25 Aug – 4 Sep
Newcastle | Sydney | Wollongong | Canberra | Melbourne
Program
Dietrich Buxtehude: Membra Jesu Nostri
Chris Williams: I pray the sea
Director: Robert Macfarlane
Choreographer: Thomas E.S. Kelly
ARTISTS
Amy Moore Principal Artist – Soprano
Chloe Lankshear Principal Artist – Soprano
Stephanie Dillon Principal Artist – Mezzo-soprano
Robert Macfarlane Guest Artist – Tenor & Director
Thomas Flint Principal Artist – Bass
Hylton Mowday Guest Artist – Saxophones
Jenny Eriksson Guest Artist – Electric Viola da gamba
Thomas E.S. Kelly Karul Projects – Choreographer
Neville WiIliams-Boney – Dancer
Antony Pitts Artistic Director – Rhodes & Conductor
Buxtehude’s monumental meditation on suffering and the human body reimagined with contemporary Indigenous choreography from Karul Projects, and a major new Australian work from Chris Williams, setting words by Behrouz Boochani.
The Song Company is proud to be reuniting with choreographer Thomas E.S. Kelly – from contemporary Indigenous dance company Karul Projects – in a pageant of light and movement to Membra Jesu Nostri by Dieterich Buxtehude and I pray the sea by Australian composer Chris Williams, commissioned with funding from the Silo Collective and setting words from No Friend But the Mountains by Behrouz Boochani. Williams’s flotilla of seven short fragments and one extended final movement is interspersed with Buxtehude’s intimate 17th-century cycle of seven cantatas on the physical and spiritual aspects of the Crucifixion.
Dancer Neville WiIliams-Boney performs alongside The Song Company singers in Arms of Love
photo credit: Noni Carroll
Co-curated/directed by Robert Macfarlane, with choreography by Thomas E.S. Kelly, performed by dancer and Wiradjuri man Neville WiIliams-Boney against the background of an ongoing refugee crisis at home and abroad.
The Song Company’s Artists, Amy Moore, Chloe Lankshear, Stephanie Dillon, Thomas Flint, and Robert Macfarlane are joined by a continuo made up of a Tarogato (a wooden saxophone), played by Hylton Mowday, Jenny Eriksson on electric viola da gamba, and Artistic Director Antony Pitts on a classic Rhodes keyboard.