The dawn of a new era in Indigenous suicide prevention. Concert for Life Raising money for suicide prevention. Verbrugghen Hall Conservatorium of Music World Suicide Prevention Day Tuesday 10 September 2019 Thank you for coming to Verbrugghen Hall this evening for this special concert on World Suicide Prevention Day. Our first Concert for Life at the Sydney Town Hall in 2015 brought musicians from three different orchestras together to raise money for suicide prevention. I was pleased that in addition to raising a significant amount of money, we helped raise awareness of the urgent work that needs to be done to reduce the impact suicide has on Welcome individuals, families and the wider community. But when I saw the shocking statistics on Indigenous We acknowledge and pay respect to the suicide, I realised that this had to be the focus of traditional owners of the land on which we attention for our second Concert for Life. The meet: the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. rates of youth suicide are particularly confronting. It is upon their ancestral lands that the In 1991 the Indigenous component of youth Sydney Conservatorium and the suicide in was 10 percent; by 2012 it University of Sydney are built. was a staggering 80 percent. Even more disturbing is the fact that today 40 percent of child deaths in Indigenous communities are by suicide. All profits from this concert will go toward the Dr Tracy Westerman Aboriginal Psychology Scholarship Program. Delivered in partnership with Curtin University in Western Australia, the program aims to train more Indigenous psychologists to deliver best-practice care in high-risk communities.

In bringing so many musicians together to perform this evening, my message is a positive one – that if we really work together we can make a difference. I hope you enjoy the performance. Roger Benedict concertforlife.com.au WORLD SUICIDE PREVENTION DAY GABRIEL FAURÉ Tuesday 10 September 2019 Masques et Bergamasques: Suite 8.00pm Ouverture Verbrugghen Hall Menuet Sydney Conservatorium of Music Gavotte Pastorale

FAURÉ Pavane

FOUR SONGS: Concert DAN WALKER The Ether of Infinity KENNETH LAMPL & KIRSTEN LAMPL for Life Memory’s Wavering Echo RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Silent Noon PAUL JARMAN The Will to Climb Sydney Children’s Choir Sam Allchurchconducto r Sally Whitwell piano

INTERVAL

GEORGE GERSHWIN Rhapsody in Blue Simon Tedeschipiano

MAURICE RAVEL Pavane pour une infante défunte GEORGES BIZET Carmen: Suite No.1 Prélude – Aragonaise We are deeply grateful to the many Intermezzo people who have donated to this Séguedille project. Without their generosity this Les Dragons d’Alcala concert would not be taking place. Les Toréadors

Roger Benedictconductor Simon Tedeschi piano Orchestra for Life Members of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Opera Australia Orchestra with special guests Sydney Children’s Choir I hope this concert will touch your heart, soul Dr Tracy Westerman and mind. The Concert for Life supports the Aboriginal Psychology hopes and dreams of our next generation of Indigenous psychologists. It will make a real and Scholarship Program practical difference for bereaved Indigenous families caught in the grip of generational child suicides in a way that has never been seen before. It brings Australians together for our children; our community is only as strong as our most vulnerable. My vision is to support Aboriginal students with rural and remote connections to become psychologists, skilled in Indigenous-specific mental health, suicide prevention and intervention programs. To achieve this, I want to eliminate one very real barrier to Indigenous people studying at university – the financial barrier.

