Music / “Songs from a Stolen Senate”, Griffyn Ensemble. At Belco Arts, March 13. Reviewed by
GRAHAM McDONALD
THE story so far… This concert was originally planned to open the new performance space at the revamped Belco Arts (previously known as the Belconnen Arts centre) in May last year. The idea for program was to commission a number of First Nations composers to set words, compiled by poet Melinda Smith from various Parliamentary speeches, for performance by the Griffyns.
The plague put a stop to that and in September a live version was streamed with pre-recorded videos of five of the commissioned works interspersed with interviews and commentary from the composers and performers.