FIFTH STRING MEMBERS BLOG: Ensemble Dutala

I remember the first time I heard Deborah Cheetham AO speak where I truly listened and heard what she was saying. Let’s be honest - sometimes we listen but we don’t hear. It was in 2019 as part of a Melbourne Symphony Orchestra rehearsal as we were preparing to perform her incredibly moving (some might say heartbreaking) work, Eumeralla. Based on her rise and rise as a composer and a love of her compositional voice, FQ had already commissioned Deborah to write a new string quartet so I was eager to absorb her words. Deborah had the orchestra and chorus transfixed with the suggestion that we might be able to make sense of the past and navigate the future through music.

Wendy Avilov22 February 2022 Comment

FIFTH STRING MEMBERS BLOG: Inside FQ’S Composer Development Program

People often ask if I compose music myself, and I have tried, honestly I have. Not for any length of time, but enough time spent that I have enormous respect for anyone creating and organising sound for others to play. One of the hardest things about being a composer (and there are many) is that your creation may not even be heard, and then we enter the philosophical discussion - if it isn’t heard, does it even exist?

Wendy Avilov24 November 2021Comment

FIFTH STRING MEMBERS BLOG: Who’s Jimi Hendrix?

I used to find working with teenagers quite terrifying but our work with Footscray High School (FHS) has completely changed my outlook. They are polite, engaged and interested students who are genuinely curious about who we are and what we do.

Our project in 2021 has been to introduce FHS to Bartok; his groundbreaking work with Eastern European folk tunes and his move to the USA to escape the rise of the Nazis in World War II. We began by playing snippets of the first movement of Bartok’s 5th string quartet to year 7 art students, alternating between playing while they responded to the music to chatting with them about their responses and hearing them discuss what they were hearing. It was as much a learning curve for us as it was for them. Their initial response was:

“Wow - it sounds so angry!”

“I can really hear World War II”

“He sounds really violent”

Wendy Avilov19 August 2021Comment

FIFTH STRING MEMBERS BLOG: FQ at 2021 Adelaide Festival

I’m sure that most festivals, promoters and events have plan A, B and C, in fact, probably an entire alphabet of plans to cope with COVID lockdowns and the myriad of possible scenarios. But no one ever wants to have to implement them.

Our invitation to the Adelaide Festival came during the big Melbourne lockdown of 2020 and was such a ray of sunshine to look forward to in an ocean of cancellations. Kim Williams AM curated “Incredible Floridas: Chamber Landscapes” for the festival, one of the most fascinating and enriching programs I have ever seen and we were thrilled with the prospect of making our UKARIA debut with some magnificent repertoire. A masterclass in the history of Australian classical music and poetry, every single concert had multiple gems, all centred around Richard Meale’s seldom performed masterpiece “Incredible Floridas”. In fact, the majority of the music was seldom performed, but that’s another story.

Wendy Avilov16 April 2021 Comment