This Hamilton Gardens Arts Festival 2020 concert began with a performance of the suite of 11 pieces composed for Katherine Austin under the title A Walk In Hamilton Gardens.
The piano suite was followed by a song cycle, Sit Down With Me Awhile, settings of five Ursula Bethell poems for piano and mezzo soprano, performed on this occasion by Cecily Shaw and Francis Cowan. The song cycle was composed in 2019 for first performance (in Auckland) by Catrin Johnsson and Rachel Fuller. Catrin and Rachel are featured performing Sit Down With Me Awhile on Voices of Women, a CD released under the Atoll Records label, 2020. |