A hymnal to the country under our feet.

A living songbook more than four years in the making, Andrew Ford’s hymnal brings together the words of sixteen contemporary Australian writers – poets, essayists, and folksingers. Born in a time of fire and darkness, grief, and loss, and then fragile, tender hope, Red Dirt Hymns are songs of awe and praise, dedicated not to a god, but to the land.

Red Dirt Hymns is performed by the ever-daring voices of Luminescence Chamber Singers alongside with two rising stars: Harley Coleman (electric guitar), and category-defying cellist Freya Schack-Arnott. Songs that span art music, folk song, country ballad, and Aussie rock, unfold to the evocative imagery of Sammy Hawker, whose art is created within the fabric of country itself: saltwater, limestone and eucalypt.

From Ellen van Neerven’s dark clouds to John Kinsella’s abundant gardens, Red Dirt Hymns does what a hymnal is meant to do: it draws us closer – to each other, and to the light and shade of our wide brown land.

PROGRAM

Andrew Ford

Respair (text: Felicity Plunkett)
My Octopus Teacher (text: Alison Flett)
Waiting for Clouds (text: Martha Marlow)
Dark Cloud (text: Ellen van Neerven)
Isolation Hymn (text: Judith Bishop)
Hymn of the Garden (text: John Kinsella)
Stand and Weep (text: Jill Jones)
The Shape of a Vase (text: Erik Jensen)
Between Birds (text: Merlinda Bobbins)
Syreeni (text: Maria Takolander)
Gone (text: Jodie Albiston)
What Desire Knows (text: Sarah Holland-Batt)
Looking for Corners (text: Melanie Horsnell)
Our Mother’s Heart (text: Kate Fagan)
To Whom Do We Sing (text: Mark Wakely)
This is to You (text: Philip Harvey)

1 hour, no interval

Developed in collaboration with Roland Peelman, AM

Red Dirt Hymns was premiered at the 2024 Canberra International Music Festival, at the National Museum of Australia, and was awarded a 2024 Canberra Critics Award.

CONCERTS

Sunday 9 November, 4pm | Orange Civic Theatre
Friday 14 November, 7:30pm | Bowral Memorial Hall
Sunday 16 November, 6:30pm | Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre
Friday 21 November | Four Winds, Bermagui