On 23 October, Sally-Anne Russell will give the world premiere of my new Hope Song Cycle at UKARIA Cultural Centre. I wrote the cycle for Sally-Anne’s voice, setting some of her favourite poetry by Emily Dickinson, Hone Tūwhare, Sara Teasdale, Christina Rossetti and Frances Frost.

For this one-night performance, I’ve created a special ensemble arrangement for Sally-Anne with soprano Clara Cutri, flautist Linda Pirie, cellist Joseph Freer and harpist Suneetha Carter.

Sally-Anne and I will also introduce the work and share its story. The concert will be recorded live, and the program will include a selection of related songs and a sneak preview of the final movement of Leviathan.

The journey of Hope

The cycle is a journey of what hope means: a single birdsong rising above the storm; the smell and feel and sound of rain after drought; lovers silently watching swans on the water; a tiny sandpiper with toothpick legs, trying to outsing the ocean; the opulent celebration of love come home — doves, pomegranates and a peacock with a hundred eyes.

Even amongst the cracked, broken ruins, in shadows and echoes, hope persists.

Hope comes home

In 2023, Sally-Anne visited my studio in Burra while touring the Mid North. Over a pot of green tea, I gave her a setting of Emily Dickinson’s Hope Is the Thing with Feathers.

The song fitted her voice beautifully.

Sally-Anne took Hope to concerts around Australia, including the Sydney Opera House and St Paul’s Cathedral in Melbourne, then twice on tour through Europe — Paris, Venice, Turin, Lago di Garda and St Tropez.

I hadn’t written that first song for Sally-Anne. After hearing her sing it, I wanted to write for her.

We traded poems and ideas and chose texts about birds, water and hope. I wrote the rest of the cycle for Sally-Anne’s voice, with humour, love, fragility and tenacity. We waited for the right opportunity to perform it.

Now Sally-Anne brings Hope home to South Australia for the world premiere of the complete cycle at UKARIA.