Chamber Music | Poetry
ACACIA QUARTET
MORNING BIRDSONG
Time:
Saturday APRIL 16th
10.15 – 11.15am
LOCATION:
Cobargo Showground Pavilion
Featuring:
Acacia Quartet
Lisa Stewart, violin;
Myee Clohessy, violin;
Stefan Duwe, viola;
Anna Martin-Scrase, cello.
REPERTOIRE :
Emma Jayakumar – Bell Birds (2020)
Haydn String Quartet Op.33 No.3The Bird (1781)
Alice Chance – String Quartet No. 2 A Sundried Quartet (2019)
Poems by Raechelle Kennedy (World Premiere, 2022)
Ticketing Information:
This is a ticketed event
Available as part of an All In One Pass, a Sound Shell Saturday Day Pass or a Sound Shell Weekend Day Pass
‘Acacia Quartet performed so well that at times they seem like only one instrument, such is their clarity and unison.’
On Saturday morning the Acacia Quartet will conjure up the sounds and emotions of the Australian bush with a set of lush, evocative and uplifting string quartets from the Age of Enlightenment to contemporary Australia. Inspired by the natural setting of the Four Winds’ Sound Shell, this intriguing musical program featuring the much-admired Acacia Quartet is a beautiful start to your festival.
Emma Jayakumar’s Bell Birds for string quartet was inspired by the composer’s homesickness for Australian landscapes. It riffs on the Victorian-era poem Bell Birds by Henry Kendall, but here at Four Winds we give it a contemporary twist. Interspersed through the suite will be a series of new poems written and performed by Candelo poet, Raechelle Kennedy, honouring the birds seen and heard in this region.
For something completely different, written in 1781 and dedicated to the Grand Duke Paul of Russia as a Christmas gift, the bird-like quality of the opening notes that give Haydn’s String Quartet Op.33 its nickname will find a new resonance in the outdoor setting of the Sound Shell.
The set concludes with A Sundried Quartet from Alice Chance, a rising star of Australian composition, and an Acacia Quartet collaborator. Revelling in evocative movement titles like Exposure, Dribble Castle, Tomatoes and Aloe Vera, Chance wants audiences to experience her work as ‘an exhalation, a lullaby, the refreshment of a huge glass of water or falling into bed after a day in the sun.’
‘Acacia’s playing is exquisite poetry!’