Multitudes #1 - Migrant Swift

multitudes is a four-concert series at Moonah Arts Centre, showcasing the outcomes of violist Katie Yap’s Freedman Fellowship project. 

It sees her collaborate with four of Australia’s most exciting musicians - not just in performance, but also in composition. Through the joyful process of improvisation and co-composition, she and her collaborators have created four new works, which will see their Lutruwita/Tasmania debuts in this concert series. 

Each based on one of Judith Wright’s exquisite bird poems, these works bring together myriad elements that make up an artist. Each work celebrates a juxtaposition - old/new; human/nature; Chinese/Australian; and folk/classical. This is a classical concert series like no other: come experience the intimacy, warmth, and vitality of these new works and collaborations.

Concert #1 - Migrant Swift

Combining renegade guzheng player Mindy Meng Wang’s traditional Chinese music with Katie’s classical viola, the pair explore what it means to connect to your culture through music, and bring deep traditions into a multiplicitous modern world. Their concert program celebrates this meeting, and seats some of the most beautiful traditional Chinese music next to works by Ravel and Pärt, before coming together in improvisation to create something genuinely new. 

The centerpiece of the program is the world premiere of Mindy and Katie’s co-composed work, Migrant Swift, named after Judith Wright’s poem of the same name. It evokes the daring of both human and animal migration over oceans and untold distances. This is the story of Mindy and Katie’s families; of so many people in journeys both chosen and forced; and of the strength hidden in tiny, feathered bodies.