To celebrate International Women’s Day, I wrote a short piece on women who composed music for their own voices, published by CutCommon. And, this evening, I look forward to honouring Australia’s fantastic female composers in From Her We Hear at Long Play in Fitzroy North. The event is almost completely booked out, but there will be some tickets available at the door.

Francesca Caccini

In the lead-up to From Her We Hear this coming Friday, soprano Teresa Duddy and I gave an interview with Stephanie Eslake at CutCommon. We talked about our motivations for the concert, and how we came to choose some of the exciting and beautiful music we’ll be performing on the day.

We’re very much looking forward to presenting our special International Women’s Day program. Tickets are still available, although booking is recommended considering the small size of the venue! Hope to see you there.

I’m very excited to be performing with some wonderful women for a special International Women’s Day concert at Longplay, Fitzroy North. I’ll be singing a couple of (as far as I know) previously unrecorded songs and duets by the great Australian composer Margaret Sutherland, alongside soprano Tess Duddy and accompanied by pianist Kay Cai. Sutherland’s music has long interested me: in 2015 I curated a small exhibition on her for the Louise Hanson-Dyer Music Library, and in 2017 I wrote an article about her for the University of Melbourne’s Collections magazine. It’s such a pleasure to have the chance to sing Sutherland’s severely-underrated but brilliant vocal music, in what I hope may be the first of a few performances.

The rest of the program includes songs by Peggy Glanville-Hicks, and chamber music of Australian female and non-binary composers past and present. Also performing will be clarinettist Brigid Burke and violinist Isabel Hede, with visuals by Gemma Horbury. Details:

6:30pm & 8pm, Friday 8 March 2019

Longplay, 318 St Georges Road, Fitzroy North

Tickets $25/$30 available through TryBooking

Composer Margaret Sutherland

This coming Sunday 3 February I’ll be premiering Hugh Crosthwaite‘s stunning new song cycle Metamorphoses (set to poetry by Bella Li) at the Melbourne Recital Centre. Jazz pianist Mina Yu will be accompanying me on piano, and I’ll be wearing a gorgeous dress by local Melbourne artist Margaret Snowdon. Read Hugh’s CutCommon interview to find out more the inspiration behind the music!

Hugh Crosthwaite – composer