Ruthless Jabiru to play at the Union Chapel. October 14. Maralinga with Lara St John

A message from Kelly Lovelady
I very much hope you’ll be free to join me for my next performance on Monday 14 October at the Union Chapel in Islington. I will be conducting my orchestra Ruthless Jabiru and internationally-acclaimed violinist Lara St. John in a London tribute to Maralinga. 
Kelly Lovelady, Conductor. Photo by Paul Talbot Photography
Kelly Lovelady, Conductor. Photo by Paul Talbot Photography
I hope our concert will raise awareness of the injustice that has happened at Maralinga over the years. I’m working to create as much dialogue around the event as I can on Facebook and Twitter so I hope you’ll consider sharing details of the concert with friends and family. You can also show your support and+Follow our blog to receive updates by email.
 
Advance tickets can be bought through the Buy Now link on our website. I’m also selling groups of 20 and 50 tickets at a reduced price, please contact me to take up this offer for your organisation. It would be a pleasure to welcome you to the Union Chapel on 14 October.
 
Maralinga October 14th 2013 at the Union Chapel, London
Maralinga October 14th 2013 at the Union Chapel, London

Samuel Barber Adagio for strings
Paul Stanhope
 Qinoth (UK premiere)
Linda Buckley
 Fall Approaches (UK premiere)
Matthew Hindson
 Maralinga (UK premiere)
Arvo Pärt 
Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten

Lara St John
Lara St John

Lara St. John violin
Kelly Lovelady 
conductor

London’s all-Australian chamber orchestra, Ruthless Jabiru, and guest artist Lara St. John perform a concert tribute to the complex history of the Maralinga land in remote South Australia. Maralinga was chosen as a site for undercover British nuclear testing in the 1950s and 60s, leaving the area heavy with radioactive waste and thousands of Indigenous people and servicemen affected, both British and Australian. A musical programme by Matthew Hindson, Paul Stanhope, Linda Buckley, Arvo Pärt and Samuel Barber evokes the loss and the chemical strangeness which has become integral to the Maralinga landscape.

Monday 14 October, 7:30pm

Union Chapel, Islington N1, entrance on Upper Street

Tickets £16 advance / £18 door

Ruthless Jabiru to perform London tribute to Maralinga

Australian Conductor, Kelly Lovelady was awarded the prestigious 2013 Julian Baring Award from the Tait Memorial Trust. The Trust are delighted to support Kelly and the orchestra which she created, Ruthless Jabiru, London’s all Australian Chamber Orchestra.

The article below was posted on 12 August, 2013 by Kelly Lovelady on the Ruthless Jabiru website

Ruthless Jabiru is to perform with guest artist Lara St. John at the Union Chapel on 14 October, in a programme centred around Maralinga, a work for violin and string orchestra by Australian composer Matthew Hindson.

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Hindson’s work will lay at the centre of a concert designed to pay tribute to the Maralinga story through music. Maralinga land in remote South Australia was used for undercover British nuclear testing in the 1950s and 60s, leaving the area heavy with radioactive waste and thousands of Indigenous people and servicemen affected, both British and Australian.

“I wanted to devise a programme connected with the Australian landscape, to complement the Australia exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts,”

said conductor Kelly Lovelady, the orchestra’s founding Artistic Director.

“Maralinga was inspired by a stretch of desert where one political decision has had tragic repercussions for health, community, and the environment. I’ve chosen a programme to evoke the loss and the chemical strangeness which has become a part of that landscape.”

Maralinga scholar Dr. Liz Tynan described a complex tragedy of secrets, spies, and international relations.

“At Maralinga, part of our territory became the most highly contaminated land in the world. It’s time for Maralinga to become part of our national conversation, and the arts is a great medium to do this.”

Ruthless Jabiru will be joined by Canadian violinist Lara St. John, for whom Hindson wrote the solo violin part of Maralinga. St. John has been described as “something of a phenomenon” by The Strad and a “high-powered soloist” by The New York Times. She has performed as soloist with the orchestras of Cleveland, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, and with the Boston Pops, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, NDR Symphony, Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Camerata Ireland, Amsterdam Symphony, Brazilian Symphony, Sao Paulo Symphony, China Philharmonic, Hong Kong Symphony, Tokyo Symphony, and the orchestras of Brisbane, Adelaide and Auckland, among many others.

Ruthless Jabiru’s performance will also include the UK premieres of works by Australian composer Paul Stanhope and Dublin-based Linda Buckley, as well as cornerstones of the string orchestra repertoire by Arvo Pärt and Samuel Barber.

More about Ruthless Jabiru conductor Kelly Lovelady on her website here20130812-211101.jpg

More about Ruthless Jabiru, London’s all Australian Chamber-Orchestra here

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Tickets for this important concert can be purchased from the Union Chapel here