TheDr Tracy Westerman Aboriginal We hope we can continue to support Psychology Scholarship Program directly this program long after the last notes of addresses the needs of bereaved Indigenous tonight’s concert have been heard. families through supporting Indigenous students from remote and rural areas. These You can read more about the students will be mentored and supported to program and make donations at take their clinical and culturally informed skills alumniandgive.curtin.edu.au/ back into their high-risk Indigenous westermanscholarship communities. Together we can make a difference. We can together #BuildAnArmy of Indigenous psychologists to support a future free of generational child suicide. Adj. Professor Tracy Westerman About the Music

GABRIEL FAURÉ (1845–1924) Pastorale. It originally came near the beginning, underpinning a conversation Masques et Bergamasques: Suite between the threecommedia dell’arte Pavane, Op.50 characters, but it deserves to be heard on its Known today mainly for his Requiem, own, for its distinctive harmonic progressions. composed when he was organist of Paris’s It is Fauré’s last orchestral music, and has all fashionable Madeleine Church, Gabriel the hallmarks of his late style. Fauré was one of the most The final number inMasques… was the distinguished French composers Pavane, originally composed in 1887 for of his time. Moving in the chorus and orchestra with a text by Paul artistic salons of high society, Verlaine but better known in its instrumental Fauré once claimed to the form.The pavane is an old dance, thought to Princesse de Polignac that he have originated in 16th-century Spain and had “expanded the borders of taken its name from the peacock (pavo). refinement”. But his music has, Certainly its ceremonial character is perfectly in addition to surface polish and suited to the preening and display of the elegance, an underlying strength. dancers.The music is built almost exclusively Fauré is not usually thought of as on a single, suave melody.The short a composer for the theatre. (There’s a contrasting middle section corresponds to a cartoon showing him weaving the score of his lovers’ quarrel in Verlaine’s text. only operaPénélope – he had so little time left over from his duties as director of the Paris GEORGE GERSHWIN (1898–1937) Conservatoire it seemed the opera would never Rhapsody in Blue be finished!) But, like most French composers, he longed for theatrical success and appeased Gershwin started out on Tin Pan Alley, this “lyric hunger” by writing incidental music churning out what he hoped would be hit for plays, including music for the 1898 tunes. His first published song was London production ofPelléas et “When you want ’em, you can’t get Mélisande. ’em, when you got ’em, you don’t Masques et Bergamasques was want ’em” (lyrics by Murray commissioned by the Prince of Roth), but he struck gold – Monaco following the 1913 premiere royalties of $10,000 in the first ofPénélope in Monte Carlo. Fauré’s year alone – with “Swanee”, idea was for a lightweight, playful recorded in 1919 by Al Jolson. piece in the style of Paul Verlaine’s His melodic gift soon saw him Fêtes galantes and the scenario, with writing for Broadway and itscommedia dell’arte characters, was Hollywood, but he also longed to little more than a pretext for mock 18th- be accepted as a “serious” composer century atmosphere (think Watteau paintings) for the concert hall, fusing American and bewitching music: popular music with classical forms. Harlequin, Gilles and Columbine, the In 1924, Paul Whiteman asked Gershwin to maskers who often amused the court, in write a “jazz concerto” for an upcoming turn amuse themselves at being the concert.Whiteman was the leader of an odd spectators of a fête galante at Cythera; ensemble, somewhere between an orchestra without knowing it, the gentlemen and and a jazz band, and the concert was called ladies who applaud them give them the “An Experiment in New Music” – a chance for impromptu play of their petty coquetries Gershwin to present himself as a composer of and their trivial talk. concert music. Gershwin was nervous – not Four of the musical numbers inMasques… least because the deadline was a month away – were existing songs by Fauré.The remaining but Whiteman convinced him he had the talent four orchestral pieces – composed in 1919 – and assured him he could delegate the make up tonight’s concert suite. orchestration to Ferde Grofé, the band’s TheOuverture is a reworking of an earlier arranger. Intermezzo, wittily described by Reynaldo Rhapsody in Blue is in one continuous Hahn as “Mozart imitating Fauré”.The languid movement, but it falls clearly into the Menuet comes close to pastiche of 18th- traditional fast—slow—fast structure of a century music.TheGavotte is characterised by classical piano concerto. Its popular feel open gaiety and strong rhythms.The most comes from the cast of its melodies and the striking and deeply felt movement is the odd blues inflection.The opening clarinet riff – About the Music

