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Port Fairy Spring Music Festival 2024: Cosmos
October 13
VariousCOSMOS – regenerating from a pandemic in 2022, and embracing the theme of Habitat in 2023, we expand our horizons in 2024 to marvel at the wonders of the Universe, and explore how philosophers, scientists, theologians and creatives have responded to its magnitude and mysteries since time began. The less we know about something, the more it fascinates us and the more we are compelled to understand it. Music has a unique way of expressing the inexplicable, and has the power to not only utilize and represent concepts of space and time, but also has the ability to bend and suspend them. This year, PFSMF presents a galaxy of stellar artists, and a heavenly host of sounds from across the ages.
Our musical sky is variously lit with intensity bursts of Beethoven and Brahms, and with the everlasting radiance of Schubert and Mozart; we sharpen our musical telescope on ancient trailblazers Gesualdo, Weelkes, Telemann and Biber; we embark on warp-speed treks with breathtaking modern melodists Korngold, Schulhoff, Messiaen, Bacewicz and Holst; we glide back to Earth on the transcendent, stargazing harmonies of Elgar, Fauré, Saint-Saëns, Czarnecki, Ravel and Debussy.
On returning home, we witness a spellbinding aurora of eight Australian composers – Shauntai Sherree Abdul-Rahman, Kevin March, Melody Eötvös, Luke Styles, Allara Briggs-Pattison, Stefan Cassomenos, Natalie Williams, and composer-in-residence Andrew Ford – including three world premieres.
Our starship’s crew includes esteemed string theorists Timo-Veikko Valve, Helena Rathbone, Christopher Moore, Zoë Black, the Orava Quartet, Elizabeth Sellars, Molly Kadarauch, Monica Curro, Campbell Banks, Douglas Rutherford, and members of Melbourne Chamber Orchestra; lauded aerodynamic engineers Carla Blackwood and Eliza Shephard; eminent applied astrophysicists Slava Grigoryan, Leonard Grigoryan, Hannah Lane, Louise Devenish, and Port Fairy Ring of Bells; expert navigation officers Stephen McIntyre, Rhodri Clarke, Toni Lalich and Stefan Cassomenos tapping away at the controls; an impressive squad of Southwest Victorian cosmonauts-in-training; and a starburst of intergalactic voices including Josh Piterman, Lotte Betts-Dean, Judith Dodsworth, Aurora Kurth, Anna-Lee Robertson, Demby McKenzie, the Consort of Melbourne, the PFSMF Chorus, and our annually awe-inspiring PFSMF Children’s Chorus – joining you all this October, for a mesmerizing journey across our boundless musical cosmos.