Concertfor Life

The dawn of a new erain Indigenous suicide prevention.

Raisingmoney for suicide prevention.

VerbrugghenHallSydney ConservatoriumofMusicWorld Suicide PreventionDayTuesday 10 September 2019

Thank you for coming to Verbrugghen Hall thisevening for this special concert on World SuicidePrevention Day.

Our first Concert for Life at the Sydney Town Hallin 2015 brought musicians from three differentorchestras together to raise money for suicideprevention. I was pleased that in addition to raisinga significant amount of money, we helped raiseawareness of the urgent work that needs to bedone to reduce the impact suicide has onindividuals, families and the wider community. Butwhen I saw the shocking statistics on Indigenoussuicide, I realised that this had to be the focus ofattention for our second Concert for Life. Therates of youth suicide are particularly confronting.In 1991 the Indigenous component of youthsuicide in Australia was 10 percent; by 2012 itwas a staggering 80 percent. Even moredisturbing is the fact that today 40 percent ofchild deaths in Indigenous communities are bysuicide.

All profits from this concert will go toward theDr Tracy Westerman Aboriginal PsychologyScholarship Program. Delivered in partnershipwith Curtin University in Western Australia, theprogram aims to train more Indigenouspsychologists to deliver best-practice care inhigh-risk communities.

In bringing so many musicians together toperform this evening, my message is a positiveone – that if we really work together we can makea difference.

I hope you enjoy the performance.

Roger Benedictconcertforlife.com.au

WelcomeWe acknowledge and pay respect to the

traditional owners of the land on which wemeet: the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation.

It is upon their ancestral lands that theSydney Conservatorium and theUniversity of Sydney are built.

GABRIEL FAURÉMasques et Bergamasques: SuiteOuvertureMenuetGavottePastorale

FAURÉPavane

FOUR SONGS:DAN WALKERThe Ether of Infinity

KENNETH LAMPL & KIRSTEN LAMPLMemory’s Wavering Echo

RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMSSilent Noon

PAUL JARMANThe Will to ClimbSydney Children’s ChoirSam Allchurch conductorSally Whitwell piano

INTERVAL

GEORGE GERSHWINRhapsody in BlueSimon Tedeschi piano

MAURICE RAVELPavane pour une infante défunte

GEORGES BIZETCarmen: Suite No.1Prélude –AragonaiseIntermezzoSéguedilleLes Dragons d’AlcalaLes Toréadors

Roger Benedict conductorSimon Tedeschi pianoOrchestra for LifeMembers of the Sydney Symphony Orchestraand Opera Australia Orchestrawith special guestsSydney Children’s Choir

WORLD SUICIDE PREVENTION DAYTuesday 10 September 2019

8.00pmVerbrugghen Hall

Sydney Conservatorium of Music

We are deeply grateful to the manypeople who have donated to this

project. Without their generosity thisconcert would not be taking place.

Concertfor Life

I hope this concert will touch your heart, souland mind. The Concert for Life supports thehopes and dreams of our next generation ofIndigenous psychologists. It will make a real andpractical difference for bereaved Indigenousfamilies caught in the grip of generational childsuicides in a way that has never been seenbefore. It brings Australians together for ourchildren; our community is only as strong as our

most vulnerable.

My vision is to support Aboriginalstudents with rural and remoteconnections to becomepsychologists, skilled inIndigenous-specific mentalhealth, suicide preventionand intervention programs.To achieve this, I want toeliminate one very real

barrier to Indigenous peoplestudying at university – the

financial barrier.

The Dr Tracy Westerman AboriginalPsychology Scholarship Program directlyaddresses the needs of bereaved Indigenousfamilies through supporting Indigenousstudents from remote and rural areas. Thesestudents will be mentored and supported totake their clinical and culturally informed skillsback into their high-risk Indigenouscommunities.

We can together #BuildAnArmy of Indigenouspsychologists to support a future free ofgenerational child suicide.

Adj. Professor Tracy Westerman

Dr Tracy WestermanAboriginal PsychologyScholarship Program

We hope we can continue to supportthis program long after the last notes of

tonight’s concert have been heard.

