Simone Young

Chief Conductor

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Over three decades, Australia’s own recorder queen has built an extraordinary, multi-faceted career.

From guest soloist with some of Europe’s most acclaimed early music ensembles to commissioning new works by the great composers of the 21st century, the common thread connecting it all is Lacey’s artistic curiosity, her generous connection with audiences and her expressive musicianship.  

This program invites you into Lacey’s fascinating musical world. One where ancient dances meet modern textures, and a centuries old instrument travels through time. From Medieval and Baroque to contemporary soundscapes you’ve never imagined, accompanied by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.  

Lisa Illean and Tom Coult take inspiration from past masters, reimagining ancient music for a new century. Thomas Adès and Alice Chance adapt familiar folk tunes, shanties and reels and rework them for the concert hall.  

Caroline Shaw’s Entr’acte opens with sense of classical order, then finely warps it. And Erkki Veltheim’s Playford Maze reimagines dances, transforming them into shimmering patchwork.   

Don’t miss this rare chance to hear the recorder sing, skip, mourn and dream across time.

Program

Erkki VELTHEIM

A Playford Maze – A Montage from the Dancing Master

BINCHOIS arr. Illean

Chansons (after Gilles Binchois)

Tom COULT

Prelude (after Monsieur de Sainte Colombe)

Lisa ILLEAN

New Work WORLD PREMIERE

Caroline SHAW

Entr’acte

SAMMARTINI

Recorder Concerto in F

Thomas ADÈS

Shanty - Over the Sea

Alice CHANCE

Nose Scrunch Reel

Artists

Musicians of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra

Genevieve Lacey

Recorder

Musician and arts advocate Genevieve Lacey connects people and ideas through sound, creating and performing multi-artform pieces that combine her skills as performer, composer and curator. Her poetic, sensual works are experienced in concert halls, public art, installation, film, theatre, dance, radio, TV and the digital realm. She brings to all her work her expressive musicianship, her love for the natural world and her generous connection with audiences.

Genevieve is a voraciously curious artist, whose collaborations lead her down a series of uncommon paths. Works include Of Ice and Stars (incorporating early music, contemporary and commissioned works, premiered with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra), Breathing Space (a permanent installation at the National Museum of Australia, Canberra), Bower (a musical haven, a gentle experience of music and light with Marshall McGuire), Pleasure Garden (a listening garden), Soliloquy (a radical reinvention of the solo recital featuring Telemann’s Twelve Fantasias for Solo Flute), Recorder Queen (a semi-animated documentary film) and one infinity (a cross-cultural, participatory performance piece).

As a recorder virtuoso, Genevieve makes regular appearances as a soloist with Australian and international orchestras including the Australian Chamber Orchestra, City of London Sinfonia, Tapiola Sinfonietta, Concerto Copenhagen, Melbourne Chamber Orchestra and the Melbourne, Tasmanian and Adelaide Symphony Orchestras. She has performed at the Lindau International Convention of Nobel Laureates, for Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Abbey, as a concerto soloist in the Royal Albert Hall for BBC Proms, at the opening night of the London Jazz Festival and on a basketball court on Thursday Island with Australian indigenous ensemble The Black Arm Band.

An advocate for her instrument as well as for contemporary composition, Genevieve has commissioned and premiered works by composers as wide-ranging as Australians Lou Bennett, Brett Dean, Elena Kats-Chernin, Andrea Keller, Hollis Taylor, Paul Grabowsky, Liza Lim and Ben Frost, as well as Erkki-Sven Tüür (Estonia), John Surman (UK), Max de Wardener (UK), Jan Bang (Norway), Christian Fennesz (Germany) and Wang Peng (China). Collaborators include writer Alexis Wright, visual artist Amos Gebhardt, composer Mary Finsterer and Antarctic scientist Steven Chown.

Genevieve is currently artistic director for Finding Our Voice and artistic advisor to UKARIA Cultural Centre, and was the inaugural director of Musica Viva Australia’s FutureMakers program from 2015-2019. Her curatorial expertise has been sought out by LiveWorks (Performance Space 2020-22), Rising (2019-20), Adelaide Festival (2019), and Melbourne Recital Centre, where she was artist-in-residence (2018). She serves on the board of A New Approach and was the Chair of the Australian Music Centre (2016-21). With an extensive and ever-expanding discography, she has won Australian Recording Industry Awards (ARIA), Helpmann and Green Room awards, Churchill, Freedman and Australia Council Fellowships, the Melbourne Prize for Music (Outstanding Musician Award) and the Sidney Myer Individual Performing Arts Award.