This Saturday, 7 July, my work Heartland will be performed by the Sydney Philharmonia Choir at the Verbrugghen Hall, Sydney Conservatorium of Music. The conductor is Brett Weymark.

Written for massed choir and two pianos, Heartland explores various ideas of “home”. At the rehearsal on Wednesday it was sounding really good, with the choir suitably energetic and the pianists right on track. Interestingly, the Sydney Philharmonia are doing the original, “full” version of the piece before it was revised, and it was great to hear some musical material that was excised before the other previous performances of the work.

It is a fun piece (in my opinion), and leads me to wonder why some people believe notions of high art and fun are mutually exclusive.