You can read more about theprogram and make donations at

alumniandgive.curtin.edu.au/westermanscholarship

Together we can make a difference.

About the MusicGABRIEL FAURÉ (1845–1924)Masques et Bergamasques: SuitePavane, Op.50

Known today mainly for his Requiem,composed when he was organist of Paris’s

fashionable Madeleine Church, GabrielFauré was one of the most

distinguished French composersof his time. Moving in theartistic salons of high society,Fauré once claimed to thePrincesse de Polignac that hehad “expanded the borders ofrefinement”. But his music has,

in addition to surface polish andelegance, an underlying strength.Fauré is not usually thought of as

a composer for the theatre. (There’s acartoon showing him weaving the score of hisonly opera Pénélope – he had so little time leftover from his duties as director of the ParisConservatoire it seemed the opera would neverbe finished!) But, like most French composers,he longed for theatrical success and appeasedthis “lyric hunger” by writing incidental musicfor plays, including music for the 1898London production of Pelléas etMélisande.

Masques et Bergamasques wascommissioned by the Prince ofMonaco following the 1913 premiereof Pénélope in Monte Carlo. Fauré’sidea was for a lightweight, playfulpiece in the style of Paul Verlaine’sFêtes galantes and the scenario, withits commedia dell’arte characters, waslittle more than a pretext for mock 18th-century atmosphere (think Watteau paintings)and bewitching music:

Harlequin, Gilles and Columbine, themaskers who often amused the court, inturn amuse themselves at being thespectators of a fête galante at Cythera;without knowing it, the gentlemen andladies who applaud them give them theimpromptu play of their petty coquetriesand their trivial talk.

Four of the musical numbers in Masques…were existing songs by Fauré. The remainingfour orchestral pieces – composed in 1919 –make up tonight’s concert suite.

The Ouverture is a reworking of an earlierIntermezzo, wittily described by ReynaldoHahn as “Mozart imitating Fauré”. The languidMenuet comes close to pastiche of 18th-century music. The Gavotte is characterised byopen gaiety and strong rhythms. The moststriking and deeply felt movement is the

Pastorale. It originally came near thebeginning, underpinning a conversationbetween the three commedia dell’artecharacters, but it deserves to be heard on itsown, for its distinctive harmonic progressions.It is Fauré’s last orchestral music, and has allthe hallmarks of his late style.

The final number in Masques… was thePavane, originally composed in 1887 forchorus and orchestra with a text by PaulVerlaine but better known in its instrumentalform. The pavane is an old dance, thought tohave originated in 16th-century Spain andtaken its name from the peacock (pavo).Certainly its ceremonial character is perfectlysuited to the preening and display of thedancers. The music is built almost exclusivelyon a single, suave melody. The shortcontrasting middle section corresponds to alovers’ quarrel in Verlaine’s text.

GEORGE GERSHWIN (1898–1937)Rhapsody in Blue

Gershwin started out on Tin Pan Alley,churning out what he hoped would be hit

tunes. His first published song was“When you want ’em, you can’t get

’em, when you got ’em, you don’twant ’em” (lyrics by MurrayRoth), but he struck gold –royalties of $10,000 in the firstyear alone – with “Swanee”,recorded in 1919 by Al Jolson.His melodic gift soon saw him

writing for Broadway andHollywood, but he also longed to

be accepted as a “serious” composerfor the concert hall, fusing American

popular music with classical forms.In 1924, Paul Whiteman asked Gershwin to

write a “jazz concerto” for an upcomingconcert. Whiteman was the leader of an oddensemble, somewhere between an orchestraand a jazz band, and the concert was called“An Experiment in New Music” – a chance forGershwin to present himself as a composer ofconcert music. Gershwin was nervous – notleast because the deadline was a month away –but Whiteman convinced him he had the talentand assured him he could delegate theorchestration to Ferde Grofé, the band’sarranger.

