When: Sunday 26 May 3pm (70 min)

Tickets: available here

Pianist Therese Milanovic (from Muses Trio, Topology) and US-based, British-born violinist Sophie Till (from the Till Project) present "Fly me to the Moon" for an afternoon of gorgeous music and personal stories about four women who changed the musical world.

This perfomance at Plant Empire is inspired by Leah Broad’s award-winning 2023 group biography, "Quartet", which tells the stories of four pioneer English women composers: Ethyl Smyth, Rebecca Clarke, Dorothy Howell, and Doreen Carwithen. Leah summarises the women below:

Ethel Smyth (b.1858): Famed for her operas, this trailblazing queer Victorian composer was a larger-than-life socialite, intrepid traveller and committed Suffragette.

Rebecca Clarke (b.1886): This talented violist and Pre-Raphaelite beauty was one of the first women hired by a professional orchestra in London, later celebrated for her modernist experimentation.

Dorothy Howell (b.1898): A prodigy who shot to fame at the 1919 Proms, her reputation as the ‘English Strauss’ never dented her modesty; on retirement, she tended Elgar’s grave alone.

Doreen Carwithen (b.1922): One of Britain’s first woman film composers who scored Elizabeth II’s coronation film, her success hid a 20-year affair with her married composition tutor.

Although celebrities during their lifetimes, their legacy has unfortunately been largely overlooked in favour of their male contemporaries, Edward Elgar and Ralph Vaughan Williams, until Broad’s book. In this concert, Therese and Sophie will perform the Australian premiere of works by Smyth, Carwithen, Dorothy Howell along with Rebecca Clarke’s "Midsummer Moon", as well as Ralph Vaughan Williams’ famous work, "The Lark Ascending". Beloved ABC Classic presenter Ed le Brocq joins the duo for this afternoon of words and music to share excerpts about these composers’ lives from his latest book, "Sound Bites".

Tickets for this performance are $35/45. A cash bar will be available for socialising amongst the plants after the performance. Free parking.