Tue 16 October 2007 | 7:30pm
John Hopkins Hall, VCA Music,
234 St Kilda Rd,
Southbank
VIC
Tickets are $20. Bookings on (03) 9341 8120. All funds raised from the concert go to Environment Victoria, whose Healthy Rivers Campaign works with government, business and communities for the restoration and protection of our great river systems.
Mildura based composer, wine producer and environmentalist Kim Chalmers has joined forces with Environment Victoria and the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) to increase support for Australia’s ailing river systems.
Ms Chalmers, who last year was selected to become one of Al Gore and the Australian Conservation Foundation’s Climate Messengers, has spent the past few months travelling in north-west Victoria talking to locals about the effects of climate change.
Currently managing the family wine label, which produces wine using cutting-edge sustainable viticultural practices, Ms Chalmers knows first hand how Australia’s changing climate is affecting rural industries.
The Chalmers family have declared, and actively maintain 80 per cent of their 4100ha property as a private flora and fauna reserve which includes 1000ha of Red Gum forest and 14km of Murray River frontage.
The steady deteriation of Australia’s most iconic river has inspired Ms Chalmers as a creative artist and as a conservationist. Her most recent work, Riverlife, is a percussion and electronic music work which investigates the relationships between nature, people and industry on the Murray River.
Riverlife was commissioned by the Murray River International Music Festival and premiered in January 2006. It will also be performed at the International River Health Conference in Canberra in October.
Now, in an effort to further raise awareness of river health issues, Ms Chalmers has joined with Environment Victoria and VCA Music to present a percussion program of contemporary water-themed works named Rivers.
The VCA Percussion Ensemble and director Peter Neville have kindly donated their time, expertise and venue to perform the program of Australian and International works. The program will include works by Sculthorpe and Takemitsu as well as Riverlife by Kim Chalmers.
The concert will be opened by Murray River ambassador, celebrity cook Stefano de Pieri, a passionate advocate of regional identity in the arts and industry. Wines from the Chalmers family’s Murray Darling Collection will be served at the event and a dinner for two at Stefano’s Restaurant at the Mildura Grand Hotel will be raffled on the night.