Rhapsody in Blue is in one continuousmovement, but it falls clearly into thetraditional fast—slow—fast structure of aclassical piano concerto. Its popular feelcomes from the cast of its melodies and theodd blues inflection. The opening clarinet riff –

that famous swooping run from low in theinstrument’s register to high – is probably themost obvious jazz feature. Gershwin himselfheard the piece as “a sort of musicalkaleidoscope of America – of our vast meltingpot, of our unduplicated national pep, of ourblues, our metropolitan madness”.

The premiere was a great success –the audience was captivated by thework’s distinctly American tone andGershwin’s brilliant performance ofthe solo part – and the Rhapsody inBlue remains one of the mostpopular of American concert works.

MAURICE RAVEL (1875–1937)Pavane pour une infante défunte

In its original piano version, this exquisitemusic seems simple – it became immediately

popular with amateurs in 1899. But itcounts as one of Ravel’s more

difficult pieces. Transforming itfor orchestra was a wise move,allowing him to fully realise hisinstruction at the top of themusic: “Very sweet, but with afull sound.”

Ravel chose the euphonioustitle for this music because of

the pleasure he got from thesound of the words, rather than for

its meaning. So how to translate it?Indeed, should we translate it? Perhaps it’senough that the title – like the music – conveysRavel’s twin enthusiasms for stylised danceforms and the past. As a stately processionaldance from 16th-century Spain, the pavaneticks both boxes. And its intended “infantedéfunte” emphasises the links with Spain aswell as suggesting a mournful nostalgia.Significantly, Ravel’s musical language as wellas his choice of old-fashioned French (“infantedéfunte” rather than “infante morte”) remindus that we are not contemporaries of thisSpanish infanta. In this regard, perhaps thetruest translation is “Pavane for an infantafrom long ago”.

GEORGES BIZET (1838–1875)Carmen: Suite No.1

For his last opera, Carmen, Bizet chose adisturbingly realistic story by Prosper

Merimée. Audiences were shocked to seewomen fighting and smoking, not to

mention the onstage murder of theheroine; Carmen ran for 45performances, a succès descandale, but was declared afailure. Bizet himself died onthe night of the 33rdperformance and so did not live

to see the opera take its place asone of the most popular in the

repertoire, its title character auniversal symbol of the femme fatale.

In Seville the gipsy Carmen is arrested forcausing a disturbance among the women atthe cigarette factory where she works. Shepersuades Don José to help her escape and hefalls for her, abandoning career and duty tofollow her and a band of smugglers, only to bethrown over in favour of the bullfighterEscamillo. When she refuses to return to him,Don José stabs her in a fit of passion.

Bizet never visited Spain but, like so manyFrench composers, he captured the Spanishlocal colour in brilliant music full of dramaand vitality. Following Bizet’s death, his friendErnest Guiraud compiled two concert suites ofhighlights from Carmen. The first suiteincludes the preludes or entr’actes that Bizetwrote to precede each of the four acts. Theseset the scene, from the ominous tremolos thatbegin the Act I Prelude to the vibrant, dancingAragonaise, which is heard before Act IV asthe town square fills with people anticipatingthe spectacle of the bullfight.

The remaining entr’actes are equallyatmospheric: in the Intermezzo (Act III) a fluteand harp create a wistful mood, while TheDragoons of Alcala (Act II) has a brisk,military character with side drumunderpinning solos for woodwinds. TheSéguedille is adapted from the captivatingaria in which Carmen sings her way out ofprison by promising Don José she will dancethe seguidilla just for him. The suite ends withLes Toréadors and the exhilarating march tuneassociated with Don José’s rival, Escamillo.

Adapted from notes by Yvonne Frindle (Ravel, Bizet),David Garrett (Fauré) and Gordon Kalton Williams(Gershwin) © 2019

IMAGES: Fauré (portrait by John Singer Sargent, 1889);Gershwin (photo from 1935); Ravel (portrait by AchilleOuvré, 1907, source gallica.bnf.fr / Bibliothèquenationale de France); Bizet (photo Étienne Carjat, 1875)

About the Music

The Ether of Infinity:The CSIRO invention of wireless data transferMUSIC AND WORDS BY DAN WALKER

Imagine words and images on highways in the air,A multitude of interwoven gossamer in

intersecting streams,Gigabtyes of scrambled informationfly in formation high above,disassembled and assembled all around us,all the while unseen.

