2009 Festival

 

A very successful 3 day festival was held on 1-3 May 2009, combining classical and fine contemporary music with painting, sculpture, photography, architecture, poetry and drama in the heart of Australia’s most beautiful valley.

The 2009 Arts in the Valley Festival is without doubt the best regional festival that I have ever attended. Every aspect, from programming to day-to-day organization was absolutely splendid. Furthermore, it was unique, in that it celebrated both Australian music and musicians and Australian architecture. I look forward to the 2011 festival.
Peter Sculthorpe AO OBE

Sydney Morning Herald Tuesday 5th May 2009
Birthday brilliance with star power
• CLASSICAL

ARTS IN THE VALLEY Kangaroo Valley, May 1-3, Reviewed by Harriet Cunningham

Down the coast, over a mountain, through the trees, across the meadows, lies a tiny village.
Dressed in finest autumn colours by day and a thick mist by night, Kangaroo Valley is a picture perfect setting for a weekend away.

And with a burgeoning community of painters, sculptors, photographers, actors and an almost unseemly number of composers, it is a festival waiting to happen. But it takes energy and vision to roll all these artistic_goodies into a coherent form, and that is what artistic director Belinda Webster has done.

This year’s festival successfully combined local content with some serious star power from beyond the valley. Art competitions provided the material for the visual arts program. Meanwhile, the Goldner String
Quartet, the gospel choir Cafe Of The Gate Of Salvation and Band Of Brothers, an electrifying combo made up_ of the Grigoryan and Tawadros brothers, performed to sell-out audiences in a well-appointed tent. Simultaneously, some seriously classy artists, too many to be named, appeared in halls and private houses performing old and predominantly new music and words, most of them Australian. Very busy.

One of the many threads running through the weekend was the celebration of Peter Sculthorpe’s 80th birthday. Three concerts were devoted to his music. On Friday night the Goldner Quartet played four of
his string quartets, No. 6, No. 8, No. 12 and No. 14. Hearing all four on a program was a rare treat, as were the performances of the Goldners, playing with an assurance and insight only achieved by years of collaboration.

William Barton, whose didgeridoo playing inspired Sculthorpe to add the instrument to many of his earlier works,joined the quartet for the second half. To cap it all, the great man himself was there to introduce
each work.

The climax of Sculthorpe’s birthday weekend was the final concert, with the Goldners. After an ecstatic playing of String Quartet No. 11, they performed Webster’s present to Sculthorpe,a series of miniatures written by 13 composers, all of them colleagues, friends, students or admirers.

It was a moving gesture but it was also a demonstration of how Sculthorpe’s unique sound has touched an entire generation of composers and, whether by luck or design, the miniatures formed a surprisingly coherent whole.

Congratulations, Kangaroo Valley, and happy birthday, Peter.

Some Arts in the Valley 2009 statistics

Total number of event attendees: 2,963

Performers: 40 plus the choir Café of the Gate of Salvation

Performances: 69

Volunteers: 162

People who visited the Garden Sculpture Exhibition at “Wombat Hill”: 1,042

For your interest….

  • For details on the artists who took part in the 2009 Festival see our Performers page.