A Fist Full of Wits - F|OWL - Late Edition

F│OWL – traversing Wisdom, Memory, Survival

What can you hear in the night?

The murderous screeching of an owl? The whisper of a forest fighting for survival? Or the distant echoes of humanity’s passions, hatreds, and indifference?

F│OWL is a captivating performance that draws together a rich tapestry of literature, music, poetry, and environmental reflection. At the heart of the program is the haunting presence of the owl: hunter, guardian, witness, and solitary sentinel.

Inspired by the endangered Tasmanian Masked Owl and the fragile ecosystems it inhabits, F│OWL explores themes of wisdom, memory, responsibility and loss.  The program asks a compelling question:  what happens when the voices of the night forest fall silent?  Will the secrets of the natural world survive only as archived records and digital sound files?

Except for Purcell, all the composers in this program are interpreting texts contemporaneously, but the closing lines of Purcell’s 17th century opera Dido and Aeneas “Remember me! But ah! Forget my fate”, both a plea against oblivion and an acceptance of mortality, speak of memory as an act of love and a source of pain.

Einstein’s words written in the aftermath of the atomic bomb resonate with urgent contemporary relevance also.  Humanity possesses unprecedented power to transform the world, yet wisdom has not always kept pace with knowledge,  As the program unfolds, the audience is drawn not a profound reflection on what it means to witness, to remember, and to care.

The final question is not simply what will happen to the owl, nor even what will happen to the planet.

It is what will happen to us. Will insight, compassion, memory and conscience develop quickly enough to prevent destruction?

Listen carefully.

The night is speaking.

Get up close and personal in the intimacy of the Founders Room with just 80 people at tables of 4. The bar will be open before and during the show.

Two shows only - 6.00pm & 8.00pm. Be quick.

A FIST FULL OF WITS  

A FIST FULL OF WITS is a new and exciting vocal ensemble bringing a different and stimulating approach to the presentation of contemporary choral music in Tasmania.

Led by Creative Director June Tyzack, A Fist Full of Wits is an ensemble of no more than 20 singers that promises to engage its audience through innovative manipulation of the five inner wits of Common Sense, Imagination, Fantasy, Instinct, and Memory, along with the five outer senses of Sight, Touch, Taste, Smell, and Hearing.

Sung from memory and driven by text, A Fist Full of Wits Happenings will invariably confront and comfort, be interactive or detached experiences, always have a twist that will stay long in your memory. All music is respected, everything is real, challenging to perform, and stimulating to hear.

June Tyzack, Creative Director

Born in Burnie, Tasmania, June started piano lessons at age 10 and later moved to Hobart to study with Beryl Sedivka at the Hobart Conservatorium of Music. Following her graduation in 1975, she moved to London to take up a scholarship to study with Joseph Weingarten at Trinity College of Music. Despite a huge trove of chamber music under her fingers, in London June developed a love of Opera and the human voice.

She returned to Australia in 1980 and took up a position as Chief Vocal Coach, accompanist and repetiteur, for the Opera Studio of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music under the mentorship of Myer Fredman.  Not restricted to only working with students, these decades included freelance work with Opera Australia and in the Sydney Music Theatre scene, as well as harpsichordist with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, and pit orchestra keyboardist.

In 1999, June came back to Tasmania with her husband Gary and daughter Emma to take up residence at The Grange in Campbell Town, essentially to grow a hedge maze. In 2001 however, the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra invited her to be Guest Chorus Master for an Opera Gala. From that event, and until she resigned as Chorus Master in 2023, the TSO Chorus developed into the cohesive, reliable, travelling, and spirited chorus we now know. She crafted a group of casual singers, not only into a symphonic chorus respected both nationally and internationally, but also one that embraced the weird and wonderful world of Mona, Mona Foma, Ballet Lab, Dark Mofo, Spiegeltent and others.

As Creative Director of the TSO’s Obscura series, she created some of the best contemporary music concerts ever presented in Hobart.

She now brings all that knowledge and experience into the next chapter:

A FIST FULL OF WITS.