Our Duty to Care

‘Our Duty to Care’ is a cross-disciplinary, sustainability-themed concert conceived as part of Robert McIntyre’s 2022/23 University of Melbourne Wattle Fellowship.

Featuring Solstice Trio and soprano Bridgette Kelsey, this concert will create a new-music atmosphere discussing environmental themes broadly, culminating in the final, newly self-commissioned 15-minute namesake work that encapsulates the legal case Sharma v Minister for the Environment [2021] FCA 560, by way of setting commissioned text by regular collaborator and poet Savanna Wegman. Savanna’s ‘Prophecy, as a fire comes’ (2022) is inspired by the case/legal themes and its global social-environmental impact, stemming from the broad media coverage of the case and McIntyre’s individualised legal research as a current Juris Doctor candidate at the Melbourne Law School. Sharma is monumental and through composition, McIntyre has utilised his fellowship to expose the case to broader audiences so to engender more accessible legal sustainability discourse and maintain an even deeper legacy of this moment by way of incredible collaborators Solstice Trio, Bridgette Kelsey & Savanna Wegman. Despite the duty of care being overruled later in appeal, it was still legally recognised that all scientific data regarding climate change presented to the court remained uncontested by either party. Preserving this fact is crucial and must be more widely known, as it denotes a significant shift from fighting to prove our climate crisis, to focusing on fighting the crisis itself.

This hour-long curated concert by McIntyre will also feature two of his other existing works, as well as pieces by Sam Williams, Nat Bartsch, and a world premiere by Laura Abraham, utilising subsets/tutti combinations of the concert ensemble. The program will ebb and flow between different environmental emotions and atmospheres in varying nuance and subtlety, highlighting some of McIntyre’s dear friends and inspirations, and their impact on him, this fellowship and the community at large.

TICKETS – EVENTBRITE

Artists

Bridgette Kelsey, soprano

Solstice Trio:

Isabel Hede (guest), violin

Stephanie Arnold, cello

Georgina Lewis, piano

Robert McIntyre, director and featured composer

Program

Robert McIntyre

A Sea Spray of Ash for solo soprano and piano (2019)

Text by anonymous.

Laura Abraham

Tomorrow, and years away for cello and piano (2023)*

Sam Williams

Lunar for violin and piano (2019 arr. 2022)

Robert McIntyre

See through me for piano trio (2021)

Nat Bartsch

Homecoming for piano trio (2019)

Robert McIntyre

Our Duty to Care for soprano and piano trio (2023)*

Newly Commissioned Text by Savanna Wegman.

* World premiere

+ World premiere (arrangement)

About the artists

Solstice Trio. Solstice is a contemporary piano trio based in Melbourne. The trio formed in 2015, drawn together by a mutual desire to break the piano trio out of its classical music traditions with new repertoire, new performance venues, and a new audience. The trio have spent the last six years engaging in genre-crossing collaborations, curating performances which extend the concert experience beyond usual expectations, allowing space for moments of social connection and the sharing of ideas.

Bridgette Kelsey. Bridgette Kelsey graduated from the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music with a Bachelor of Music, majoring in Classical Performance (Opera) in 2019. She has worked with the Victorian Opera in various roles including the principal role of ‘Scientist 1’ in ‘The Grumpiest boy in the World’ (2021) and as a member of the all-women adult chorus in the Australian premiere of ‘Il Mago Di Oz’ (2022). In April 2022, Bridgette also performed on Channel 7 to raise funds for the Good Friday Appeal. She commenced work with the Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Victoria Society in 2021 within the ensemble and understudying the role of Kate in ‘The Yeoman of the Guard’, as well as performing the principal role of Pretteia in GSOV’s 2022 ‘Thespis’. In 2023, Kelsey has an upcoming role in ‘My Fair Lady’ as ‘Maid 1’ and understudy role of ‘Eliza Doolittle’ and will also premiere Robert McIntyre’s new song cycle for soprano and piano trio ‘Our Duty to Care’, composed as part of his 2022-23 Wattle Fellowship. Kelsey plans to continue her vocal studies this year at the Conservatorium of Queensland.

Robert McIntyre. Drawing on nature, important causes and the personal as potential compositional frameworks, Robert McIntyre b.1998 (he/him) is an Australian Naarm/Melbourne-based composer and flautist whose music creates an atmosphere of discussion and reflection. He is a composer who finds, collects and/or brings awareness to moments, holding space for them in order to achieve a multi-faceted sense of visibility. Robert has a Bachelor of Music (Honours) in Composition from the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, having been supervised by Stuart Greenbaum in his honours, and learnt under Katy Abbott, Elliott Gyger, Miriama Young, Caerwen Martin and Melody Eötvös across his studies. Described as 'strikingly contemporary' with an 'exciting voice' (Limelight), recent achievements include receiving a 2022/23 Wattle Fellowship from the University of Melbourne, winning the 2022-23 Leslie Barklamb Flute Composition Competition (Intermediate Piece Division), Composing in the Wilderness 2022 (Alaska, USA), winning the 2022 NDKC International Art Song Competition, 2nd Prize in the 2022 Luna Nova Composition Contest and being awarded the 2022 David Henkels Composition Award. McIntyre is published in ‘Take Note: Interviews with Australian Composers’ edited by musicologist Madeline Roycroft, for his co-interview, alongside Laura Abraham, of Professor Stuart Greenbaum. He is currently working with composer Dr. Katy Abbott as a social media strategist and is under her mentorship. In 2021, he commenced postgraduate study at the Melbourne Law School (Juris Doctor) and has aspirations of a Composition Masters further on. McIntyre is an Associate Artist represented by the Australian Music Centre.

Banner credit: Roberts Birze & Anonymous (combined image)

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

Due to current COVID-19 restrictions and University guidelines, there are a number of conditions currently in place for our in-person events. To read more about the University's COVID-19 response, please visit: https://www.unimelb.edu.au/coronavirus.

• The University continues to strongly encourage individuals to remain up to date with their COVID-19 vaccinations, but no longer requires evidence of vaccination in order to access campus.

• Wearing a mask remains recommended when you cannot physically distance.

• Please stay at home if you feel unwell or have been ordered to isolate.

• Walk-ups and latecomers will be admitted at the discretion of front of house staff.