Festival of Voices would like to acknowledge the very significant contribution Don Kay has made to Australian choral music and more specifically, Tasmanian choral music. In 2021, the festival was privileged to present Don’s first published choral work Songs of Come and Gone together with his most recent choral work, Conflagration – a work which was composed in collaboration with John Honey.
Don joined the Tasmanian Conservatorium in 1966 and whilst his principal appointment was training students to teach music in the classroom, he continued writing a vast number of compositions.
We encourage you to search the Australian Music Centre for a glimpse of his many compositions.
Whilst there have been many performances of Don’s work There is an Island, there have been very few recordings of his first published work Songs of Come and Gone and it is with pleasure that Festival of Voices is now making the audio of the live 2021 performance public.
In addition, Conflagration was prepared and presented during the very uncertain Covid times of early to mid 2021 and the world premiere of this major work was performed at the Federation Concert Hall.
This event marked significant recognition for the achievement in vocal music of our senior Tasmanian composer Don Kay. An early song cycle was paired with the premiere of his latest major piece ‘Conflagration – The Tasmanian bushfires, summer 2018-19′. – Peter Donnelly 2021
We invite you to sit back and enjoy by heading to the @festivalofvoicestasmania youtube channel
View the 2021 Program
