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by Dr Renée Ralph, Co-Founder, The Brilliant Foundation
So brilliant to experience the launch of The Dying Sun album - a beautiful duet with extraordinary violinist Madeleine Antoine and Japanese pianist Setsu Masuda - this original composition was written by award winning composer and Fullbright scholar, Rebecca Erin Smith.
Photo credit : Dr Renee Ralph
Left to Right : Setsu Masuda, Rebecca Erin Smith and Madeleine Antoine
Can we imagine a life without music?
In 2016, Madeleine had the vision of teaming up with Setsu Masuda, the Japanese pianist and Rebecca Erin Smith to compose a duet for a violinist and a pianist.
Both Madeleine and Setsu brought the notes to life and the sounds ached, soothed and lifted us...their music urging and moving us to preserve our world that we live in.
“We are not separate from it (our world), we are part of nature,” says Madeleine.
Western Australian born Violinist Madeleine Antoine completed a Bachelor of Music at West Australian Academy of Performing Artis in 2020. She since studied at the Prague Conservatory of Music and at The University of Western Australia. Madeleine performs with the Perth Symphony Orchestra, as a soloist, with INNEKA and contemporary bands based in Boorloo (Perth). She has toured throughout Canada, China and Europe, and featured as a soloist on tour with the WA Ballet.
Setsu Masuda started piano at the age of 5 in Japan and did training privately under late Professor Arai of Toho Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo. Since being awarded the Licentiate of Music Diploma in Australia under the guidance of Dr Adam Pinto, she has enjoyed performing in a variety of chamber music concerts and toured in Japan, Singapore, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and WA.
From Left to Right : Rebecca Erin Smith and Madeleine Antoine
Rebecca Erin Smith is an award winning Australian composer who specialises in collaborative media and concert works. A Fullbright Scholar and recent graduate of the Manhattan School of Music New York, Smith earned her Masters of Music under the tutelage of Dr Marjorie Merryman. Her work has been internationally premiered in Japan, Singapore, Canada and USA. Smith lectures in composition and orchestration at Edith Cowan University, and is regularly engaged as an adjudicator and guest lecturer both nationally and internationally.
Please support our amazing Perth musicians and to get a copy of The Dying Sun for yourself or as a gift for someone who loves music, nature and environment.
Go to www.madeleineantoine.com
The Dying Sun depicts the natural environment as precious and rare. It is an homage to the land, made all the more important because of our knowledge of the frailty of wilderness and the rapidity with which the environment is diminishing.
The 1st movement Blood, meaning ‘lifeblood’, is in reference to the sun. It is mostly slow and gestural, and explores images of a wide expanse of land over the course of the day. The sun rises and the sun dies. The movement explores the detail which can be created out of a single note through the expression and texture.
The 2nd movement Milk depicts the vast Milky Way constellation.
The 3rd, Nectar, refers to the canola fields, the rustling harmonic sounds evoking the movement of wildflowers and insects.
The final movement Salt explores the coastal area at Sugarloaf Rock - a large natural granite island rising dramatically out of the ocean near Cape Naturaliste in the south west.
Sharing a video from The Dying Sun. This movement is titled ‘Nectar'. Click on link below:
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