What's On

Songbirds celebrates the breathtaking virtuosity of Australian birdsong with an array of original Australian chamber works commissioned by Ensemble Offspring. Be transported into the Australian bush by the familiar sounds of natures own musicians, with a little help from Australias leading composers.

After devoting her life to documenting pied butcherbird song in Central Australia, Hollis Taylor composed her trio Bitter Springs Creek 2014, pairing live instrumentalists with ancient bird sounds. Fiona Loaders Lorikeet Corroboree follows an upbeat journey which interweaves the chatter of rainbow lorikeets with the sounds of ground-dwelling composers including fragments from Papagenos Magic Flute and Vaughan Williams The Lark Ascending. Gerard Brophy makes flamingos dance and hummingbirds buzz in his three-movement tour-de-force Beautiful Birds.

First Nations composers Nardi Simpson and Brenda Gifford share Indigenous perspectives on the sky and its many inhabitants. Brenda Giffords Mungala (Clouds) evokes clouds building across the sea, while Nardi Simpsons Of Stars and Birds interprets a significant Yuwaalaraay story about the creation of the southern cross.

Performed by Lamorna Nightingale (flutes), Jason Noble (clarinets) and Claire Edwardes (percussion), Songbirds captures the magical bird calls of the red centre, virtuosic avian displays and Indigenous musical perspectives on these beguiling creatures of the sky.