that famous swooping run from low in the GEORGES BIZET (1838–1875) instrument’s register to high – is probably the Carmen: Suite No.1 most obvious jazz feature. Gershwin himself heard the piece as “a sort of musical For his last opera,Carmen , Bizet chose a kaleidoscope of America – of our vast melting disturbingly realistic story by Prosper pot, of our unduplicated national pep, of our Merimée. Audiences were shocked to see blues, our metropolitan madness”. women fighting and smoking, not to The premiere was a great success – mention the onstage murder of the the audience was captivated by the heroine; Carmen ran for 45 work’s distinctly American tone and performances, asuccès de Gershwin’s brilliant performance of scandale, but was declared a the solo part – and theRhapsody in failure. Bizet himself died on Blue remains one of the most the night of the 33rd popular of American concert works. performance and so did not live to see the opera take its place as one of the most popular in the MAURICE RAVEL (1875–1937) repertoire, its title character a Pavane pour une infante défunte universal symbol of the femme fatale. In Seville the gipsy Carmen is arrested for In its original piano version, this exquisite causing a disturbance among the women at music seems simple – it became immediately the cigarette factory where she works. She popular with amateurs in 1899. But it persuades Don José to help her escape and he counts as one of Ravel’s more falls for her, abandoning career and duty to difficult pieces.Transforming it follow her and a band of smugglers, only to be for orchestra was a wise move, thrown over in favour of the bullfighter allowing him to fully realise his Escamillo.When she refuses to return to him, instruction at the top of the Don José stabs her in a fit of passion. music: “Very sweet, but with a Bizet never visited Spain but, like so many full sound.” French composers, he captured the Spanish Ravel chose the euphonious local colour in brilliant music full of drama title for this music because of and vitality. Following Bizet’s death, his friend the pleasure he got from the Ernest Guiraud compiled two concert suites of sound of the words, rather than for highlights fromCarmen .The first suite its meaning. So how to translate it? includes the preludes or entr’actes that Bizet Indeed,should we translate it? Perhaps it’s wrote to precede each of the four acts.These enough that the title – like the music – conveys set the scene, from the ominous tremolos that Ravel’s twin enthusiasms for stylised dance begin the Act IPrelude to the vibrant, dancing forms and the past. As a stately processional Aragonaise, which is heard before Act IV as dance from 16th-century Spain, the pavane the town square fills with people anticipating ticks both boxes. And its intended “infante the spectacle of the bullfight. défunte” emphasises the links with Spain as The remaining entr’actes are equally well as suggesting a mournful nostalgia. atmospheric: in theIntermezzo (Act III) a flute Significantly, Ravel’s musical language as well and harp create a wistful mood, whileThe as his choice of old-fashioned French (“infante Dragoons of Alcala (Act II) has a brisk, défunte” rather than “infante morte”) remind military character with side drum us that we are not contemporaries of this underpinning solos for woodwinds.The Spanish infanta. In this regard, perhaps the Séguedille is adapted from the captivating truest translation is “Pavane for an infanta aria in which Carmen sings her way out of from long ago”. prison by promising Don José she will dance the seguidilla just for him.The suite ends with Les Toréadors and the exhilarating march tune associated 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 Achille Ouvré, 1907, source gallica.bnf.fr / Bibliothèque nationale de France); Bizet (photo Étienne Carjat, 1875) The Ether of Infinity: Silent Noon TheCSIRO invention of wireless data transfer MUSIC BY RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS MUSIC AND WORDS BY DAN WALKER Your hands lie open in the long fresh grass,— Imagine words and images on highways in the air, The finger-points look through like rosy blooms: A multitude of interwoven gossamer in Your eyes smile peace.The pasture gleams intersecting streams, and glooms Gigabtyes of scrambled information ’Neath billowing skies that scatter and amass. fly in formation high above, All round our nest, far as the eye can pass, disassembled and assembled all around us, Are golden kingcup fields with silver edge all the while unseen. Where the cow-parsley skirts the hawthorn-hedge. ’Tis visible silence, still as the hour-glass. We wonder at the marvel of this modern miracle, Our Antipodean connectivity, Deep in the sun-searched growths the dragon-fly The font of human knowledge at our fingers, Hangs like a blue thread loosened from the sky:— in our grasp, So this wing’d hour is dropt to us from above. Coalescing in the ether of infinity. Oh! clasp we to our hearts, for deathless dower, This close-companioned inarticulate hour From radio waves, we found a way, When twofold silence was the song of love. To understand their patterns, How they behave. Words fromThe House of Life by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882) Imagine words and images on highways in the air, A multitude of interwoven gossamer in intersecting streams, The Will to Climb Out into the world we send our messages and thoughts, MUSIC AND WORDS BY PAUL JARMAN And smile at faces carried on the wave, I have this adventure in me. The tyranny of distance could not hold us, [Breathe in, breathe out. Higher.] but has it come to save us, or enslave? The will to climb! I walk into the pages of history. My journey has just begun! Memory’s Wavering Echo Reach up, look out, there’s a world around me! MUSIC BY KENNETH LAMPL & KIRSTEN LAMPL Stand up, speak out, far horizons reach me. Shamayim naasu. By endurance I’ll shine. By the word of the Lord, My heroes will guide me. the heavens were made. Amen. I will conquer my fears. The dawn is at hand. Amen, Amen, Amen. I have the will to climb. Bidvar Yehovah, All the mountains are calling. Shamayim naasu. I’ll rise to my dreams with courage at hand. Amen, Amen, Amen. English and Hebrew words after Psalm 33:6 On Stage Tonight

