrates some of the weird and wonderful music linked to the flourishing cabaret scene of the 1920s and 30s and which continues to inspire composers and delight audiences today.

Austrian composer Hanns Eisler also worked with Weill, and the concert features his sweeping and engrossing Kleine Sinfonie before New Zealand composer Simon Eastwood’s Quanta.

Kurt Weill is best known for his cabaret-era songs with librettist Bertolt Brecht. His Suite from Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny (Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny) is a stunning arrangement by Wilhelm Brückner-Rüggeberg. Rarely performed in New Zealand, it features banjo, bass guitar, saxophone and more, alongside orchestral instruments, to capture the essence of Weill and Brecht’s hit 1930 opera.

Shed Series 2020 concludes with Claude Debussy’s orchestral arrangement of fellow Frenchman Eric Satie’s timeless and hugely influential Gymnopédies Nos. 1 & 3 and Austrian Franz Schreker‘s Kammersymphonie. Written in 1916 Kammersymphonie was ahead of its time and remains a heartfelt and emotive work, anticipating orchestral music’s wide use in film.

Icarus finding his wings (and his hubris!), the horns of Tennyson’s Elfland echoing through the valley, the mythical breath of the lion-headed goddess Sakhmet… these stories and more await in Telling Tales, a concert of contemporary works for solo recorder presented by Imogen Morris. Whether depicting colourful characters, dwelling in a single salient moment, or simply recounting a story in its entirety, the pieces featured in the programme explore tales that have been told for generations.

The concert includes works by Isang Yun, Liza Lim, Markus Zahnhausen and many more, as well as the premiere of Euryale’s Lament on the Death of Medusa by New Zealand’s own Janet Jennings.

Gemma New | Conductor
Stephen De Pledge | Piano

Vaughan Williams | Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis
Anthony Ritchie | Piano Concerto No. 3
Sibelius | Symphony No. 5

New life will spring forth in the much-loved Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, by Ralph Vaughan Williams. This work is paired with another great classic – Sibelius’ Symphony No. 5. With its glorious “swan-call” horn theme in the third movement, the Fifth Symphony remains one of the lushest and deeply moving symphonies of the 20th-century.

Beethoven | Ghost Trio
Mark Anthony Turnage | A Fast Stomp
Sarah Ballard | Prema Lahari
Isang Yun | Piano Trio
Alexander von Zemlinsky | Piano Trio in D minor, Op. 3

Origins opens with Beethoven’s mighty Ghost trio to celebrate his birth a quarter of a millennium ago. Then we celebrate the rebirth of NZTrio, introducing this new line-up with a tour through our cultural and musical backgrounds. Works by Mark Anthony Turnage (UK) and Isang Yun (Korea) envelop a brand new work (and world premiere) by Sarah Ballard (NZ) deeply inspired by Indian culture and music. (How do these works represent us? Come along and find out!) To finish, our attention turns to the worrying global upsurges of separatism and hatred, so the last word comes from Austrian-American Alexander von Zemlinsky whose Jewish-Muslim upbringing inspires understanding and love.

Gemma New | Conductor
Stephen De Pledge | Piano

Vaughan Williams | Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis
Anthony Ritchie | Piano Concerto No. 3
Sibelius | Symphony No. 5

New life will spring forth in the much-loved Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, by Ralph Vaughan Williams. This work is paired with another great classic – Sibelius’ Symphony No. 5. With its glorious “swan-call” horn theme in the third movement, the Fifth Symphony remains one of the lushest and deeply moving symphonies of the 20th-century.

Lewis Eady is delighted to announce NZTrio as our Mystery Guest Ensemble for the final instalment of the Lewis Eady 140th Anniversary Concert Series. NZTrio has long been friends of Lewis Eady and performed in our showroom for our 130th Anniversary in 2010. Join us on Sunday 22 November and let's celebrate together the incredible milestone that is Lewis Eady's 140th Anniversary!

Programme includes works for piano trio by New Zealand composers, Gillian Whitehead and Claire Cowan.

Juanita Hepi | artistic director
Danny Syme | co-director/head trainer
Hamish Oliver | composer

Tūmahana: Exchange is a bilingual (Te Reo Māori and English) performance that offers a glimpse into a past where generations of our tīpuna and ancestors have made their homes in and around the Ngāi Tahu takiwā of Te Waipounamu.

This all ages performance weaves theatre, aerial and visual arts, acrobatics, Toi Māori and Tāonga Pūoro with orchestral music in collaboration with Te Hapū o Ngāti Wheke, Christchurch Circus Collective and CSO.