Sydney’s White Bay Power Station is the venue for a powerful and moving concert inspired by the natural world and the effects of industrialisation. 

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs head to Sydney’s historic White Bay Power Station for a powerful concert inspired by the natural world. 

Christopher Tin’s Lost Birds is an ‘extinction elegy’. Taking poems by women such as Emily Dickinson and Christina Rossetti, who saw their world transform from a pastoral society to an industrial one, Tin has crafted a musical memorial to bird species that have been driven to extinction. The music is lyrical and tender – a tuneful celebration of beauty tinged with melancholy – and our performance space will highlight a message of renewal and recovery.

Brett Weymark has paired The Lost Birds with a song cycle by Joseph Twist, who, like Tin, has made his name in the world of music for the screen. Timeless Land is inspired by Twist’s own love of Australia’s natural wonders and celebrated poets, from Banjo Paterson to Oodgeroo Noonuccal, the first published Aboriginal woman. ‘Bursting with drama and humour’, Timeless Land takes playful delight in music for magpies, lorikeets and jellyfish, before ending on a serious note: ‘Time is running out.’ The themes will be amplified in a new work by Yuwaalaraay storyteller and composer Nardi Simpson.

The concert ends with ‘Autumn’ and ‘Winter’ from a brand new choral version of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons by former Swingle Singers music director Joanna Forbes L’Estrange.

Presented by Sydney Philharmonia Choirs

Program

Christopher TIN The Lost Birds: An Extinction Elegy
Joseph TWIST Timeless Land: An Australian Song Cycle
Nardi SIMPSON New work†
Joanna FORBES L’ESTRANGE A Season to Sing: Autumn and Winter*

† Sydney Philharmonia Choirs commission 
* Australian premiere of an international co-commission from 55 choirs, including Sydney Philharmonia Choirs

Artists

Brett Weymark conductor
Chamber Singers
Sydney Philharmonia Ensemble