We are thrilled to announce that the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra's acclaimed Voyage of Musical Discovery Secondary School Music Education Program is coming to Brisbane in 2022 at St Peters Lutheran College Performing Arts Centre.
The Voyage of Musical Discovery series was established and designed by the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra and its founding artistic director and world-renowned educator, the late Richard Gill.
Each Voyage is equal parts concert and demonstration, and is presented by the co-artistic directors, Rachael Beesley and Nicole van Bruggen with musicians of the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra in the first half, and with a contemporary guest artist or ensemble featured in the second half.
By placing contemporary Australian music alongside earlier Classical and Romantic works, listeners are shown the many compositional links and similarities in structure, tonality, rhythmic function, orchestration and modes of expression.
A series of three Voyages in Terms 1, 2 and 3 that can be bought individually or as a subscription.
Photo: Robert Catto
Design & Innovation
Friday 25 March, 11.30am
St Peters Lutheran College, Indooroopilly
Presented by Rachael Beesley
& Nicole van Bruggen
Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra
Rachael Beesley | director
Edward ELGAR | Serenade for Strings (1892)
Gustav HOLST | St Paul’s Suite (1912/3)
Nonsemble
Chris PERREN | Go Seigen vs. Fujisawa Kuranosuke (2014)
The first Voyage of Musical Discovery introduces, demonstrates and explains key concepts of design and innovation in music across the centuries.
These two works by Elgar and Holst were created to be performed by talented secondary school musicians. In their early days as composers, both used different techniques to manipulate tone colour and this affected the very structure of the music in these two works for strings.
Photo: Jacquie Manning
In the second half, new music ensemble Nonsemble shows how these threads have evolved in music of the present day – including blurring genres and integrating acoustic and electronic instruments.
Photo: Cazeil Creative
Cultural Narratives
Tuesday 31 May, 11.30am
St Peters Lutheran College, Indooroopilly
Presented by Rachael Beesley
& Nicole van Bruggen
Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra
Joseph EYBLER | String Quintet in D major (date unknown)
Franz SCHUBERT | Octet in F major, D. 803 (1824)
William Barton & Véronique Serret
William BARTON & Véronique SERRET | Heartland and Kalkani
The second Voyage charts the links between music, culture and narrative.
From a European epicentre of arts and science, the concert begins by exploring the works and stories of two Viennese Romantic composers. That one is almost entirely unknown today and the other famous and admired suggests as much about culture and politics as it does about musical skill.
Photo: Chris Schmitt
The second half finds common ground between two instruments of different cultures – the didgeridoo and violin. Together William Barton and Véronique Serret trace improvised musical pathways, and hold a mirror up to the multilayered stories of contemporary culture and place.
Photo: Robert Catto
Musical Identities
Monday 22 August, 11.30am
St Peters Lutheran College, Indooroopilly
Presented by Rachael Beesley
& Nicole van Bruggen
Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra
Rachael Beesley | director
Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART | Overture to Don Giovanni, K.527 (1787)
Symphony No. 41 in C major, K.551 ‘Jupiter’ (1788)
Topology
John BABBAGE | ΦX174 (2003)
Robert DAVIDSON & John BABBAGE | The Singing Politician (2016)
The final Voyage of Musical Discovery for 2022 reveals the multiple identities of composer, character and performer and the links between them.
The Voyage begins by uncovering some of the unusual effects that populate Mozart’s Don Giovanni and his Jupiter Symphony with a mixture of musical and dramatic identities.
Photo: Karen Steains