BY STEVEN GODBEE
Fifteen years ago, a conversation with a young bank teller in Coogee led flautist Sally Walker to a fortuitous and solid friendship with celebrated Australian composer Elena Kats-Chernin.
Elena was the bank teller’s mum!
Now, the Darwin Symphony Orchestra is set to premiere ‘Night and Now’ – a flute concerto the composer has written specifically for her friend.
Attempting to resolve a problem with receiving her bank statements in Germany (where she was then resident), Sally spent two days visiting branches in Bondi and Coogee. Coincidentally, she was served by the same ‘handsome young man’ in each branch.
On the second day, Sally and her bank teller got talking and realized they’d both lived in Hannover. Sally explained that she was a musician, and studied and worked there.
“My mum is a musician too, a composer,” said the bank teller. “She writes ‘acid-funk-new age’. Her name is Elena Kats-Chernin.”
Sally recalls: “This made me smile. She is incredible, but I’m not sure I’d call her work ‘acid-funk-new age’.
“I had heard ‘Clocks’ and loved it, so was familiar with her captivating and imaginative musical language. I was promoting Australian Music in my chamber concerts in Germany and so was very keen to know if she had written anything for flute.
“I left a note with him for her asking this and my number. Meeting her son twice seemed serendipitous.”
For Sally, these little coincidences have become regular occurrences: “Last week when we met for dinner, we had exactly the same burgundy wooden necklace on – one neither of us wear often and neither of us knew the other one had. These slightly eerie things have repeatedly happened to us.”
Elena called Sally and the pair met up – and clicked immediately. Despite living on separate continents, a bond was formed, further cemented when Sally returned to Australia to live. It was the beginning of a long and strong relationship, connecting personally and professionally.
According to Elena, the funniest part is that she never normally calls people. “That’s not the way it usually works. I don’t mean this in an arrogant way, but more that I believe in chance. I like to leave things to chance. But the way I came to meet with Sally was just meant to be.”
Over the 15-year period, Elena and Sally have both enjoyed great successes and their respective careers have flourished.
Sally has toured and recorded with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, was Principal Flute of the Deutsche Kammerakademie Neuss and performed as Guest Principal Flute with the City of Birmingham Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales and NDR Radio Philharmonie Hannover. After playing full-time with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra from 2003-2005, she returned to Australia in 2006 and is currently Lecturer in Flute at the University of Newcastle and touring with the Australian Chamber Orchestra.
Elena’s star continues to rise. Her work has been heard in the most intimate settings through to the opening ceremony of the Sydney Olympic Games. Her music for ballet, opera and the concert stage is performed all over the world.
So what can we expect from the ‘Night and Now’ concerto?
“I felt I wanted to start the piece in a different way to how concertos usually begin,” Elena explains. “Often, a concerto starts fast and furious and dazzling and I wanted to start dark and brooding and let it unfold. Suddenly the word ‘night’ came to me because I do work at night very often. It just felt right.
“The first movement is a really slow, ‘opening-a-book-at-night’ kind of situation. Then it develops and becomes more active, getting brighter and brighter. It has a lot of optimism, even though it starts really in a dark way.”
‘Night and Now’ is written to fully showcase Sally’s musical talents and her unique sound: “Sally’s sound is full bodied. It isn’t a little flute which flies away – it has earth. That is Sally… how she is, very earthy, and elf-like at the same time. That’s what flute is, the way Sally plays it.”
Elena believes the friendship and mutual respect will add another dimension to the performances.
“It is fantastic to work with a friend and a player with a depth of interest in my work, with a knowledge of where I’m coming from and how I got there.
“As a composer, you give a lot of yourself to a piece – your inner-most thoughts and your subconscious. Sally often hears sketches of my work as I’m writing them and she has great insight into my processes. When you put your creation into the hands of a player as brilliant as Sally, it comes as a bonus that she instinctively knows how the piece works and how to play it.”
Elena Kats-Chernin’s ‘Night and Now’ will see its world premiere with the Darwin Symphony Orchestra and Sally Walker at 7.30pm October 24, Darwin Convention Centre. Tickets: www.dso.org.au.
The Zelman Memorial Symphony orchestra will perform a second concert on 5 December, more info www.zelmansymphony.org.au.
The project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.
Image supplied.