We wonder at the marvel of this modern miracle,Our Antipodean connectivity,The font of human knowledge at our fingers,

in our grasp,Coalescing in the ether of infinity.

From radio waves, we found a way,To understand their patterns,How they behave.

Imagine words and images on highways in the air,A multitude of interwoven gossamer in

intersecting streams,Out into the world we send our messages

and thoughts,And smile at faces carried on the wave,The tyranny of distance could not hold us,but has it come to save us, or enslave?

Memory’s Wavering EchoMUSIC BY KENNETH LAMPL & KIRSTEN LAMPL

Shamayim naasu.By the word of the Lord,the heavens were made. Amen.

Amen, Amen, Amen.Bidvar Yehovah,Shamayim naasu.Amen, Amen, Amen.

English and Hebrew words after Psalm 33:6

Silent NoonMUSIC BY RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

Your hands lie open in the long fresh grass,—The finger-points look through like rosy blooms:Your eyes smile peace. The pasture gleams

and glooms’Neath billowing skies that scatter and amass.All round our nest, far as the eye can pass,

Are golden kingcup fields with silver edgeWhere the cow-parsley skirts the hawthorn-hedge.

’Tis visible silence, still as the hour-glass.

Deep in the sun-searched growths the dragon-flyHangs like a blue thread loosened from the sky:—

So this wing’d hour is dropt to us from above.Oh! clasp we to our hearts, for deathless dower,This close-companioned inarticulate hour

When twofold silence was the song of love.

Words from The House of Life byDante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882)

The Will to ClimbMUSIC AND WORDS BY PAUL JARMAN

I have this adventure in me.[Breathe in, breathe out. Higher.]The will to climb!I walk into the pages of history.My journey has just begun!

Reach up, look out, there’s a world around me!Stand up, speak out, far horizons reach me.By endurance I’ll shine.My heroes will guide me.I will conquer my fears.The dawn is at hand.I have the will to climb.All the mountains are calling.I’ll rise to my dreams with courage at hand.

Roger BenedictconductorRoger is Chief Conductor at theSydney Conservatorium and ArtisticDirector of the Sydney Symphony

Fellowship Program. From1991 to 2000 he was

principal viola of thePhilharmonia

Orchestra inLondon,subsequentlytaking up the sameposition in theSydney SymphonyOrchestra.A frequent guest

conductor with theSSO, Roger has

conducted the orchestra insubscription concerts at the

Sydney Opera House and City RecitalHall. He has also appeared withorchestras including the AdelaideSymphony Orchestra, AucklandPhilharmonia and SouthbankSinfonia. A devoted orchestraltrainer, he has coached the EuropeanUnion Youth Orchestra since 2000and is a conductor of the AustralianYouth Orchestra and National YouthOrchestra (UK) programs.

As a viola soloist he has appearedwith the Philharmonia Orchestra,Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, RoyalLiverpool Philharmonic Orchestraand Ulster Orchestra, as well as theSydney, Canberra and New Zealandsymphony orchestras and OrchestraEnsemble Kanazawa (Japan). Inaddition to a recording of VaughanWilliams’ Flos Campi with the SSO(2011), he has released three soloalbums on the Melba label and oneon ABC Classics.

Simon TedeschipianoSimon Tedeschi is one of Australia’smost renowned pianists, a recipient ofprizes including Symphony Australia’s

Young Performer of the Year,first prize in the Royal

Overseas LeagueCompetition (UK) and

a Centenary ofFederation Medal.He has performed inthe world’s majorconcert halls andfor world leadersincluding former US

President George WBush, Vladimir Putin,

Nelson Mandela and theDalai Lama.

Since making his debut at theSydney Opera House at the age of nine,he has performed as a soloist with allthe major Australian orchestras.Recent highlights includeperformances of Rachmaninoff’sfourth concerto with the SydneySymphony Orchestra and the Griegconcerto with the Adelaide SymphonyOrchestra, three tours to China withthe Sydney Opera House show MeetingMozart, tours to the United ArabEmirates including the Abu DhabiInternational Arts Festival, andnational tours with Australian theatreicon John Bell.

