be:longing/Shostakovich

I’ve hit the ground running in the land down under and have just spent a week rehearsing with some extremely inspiring musicians for quartet performances as part of Bangalow Festival, happening in Northern New South Wales next weekend.

Following that, I’ll travel with the quartet to Canberra, where we’re co-presenting a concert with be:longing magazine on 22 August. I’m thrilled about this collaboration, which includes several musical heroes and mentors of mine, dear friends, and powerful art. If you’re in Canberra, DON’T MISS IT!!

Tickets available here

Art from the 20th and 21st centuries often has a personal biographical element, immersed in contemporary events, environment, circumstance and questions of identity.

On August 22, this element is common in a unique exchange between authors from be:longing magazine and some of Australia’s most dynamic young classical musicians that tells several stories of varied perspectives, interwoven with the thread of humanity that connects us all.

be:longing, launched in Canberra in 2016, publishes contemporary works exploring personal experiences of migration, cross-culture, nostalgia and belonging, and encourages an inclusive, open discourse on the intricacies of a multifaceted cultural existence.

Soviet Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich wrote his 3rd string quartet in 1946, suffering immense compositional and personal pressure to submit to the pressures of a nationalistic political ideology enforced to regulate and resist the influence of ‘external’ musical cultures on Stalin-era ‘Soviet’ music played in the public sphere.

This gathering invites the audience to contemplate the kinds of situations that drive artists to communicate and create in the context of a range of pressures and through media that are born of cultural complexity and collaboration.

Featuring celebrated special guests, cellist David Pereira and violist Tor Fromyhr.

Musicians: Kristian Winther (violin), Ioana Tache (violin), Alexina Hawkins (viola), Thomas Marlin (cello).

Writers: Dunja Cvjetićanin, Vesna Cvjetićanin, Abeir Soukieh, Dejan Stevanović, Anita Patel, Akka Ballenger Constantin.

Presented by be:longing and Ainslie and Gorman Arts Centres. Generously supported by Biginelli Espresso.