BY CUTCOMMON
Sophie Hutchings was born on the same street as her concert venue. It’s a charming way to connect to the theme of her upcoming event in the Paddington Town Hall, part of a series celebrating Australian musicians in local spaces.
Piano+Place is a four-concert series supported by the City of Sydney. Along with Sophie, it sees performances from Jim Moginie (Midnight Oil) at Anzac Memorial, Chris Abrahams (The Necks) in Elizabeth Bay House, and David Bridie in the State Library of NSW.
Sophie will bring her trademark tranquility to her July performance; audiences may be familiar with the sounds of her soothing album Echoes in the Valley, which in 2021 reached global acclaim to the tune of #1 classical album in the United Kingdom. In Piano+Place, she will create a space in which “the audience can breathe, to enter a headspace of their own without any distractions, and to just freely float for a moment in time”.
We sat down with Sophie to chat about her Paddington Town Hall performance, and her connection to spaces in Australia and beyond.
Sophie, it’s so great to catch up with you after learning about your Echoes in the Valley album back in 2021. The world has been through so much since then — what has that looked like for you?
As far as travelling with music, that all came to a standstill. But it made way for other interesting opportunities between 2020 and now — collaborating from a distance with musicians, getting involved in other various recording projects, and also took me down a pathway of venturing our ancient geological landscapes here in Australia that I may otherwise have taken for granted.
I ended up enjoying the experience of travelling some of the most remote regions of outback Australia, and used that time to kind of document that journey through music, which was a really unique and inspiring experience — and the end result was my latest album A World Outside.
I gain a lot of inspiration from the outside world, and we have plentiful amounts of it here in Australia, which I delved into even more so since 2021. I really enjoyed spending my time reading about and travelling our own country, and pouring that back into my main emotional outlet. For some that might be writing, others painting, for me it’s music. I find so much can be translated through communicating through music.
You must have been so thrilled to be able to get back into your Europe touring. How have you found it fulfilling to once again share your live music with the world?
Sharing your music live is something I’ve learnt is something special on its own. Due to Covid, I hadn’t toured overseas for nearly five years, so it was special to return and share that connection through music with your audience.
It’s hard work travelling from city to city performing, but very rewarding. Not just because you’re making the effort to take to the stage, but it’s an opportunity to connect and meet those along the way who have been listening and sharing their own personal experiences through your music.
Music is so personal for people, and so seeing those people from all over the continent come to see your music live is really special. To be able to connect on a real human level through music — that’s the power of instrumental music and its strength; to form a kinship or deep understanding no matter what language we speak, or what part of the globe we come from. It evokes similar feelings in people, and translates in very personal ways. I think that’s pretty unique and the most fulfilling part of touring.
I absolutely love the diversity of venues you perform in Europe too. They all share their own unique personality through their history. Every venue tells a story, and you feel the history in the air, which definitely adds another element to each show. I do enjoy the array of culture too — seeing the changing architecture, and of course the food!
Back in Australia, you’re teaming up with Piano+ and Paddington Town Hall. What do you think is special about this venue — especially when it comes to creating a tranquil environment for your listeners through music?
There’s so much I didn’t know about Paddington Town Hall, and it’s also aesthetically beautiful. Piano+ are going to great effort to bring these venues to life with their production approach — to allow these walls to speak alongside the composers’ performance, which is what I loved about performing in Europe. It’s so lovely to see that angle of culture being injected into our venues here in Sydney. I really feel it adds to the mood and atmosphere of a show.
So much of your music is based around this concept of a calm mood and atmosphere. What do you observe when you perform an event like this? How do you read the room and see the effect your music is having on your listeners?
That’s a hard one because I think this kind of music tends to carry you into that more subliminal world where you’re not consciously observing or thinking, but you’re strongly feeling.
You’re definitely absorbing the room, and that filters through into your performance. Everything becomes heightened emotionally. There’s an energy that you can’t explain. Using the music as a silent form of communication, and allowing that to shape the atmosphere, I find to be a really healthy and beautiful thing to witness and experience for both me as the composer and also for the listener.
You feel people letting go. It’s a time the audience can breathe, to enter a headspace of their own without any distractions, and to just freely float for a moment in time.
For me, to sense my music having an effect is really satisfying because I feel like I’m able to give something.
Is this your first time teaming up with Piano+? Why do you think it’s important for Australia to have this new resource for piano music performance and education?
Yes, it’s my first time, and I think it’s a brilliant innovative project to raise awareness of the creative diversity we have here in Australia and bring that to life. These kinds of events and festivals are huge in Europe, and seeing them slowly being cultivated in Australia I think has had its challenges. I’m so pleased to see the passion and motivation in pushing through so that we have these diverse cultural events.
Educationally, it allows young ones to be inspired to carve their own path and to not necessarily follow one formula, which instills confidence in our next generation. But these things always appeal to all age sectors and bring such a vast array of people together.
I think it also associates us with other overseas continents a little more creatively, which hopefully allows international and Australian artists to interact more closely and bring about more interesting opportunities.
What are you most looking forward to when it comes to playing your Piano+ event?
Normally, venues I’ve performed in Australia are purpose-built for musical performances, whereas the Piano+Place series is all about bringing together music and history.
When you play in a historical venue, it brings so much personality into the room. It makes life interesting to tie all these various creative elements together. It’s not really been done much here in Australia, and coming back from Europe where this is so common, it’s nice to land in Sydney knowing I’m doing something very similar but in my own backyard.
Thanks for the chat, Sophie. Is there anything else you’d like to share?
I think it’s so great seeing these types of creative ventures evolve. I feel the creative world in Australia has been hungering for this for a long time, and it’s slowly but surely carving its way. The more we raise awareness, the more culture we are injecting into this beautiful place that we live, and may not be aware of just how many beautiful historical places are, in my case, on the very same street I was born on! I was born at Paddington hospital, and have never realised how much history and stories were being held right on the same street in Paddington Town Hall, and now I’m performing there.
Piano+Place presents Sophie Hutchings in the Stapleton Room, Paddington Town Hall, 7pm July 19. Tickets are available on the Piano+ website.
Images supplied.
