Alba to Oz

High Heels and Horse Hair are part of Enterprise Music Scotland's residency project.  They're a violin and cello duo, half Aussie and half Scottish.  Violinist Alice (the antipodean) shares her thoughts on their programme ahead of their concert on Thursday 12th June at 8.30pm.

ALBA to OZ Blog- Alice Rickards

I think Australia as a colony of Britain has struggled to come to terms with finding it’s own identity.

I grew up on a farm where my father bred Angus cattle. I wore a Hunting Stewart Tartan kilt to a high school that was situated in a town called Armidale, named after Armadale on the Isle of Skye, but seemingly the city fathers were not good spellers! Controversially Armidale lies in an area called ‘New England’ surrounded by deciduous European trees, dry harsh farmland and plenty of deadly snakes. We have a nearby Glencoe, some brand new standing stones at neighbour town Glen Innes and on the way there you can visit Ben Lomond Village at 1,370 m elevation, making it the highest village in northern New South Wales.

When Australians were asked in 1999 if they wanted to become a Republic they said No! It was just too much to consider replacing Her Maj, whose picture furnishes the walls of every Returned and Services League Club across the country. And so, 15 years on, Australians will be in Glasgow to compete for medals at the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

How wonderful to be part of this event by living here! Scotland has such a wealth of history, an awesome landscape and a fantastically rich culture steeped in a diverse celtic heritage. Many Australian’s nostalgically identify with this heritage as confirmed in 2009 when they came in droves to Homecoming Scotland events. More importantly Australia has a unique indigenous culture. One that is arguably the oldest of civilization and has it’s own magic that’s intrinsic to the landscape.

So where does that leave the contemporary Australian composers? Where do they belong and what should they represent?

Alba to Oz is a recital that explores these questions. Scotland’s musical history is celebrated in this programme and contrasted to contemporary sounds created by Australian composers who love the landscape and indigenous heritage of their southern continent.

It is of course the music of our homelands, which is why we want to share it with you the most!

This recital will be accompanied by stunning landscape photography created by Simon Butterworth, UK Landscape Photographer of the Year, 2013.

When Simon was asked in an interview for a photography magazine what he did in his spare time, the BBCSSO principal bass clarinettist replied, “I play the clarinet.” We have the pleasure of working with this rather talented gentleman with the orchestra at City Halls. Last Australian summer he stayed with my family during his 5 week photographic sojourn of Oz. The projections in correlation to the music are from a collection of his work- from Scotland and Australia.