Songs of Open Country

A beautifully evocative concert celebrating the wonders of nature and connections with human experience.

The program presents traditional Icelandic and Appalachian songs alongside a rich variety of contemporary works.

Selected gems include David Childs’ setting of Emily Dickinson’s poem The Moon is Distant from the Sea, Lili Boulanger’s lovely Hymne du Soleil (‘Hymn to the Sun’), and Elaine Hagenberg’s joyous setting of Leonora Speyer’s poem Measure Me, Sky!

Ola Gjeilo’s Tundra with vivid lyrics by Charles Anthony Silvestri will transport the audience to an intensely beautiful wilderness region of Norway.

Australian compositions include You, Me and the Wide Open Sky by Dan Walker with lyrics co-written with Luke Byrne, and Daniel Brinsmead’s setting of Joyce Kilmer’s poem Trees.

Selections from Michael Dooley’s Songs from the High Country, commissioned in 2022 for CCS’s 70th anniversary, evoke the wild beauty of the high country surrounding the Canberra region.

An arrangement by Dan Walker of Burt Bacharach’s South American Getaway from the soundtrack of the film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and a choral arrangement of ‘Where?’ from The Rabbits, with music by Kate Miller-Heidke with Iain Grandage, round out the scope of the Songs of Open Country program.

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