Roger Benedict Simon Tedeschi conductor piano Roger is Chief Conductor at the Simon Tedeschi is one of Australia’s Sydney Conservatorium and Artistic most renowned pianists, a recipient of Director of the Sydney Symphony prizes including Symphony Australia’s Fellowship Program. From Young Performer of the Year, 1991 to 2000 he was first prize in the Royal principal viola of the Overseas League Philharmonia Competition (UK) and Orchestra in a Centenary of London, Federation Medal. subsequently He has performed in taking up the same the world’s major position in the concert halls and Sydney Symphony for world leaders Orchestra. including former US A frequent guest President George W conductor with the Bush,, SSO, Roger has Nelson Mandela and the conducted the orchestra in Dalai Lama. subscription concerts at the Since making his debut at the and City Recital Sydney Opera House at the age of nine, Hall. He has also appeared with he has performed as a soloist with all orchestras including the Adelaide the major Australian orchestras. Symphony Orchestra, Auckland Recent highlights include Philharmonia and Southbank performances of Rachmaninoff’s Sinfonia. A devoted orchestral fourth concerto with the Sydney trainer, he has coached the European Symphony Orchestra and the Grieg Union Youth Orchestra since 2000 concerto with the Adelaide Symphony and is a conductor of Orchestra, three tours to China with Youth Orchestra and National Youth the Sydney Opera House show Meeting Orchestra (UK) programs. Mozart, tours to the United Arab As a viola soloist he has appeared Emirates including the Abu Dhabi with the Philharmonia Orchestra, International Arts Festival, and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal national tours with Australian theatre Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra icon John Bell. and Ulster Orchestra, as well as the Simon’s recordings include Sydney, Canberra and New Zealand Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an symphony orchestras and Orchestra Exhibition, Gershwin and Me, Ensemble Kanazawa (Japan). In Gershwin: Take Two andTender Earth, addition to a recording of Vaughan as well as concertos by Grieg, Williams’Flos Campi with the SSO Tchaikovsky and Mozart. His most (2011), he has released three solo recent album,A Winter’s Talewith albums on the Melba label and one violist Roger Benedict, was released on ABC Classics. last year. Sam Allchurch Adj. Professor Tracy Westerman conductor speaker Recognised as one of Australia’s most Adjunct Professor Tracy Westerman exciting young choral conductors, Sam is a trailblazer in Aboriginal mental Allchurch is establishing a reputation health and last year she was named for artistic excellence. He Australian of the Year (WA), began his life in choral inducted into the WA music as a chorister of Women’s Hall of Fame the Sydney Children’s and awarded a Choir and Gondwana Lifetime Voices, under the Achievement direction of Artistic Award, Curtin Director Lyn University, Williams AM. He is amongst many now the Associate other accolades. Artistic Director of She holds a Post Gondwana Choirs, Graduate Diploma in directing the Young Psychology, a Master’s Men’s Choir and playing degree in Clinical a key role in the Psychology and a Doctor of organisation’s artistic planning. Philosophy (Clinical Psychology). Working closely with Lyn, he has also Her work has achieved national and prepared the treble ensembles of the international recognition, frequently Sydney Children’s Choir for cited as best practice, and she is a performances with the Sydney sought-after keynote speaker Symphony Orchestra and Opera worldwide. Australia. A proud Njamal woman, Adj. Prof. HTS EEIT(E YOS;TDSH CL ENTS;ALHRH(RDE ELLIOT) (BRIDGET ALLCHURCH BENNETTS); (COLE TEDESCHI SYMONS); (BEN BENEDICT PHOTOS: Sam was appointed Director of Westerman grew up in the remote Music of Christ Church St Laurence in Pilbara town of Tom Price, 2018, and Music Director of the completing high school and many of Sydney Chamber Choir in 2019. He is her university subjects via distance also frequently invited to conduct City education. Early in her Recital Hall’s Flash Mob Choir, has undergraduate studies she became conducted the Combined Schools determined to develop specialist, Music Festival (2017) and Kangaroo evidence-based practices that are Valley Choral Workshops (2017, 2018), more appropriate to the cultural and in 2016 was Acting Director of needs and circumstances of Music at Trinity College Melbourne. Indigenous people, especially those He holds a music degree from the living in rural and remote areas. She University of Melbourne and a developed seven unique master’s degree in Choral Studies psychological tests to identify those from the University of Cambridge, for at most risk of mental illness and which he received a scholarship from suicide, and has trained more than the Bill and Melinda Gates 25,000 clinicians in these tools and Foundation. approaches, enabling them to reach many thousands more Aboriginal people at risk.She is is now a recognised leader in Aboriginal mental health, cultural competence and suicide prevention. Orchestra for Life

