BY JESSIE WANG, LEAD WRITER (COMMUNITY AND SOCIAL AWARENESS)
This summer’s devastating fires have impacted the whole of Australia. While there are many ways to donate to worthy charities, the music community isn’t donating money alone: many artists are standing up to donate their skills as a way to raise money for the relief. (We’ve put up a list of musical events happening, which you can see here.)
In this interview, we chat with Erin Helyard, who is part of Music for Our Country — an Australian bushfires fundraiser concert at the City Recital Hall.
Alongside a team of artists (including the likes of Sally Whitwell, Alicia Crossley, Elena Kats-Chernin, and William Barton, among many others), Erin will donate his time to this 30 January concert of which 100 per cent of ticket and bar sales will be given to the Australian Red Cross, WIRES Wildlife Rescue, and other charities.
Hey Erin, thanks for taking time for this interview. First of all, how did you get involved in this concert?
I have known Elaine Chia, the outgoing CEO of City Recital Hall, for decades! She knew me as an undergraduate at [university] back in the olden days before internet and smartphones.
Pinchgut Opera, of which I am Artistic Director, is a major presenting partner of City Recital Hall, and Elaine asked me if I could help out to represent Pinchgut. And of course, I jumped at the chance.
City Recital Hall is a bit of a sacred place for me and I would do anything to be in that theatre.
If you don’t mind sharing, how have the fires affected you or those you know?
My parents live amongst the bush on the Central Coast, where I grew up. We were very close to being evacuated in 2003, and so of course this recent period of disaster was — and still is — fraught with anxiety and uncertainty as we all watched the apps to see where the fires were.
Luckily, the Central Coast has been very lucky, so far. But worse [off] are my many friends in Canberra, from when I was working at the Australian National Univeristy. Some have lost homes on the south coast. Also, my stepmother’s family lives on the south coast, so it has been a terrible summer for them.
It goes to show how everyone in Australia has been affected by these fires in our communities and families, and my hope is that this will amplify the call for action in which Australia steps up to the challenge of being the world leader in environmental issues.
What are you most looking forward to in this fundraising concert?
It will be wonderful to see and work with all of my musician colleagues and friends, and catch up with them after this anxious time, which for many has been the antithesis of the usual relaxing summer shutdown.
Give us a hint of what sorts of music will be played at the concert.
The music is eclectic and diverse, and perfectly represents our community. Musicians are just wonderful people, and everyone is bringing their passion and dedication to the artform to this concert.
Margaret Throsby will be presenting at the concert, and William Barton is also performing and also beginning the proceedings with an acknowledgement to country.
You’ll be conducting a diverse variety of musical genres — from J.S. Bach to Mozart to Sculthorpe. Why these composers and their pieces for this particular event?
All the musicians who are generously donating their time and their talent chose the music for this program. In many cases, they are direct aesthetic responses to our sense of place, our sense of home, and our sense of country.
There are many original compositions by Australian musicians — Sculthorpe’s Small Town evokes the atmosphere of many of the townships that have been decimated this summer; and there also universally adored classics. We conclude with the Dona nobis pacem from Bach’s B-minor mass—a moving invocation of peace. Everyone is simply bringing their best to this concert.
What can the music community do to help remedy the devastating impacts the fires have left on our communities, our land, and our wildlife?
I think the music community is doing what all Australians are doing at the moment — donating to charities, thinking meaningfully about political responses to the crisis, and trying to help out our neighbours, family, and friends as much as possible.
Music for our Country takes place on January 30 in the City Recital Hall, featuring many of Australia’s leading musicians.
Images supplied. Erin captured by Brett Boardman; illustration by Camille Manley.
