Therese Milanovic and Sophie Till: Fly me to the Moon

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Posted 2024-05-14 by Vanessa ⇒ follow

Sun 26 May 2024

On Sunday 26 May, pianist Therese Milanovic (from Muses Trio, Topology) and US-based, British-born violinist Sophie Till (from the Till Project) invite you to experience an afternoon of gorgeous music and personal stories about four women who changed the musical world.

Held at Plant Empire from 3 pm, Fly me to the Moon is inspired by Leah Broad’s award-winning 2023 group biography, Quartet, which tells the stories of four pioneer English women composers: Ethyl Smyth, Rebecca Clarke, Dorothy Howell, and Doreen Carwithen.

Leah summarises the women below:

Ethel Smyth (b.1858): Famed for her operas, this trailblazing queer Victorian composer was a larger-than-life socialite, intrepid traveller and committed Suffragette.

Rebecca Clarke (b.1886): This talented violist and Pre-Raphaelite beauty was one of the first women hired by a professional orchestra in London, later celebrated for her modernist experimentation.

Dorothy Howell (b.1898): A prodigy who shot to fame at the 1919 Proms, her reputation as the ‘English Strauss' never dented her modesty; on retirement, she tended Elgar's grave alone.

Doreen Carwithen (b.1922): One of Britain’s first woman film composers who scored Elizabeth II’s coronation film, her success hid a 20-year affair with her married composition tutor.

Despite being celebrities during their lifetimes, the legacy of these women has unfortunately been largely overlooked in favour of their male contemporaries, Edward Elgar and Ralph Vaughan Williams, until the release of Broad’s book.

Fly me to the Moon will see Therese and Sophie perform the Australian premiere of works by Smyth, Carwithen, Dorothy Howell along with Rebecca Clarke’s "Midsummer Moon," as well as Ralph Vaughan Williams' famous work, "The Lark Ascending."

Popular ABC Classic presenter Ed le Brocq joins the duo for this afternoon of words and music to share excerpts about these composers’ lives from his latest book, Sound Bites.

Tickets for this performance are $35/$45.