Soundbite 4: If You Could Speak to Death
Wed 30 Aug 2023, 11 AM

ANAM Soundbites are hour-long concerts curated and performed by ANAM musicians.

Composers have written some of their most inspired works when confronted with death. If You Could Speak to Death explores these pieces, some of which personify death and others which are simply a response to death. 

We speak to death in Soomin Kim’s I’m doing well – a letter to Kim’s deceased grandmother. Ronan Apcar’s song, Psalm for Rothko Chapel, is a contemporary non-denominational psalm written for those experiencing bereavement and grief. Death speaks back to us in David Lang’s haunting song cycle, death speaks, while Olivier Messiaen’s Louange à l’Immortalité de Jésus (“Praise to the Immortality of Jesus”) is a religious and exceptional musical portrait of transcending mortal life – a beautiful musical eulogy to help us find comfort and beauty in our shared fate.

S KIM I'm doing well
R APCAR Psalm for Rothko Chapel (after Psalm 13)
D LANG Death Speaks for soprano and 3 instruments
MESSIAEN Quatuor pour la fin du temps - VIII: Louange à l'Immortalité de Jésus

Ronan Apcar (NSW) curator/piano
Donica Tran (ACT) violin
Lily Ward soprano
Louis Smith electric guitar

Approximate duration: 60 minutes (no interval)

Join music lovers of all backgrounds post-concert for ANAM's Music Discussion Group. Share your thoughts of the repertoire just performed or hear the insights of featured musicians from the concert. Located in CG.24, Ground Floor, Convent Building and free to attend (no bookings required).

Find out more about this performance in this article from the latest edition of Music Makers - READ MORE

Ronan’s training at ANAM is supported by ANAM Syndicate donors Andrew Blanckensee,  Aurel Dessewffy and Olga Vujovic, Peter and Margaret Janssens, Tony and Allison Kelly, Ralph and Margaret Plarre, Ken Schroder, Mick and Margaret Toller and Robert Whitehead.

Donica’s training at ANAM is supported by ANAM Syndicate donors Mick and Margaret Toller, Traudl Moon OAM, Michael Schwarz and David Clouston, Nadene Gilmore and Chris Ferdinands, Peter and Jane Phillips, Dorothy and Hans Carlborg, Anonymous.

Donica plays a Vincenzo Sannino violin generously on loan to ANAM from Emily Boutard.