Simon’s recordings includeMussorgsky’s Pictures at anExhibition, Gershwin and Me,Gershwin: Take Two and Tender Earth,as well as concertos by Grieg,Tchaikovsky and Mozart. His mostrecent album, A Winter’s Tale withviolist Roger Benedict, was releasedlast year.

On Stage Tonight

Adj. Professor Tracy WestermanspeakerAdjunct Professor Tracy Westermanis a trailblazer in Aboriginal mentalhealth and last year she was named

Australian of the Year (WA),inducted into the WA

Women’s Hall of Fameand awarded a

LifetimeAchievementAward, CurtinUniversity,amongst manyother accolades.She holds a Post

Graduate Diploma inPsychology, a Master’s

degree in ClinicalPsychology and a Doctor of

Philosophy (Clinical Psychology).Her work has achieved national andinternational recognition, frequentlycited as best practice, and she is asought-after keynote speakerworldwide.

A proud Njamal woman, Adj. Prof.Westerman grew up in the remotePilbara town of Tom Price,completing high school and many ofher university subjects via distanceeducation. Early in herundergraduate studies she becamedetermined to develop specialist,evidence-based practices that aremore appropriate to the culturalneeds and circumstances ofIndigenous people, especially thoseliving in rural and remote areas. Shedeveloped seven uniquepsychological tests to identify thoseat most risk of mental illness andsuicide, and has trained more than25,000 clinicians in these tools andapproaches, enabling them to reachmany thousands more Aboriginalpeople at risk. She is is now arecognised leader in Aboriginalmental health, cultural competenceand suicide prevention.

Sam AllchurchconductorRecognised as one of Australia’s mostexciting young choral conductors, SamAllchurch is establishing a reputation

for artistic excellence. Hebegan his life in choral

music as a chorister ofthe Sydney Children’s

Choir and GondwanaVoices, under thedirection of ArtisticDirector LynWilliams AM. He isnow the AssociateArtistic Director of

Gondwana Choirs,directing the Young

Men’s Choir and playinga key role in the

organisation’s artistic planning.Working closely with Lyn, he has alsoprepared the treble ensembles of theSydney Children’s Choir forperformances with the SydneySymphony Orchestra and OperaAustralia.

Sam was appointed Director ofMusic of Christ Church St Laurence in2018, and Music Director of theSydney Chamber Choir in 2019. He isalso frequently invited to conduct CityRecital Hall’s Flash Mob Choir, hasconducted the Combined SchoolsMusic Festival (2017) and KangarooValley Choral Workshops (2017, 2018),and in 2016 was Acting Director ofMusic at Trinity College Melbourne.He holds a music degree from theUniversity of Melbourne and amaster’s degree in Choral Studiesfrom the University of Cambridge, forwhich he received a scholarship fromthe Bill and Melinda GatesFoundation.

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Orchestra for LifeFIRST VIOLINSFiona Ziegler ConcertmasterKirsty HiltonSophie ColeLéone ZieglerGeorges LentzAlexander NortonSercan Danis°Ben Tjoa†Jessica Oddie†Tim Yu‡

SECOND VIOLINSMarina MarsdenRebecca GillEmma HayesTobias Aan†Riikka SintonenNicole MastersLerida DelbridgeKelly Tang†Brian Hong‡

VIOLASVirginia Comerford*Rosemary CurtinSandro CostantinoJane HazelwoodJustin WilliamsBeth Condon†

CELLOSAdrian WallisDaniel Yeadon**David WickhamRowena McNeishEszter Mikes-Liu*

DOUBLE BASSESBrett Berthold*David CampbellDavid Barlow†

FLUTESJoshua BattyCarolyn Harris

OBOESShefali PriorEve Osborn†

CLARINETSFrancesco CelataJames Julian†Christopher Tingay

BASSOONSMatthew WilkieNoriko Shimada

HORNSRobert JohnsonJenny McLeod-Sneyd°Katy Grisdale†Stefan Grant‡

TRUMPETSPaul GoodchildDan Henderson†David Johnson†

TROMBONESGregory van der Struik*Dale Vail†Colin Burrows°

TUBAScott Frankcombe°

TIMPANIDavid Clarence*

PERCUSSIONShaun Trubiano*Adam Cooper-Stanbury†Blake Roden‡Salina Myat‡

HARPNatalie Wong°

Past and present musicians of theSydney Symphony Orchestra arejoined by musicians from:

