FIRST LIGHT

Australian Series

https://cso.org.au/concerts/first-light

This program explores the ineffable and poetic relationship between artists and their art, celebrating the mystery of musical creation. 

‘Burruguu is all around us,’ writes Yuwaalaraay composer and storyteller Nardi Simpson: ‘yesterday, today and tomorrow’. In this spacious work, Simpson stretches our perception of time, musing on both the expansive Aboriginal Dreaming and the precise moment in which a musical work is realised. 

In Light for the First Time, percussionist, drummer and composer Bree van Reyk invites us to imagine a near-universal yet forgotten experience: opening one’s eyes for the first time. Our experience of time slows down in this exquisite musical meditation, enriched by Sam James’ visual response: a shimmering, abstract expression of ‘the sight of a being which is yet to be born’. 

The Heart’s Ear evolves from a single fragment of Sufi melody. Virtuosic yet earthy and organic, this striking work by Liza Lim explores the attentive silence that permeates the poetry of thirteenth-century mystic Jelaluddin Rumi: ‘a state of listening with ‘the heart’s ear’’. 

This program also features a lively new commission from Kate Neal.

Artists

Jessica Cottis Curator
CSO Chamber Ensemble

Repertoire

Nardi Simpson Burruguu (Time of Creation)
Bree Van Reyk Light for the First Time, with film by Sam James
Kate Neal World premiere, new CSO commission
Liza Lim The Heart’s Ear

Duration
70 minutes

When

Thu 12 SEP at 6:30PM

Venue

Canberra NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AUSTRALIA (GANDEL ATRIUM)

Accessibility

Wheelchair access

Ticket Prices

$65–72Adults

$59–66Concession (means-tested pensioners, full-time students)

$35Under 35

$16Student rush

* Transaction fee will be applied