FIRST VIOLINS DOUBLE BASSES TUBA Fiona ZieglerConcertmaster Brett Berthold* Scott Frankcombe° Kirsty Hilton David Campbell Sophie Cole David Barlow† TIMPANI Léone Ziegler David Clarence* Georges Lentz FLUTES Alexander Norton Joshua Batty PERCUSSION Sercan Danis° Carolyn Harris Shaun Trubiano* Ben Tjoa† Adam Cooper-Stanbury† Jessica Oddie† OBOES Blake Roden‡ Tim Yu‡ Shefali Prior Salina Myat‡ Eve Osborn† SECOND VIOLINS HARP Marina Marsden CLARINETS Natalie Wong° Rebecca Gill Francesco Celata Emma Hayes James Julian† Tobias Aan† Christopher Tingay Past and present musicians of the Riikka Sintonen Sydney Symphony Orchestra are Nicole Masters BASSOONS joined by musicians from: Lerida Delbridge Matthew Wilkie * Opera Australia Orchestra Kelly Tang† Noriko Shimada ** Australian Chamber Orchestra Brian Hong‡ HORNS † 2019 SSO Fellows & Fellowship alumni ‡ Sydney Conservatorium of Music VIOLAS Robert Johnson and Virginia Comerford* Jenny McLeod-Sneyd° ° special guests Rosemary Curtin Katy Grisdale† Sandro Costantino Stefan Grant‡ Jane Hazelwood Justin Williams TRUMPETS Beth Condon† Paul Goodchild Dan Henderson† CELLOS David Johnson† Adrian Wallis Daniel Yeadon** TROMBONES David Wickham Gregory van der Struik* Rowena McNeish Dale Vail† Eszter Mikes-Liu* Colin Burrows°

