December feels different down under. The air hums with cicadas and thunderstorms, gum leaves shimmer, the horizon wavers with heat. It is a season of long light, beach days and bush-fires alike, and of families gathered and scattered, of endings and new beginnings.

A Sunburnt Christmas brings together the shining voices of Luminescence Children’s Choir with pianist–composer Sally Whitwell, soprano Rachel Mink, and the Ellery String Quartet for a very-nearly-all-Aussie program about summertime, family, the fragile promise of new life, and the glowing heart of home. Forget snow and sleigh bells, A Sunburnt Christmas celebrates the festive season under Southern skies.

PROGRAMME

Late Spring Elena Kats-Chernin

To A Child David Hirschfelder

String Quartet in E Minor (mvt I) Miriam Hyde

The Fern Andrew Ford

Golden Slumber Andrew Ford

Summer Comes with Colour Calvin Bowman

Ecstatic Dances Ross Edwards

Sun Dried Quartet IV: Aloe Vera Alice Chance

Sumer is Icumen In Traditional arr. Sally Whitwell

Southern Star Christopher Willcock

Hot Tin Roof Juliana Kay

Gibba Plains Noel Stephen Leek

Dissolved Sally Whitwell

White Wine in the Sun Tim Minchin arr. Sally Whitwell

Contact the host of A Sunburnt Christmas