* Opera Australia Orchestra** Australian Chamber Orchestra† 2019 SSO Fellows & Fellowship alumni‡ Sydney Conservatorium of Musicand° special guests

ORCHESTRA FOR LIFE 2015

Sydney Children’s ChoirSydney Children’s ChoirKeala BurnsMaja ChestermanLeah ColleranAbigail ConnollyStella ConstableEmma CorcoranAlice Dawson-DamerAnnika DeitzAsmara Downey-TwissDashel EckIsabelle EppsAdrian Escudero-GencIris FarrerAstrid GirdisFrankie GloverGemma GoldingLara GoodmanStephanie GoughBethany HopkinsAthena JiangAsher JoyceHayley KepertEleanor LabiSophia LauberSienna LangenheimMia MeadStella MiltonLily MullenWilson NguyenSophie OatesJacinta ReesCarmela ReznikPoppy RohannaPaul RowanRuby Scott-WishartLucy ShellerMarie SikiotisElsa Susnjara

Ben SweeneyEva TarboxJedda ThorleyJasper TopsAnnabel TwomeyAnna TyquinGabrielle UtianVeronica VellaGeorgia VincentHanna WallaceYvonne WangChelsea WilsonLara WinsburyLotti Wonhas

Young Men’s ChoirJared AthertonJames BrewJoel BrookesGabriel DillonLachlan DonlevyDaniele JJ EliezerLiam GreenEzra HerschGabriel KamJonathon KelleyRyan KumuliaRichard LiuJude MacarthurCaleb McKayMarcus OgdenChristopher PaoloniAndrew SmallboneEtienne RoumanoffSebastian TanAsher TarboxLeo TarboxSebastian Wright

Lyn Williams AM Artistic DirectorSam Allchurch Associate Artistic DirectorSally Whitwell Principal Pianist

The Sydney Children’s Choir proudlyrepresents Sydney as the most prestigiousand well-known vocal program for youngsingers of school age. Founded as a singleensemble by Lyn Williams AM in 1989, itnow includes approximately 500 youngpeople in a variety of performing choirsand training ensembles. They are instantlyrecognised for their crystal clear sound andknown for their precision and discipline,developed through regular training, and acourageous and compelling performancestyle.

The Sydney Children’s Choir is our mostsenior treble choir and is made up of girlsand unchanged boys voices aged 12–17.The Young Men’s Choir is an ensemble forboys with changed and changing voices.

PHOTO: LYN WILLIAMS

ORGANISING COMMITTEELiz Benedict

Roger BenedictJenny Campbell

Paul KennyGavin Partridge

Ruth Sugden

PRODUCTIONStage Managers: Tom Westley

and Thomas WadeOrchestra Manager: Rachel McLarin

Venue Manager: Jan MarshallPiano Technician: David Kinney

Design: Graham Johnson andOliver Devaris (ext77.co)

Publicist: Robbi JamesWebsite: Roman Benedict

Program editor & design: Yvonne FrindlePrinter: Snap Print & Design, Chatswood

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSThe organisers would like to express their thanksto all those who have helped make this eveninga success:

Creative Partnerships Australia –Australian Cultural Fund

Professor Anna Reid,Head of School and Dean of theSydney Conservatorium of Music

Sydney Symphony Orchestra –Emma Dunch, CEO

Opera Australia – Rory Jeffes, CEO

Sydney Children’s Choir –Bernie Heard, Executive Director

Jawun – Karyn Baylis, CEOand Rose Manzini

Ross Irons Transport

Symphony Services International

Cellarmasters – wine sponsor

Jacqui SmithFelicity KnibbsAdam Cooper-StanburyDavid GarrettGordon Kalton Williams

Concertfor Life2019