ORCHESTRA FOR LIFE 2015 Sydney Children’s Choir

Sydney Children’s Choir Ben Sweeney Keala Burns Eva Tarbox Maja Chesterman Jedda Thorley Leah Colleran Jasper Tops Abigail Connolly Annabel Twomey Stella Constable Anna Tyquin Emma Corcoran Gabrielle Utian Alice Dawson-Damer Veronica Vella Annika Deitz Georgia Vincent Hanna Wallace Lyn WilliamsAM Artistic Director Asmara Downey-Twiss Yvonne Wang Sam AllchurchAssociate Artistic Director Dashel Eck Isabelle Epps Chelsea Wilson Sally WhitwellPrincipal Pianist Adrian Escudero-Genc Lara Winsbury Iris Farrer Lotti Wonhas The Sydney Children’s Choir proudly Astrid Girdis represents Sydney as the most prestigious Frankie Glover Young Men’s Choir and well-known vocal program for young Gemma Golding Jared Atherton singers of school age. Founded as a single Lara Goodman James Brew Stephanie Gough Joel Brookes ensemble by Lyn WilliamsAM in 1989, it Bethany Hopkins Gabriel Dillon now includes approximately 500 young Athena Jiang Lachlan Donlevy people in a variety of performing choirs Asher Joyce Daniele JJ Eliezer and training ensembles. They are instantly Hayley Kepert Liam Green Eleanor Labi Ezra Hersch recognised for their crystal clear sound and Sophia Lauber Gabriel Kam known for their precision and discipline, Sienna Langenheim Jonathon Kelley developed through regular training, and a Mia Mead Ryan Kumulia courageous and compelling performance Stella Milton Richard Liu Lily Mullen Jude Macarthur style. Wilson Nguyen Caleb McKay Sophie Oates Marcus Ogden TheSydney Children’s Choiris our most Jacinta Rees Christopher Paoloni senior treble choir and is made up of girls Carmela Reznik Andrew Smallbone and unchanged boys voices aged 12–17. Poppy Rohanna Etienne Roumanoff The is an ensemble for Paul Rowan Sebastian Tan Young Men’s Choir Ruby Scott-Wishart Asher Tarbox boys with changed and changing voices. Lucy Sheller Leo Tarbox Marie Sikiotis Sebastian Wright Elsa Susnjara

PHOTO: LYN WILLIAMS Concert for Life ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The organisers would like to express their thanks to all those who have helped make this evening 2019 a success: Creative Partnerships Australia – Australian Cultural Fund Professor Anna Reid, Head of School and Dean of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music Sydney Symphony Orchestra – Emma Dunch, CEO Opera Australia – Rory Jeffes, CEO Sydney Children’s Choir – Bernie Heard, Executive Director ORGANISING COMMITTEE Jawun – Karyn Baylis, CEO Liz Benedict and Rose Manzini Roger Benedict Jenny Campbell Ross Irons Transport Paul Kenny Symphony Services International Gavin Partridge Ruth Sugden Cellarmasters – wine sponsor Jacqui Smith PRODUCTION Felicity Knibbs Adam Cooper-Stanbury Stage Managers: Tom Westley David Garrett and Thomas Wade Gordon Kalton Williams Orchestra Manager: Rachel McLarin Venue Manager: Jan Marshall Piano Technician: David Kinney Design: Graham Johnson and Oliver Devaris (ext77.co) Publicist: Robbi James Website: Roman Benedict Program editor & design: Yvonne Frindle Printer: Snap Print & Design, Chatswood