The Marais Project Pays Tribute To Tommie Andersson

The Marais Project presents The Fantastical Life of Daniel Solander, a tribute to Swedish-Australian lutenist, Tommie Andersson.

This special event curated by The Marais Project, is a tribute to the wonderful career of Swedish-Australian lutenist and guitarist, Tommie Andersson, and the huge and fantastic life of the great Swedish naturalist, Daniel Solander. Solander was the first Swede, and the first university trained scientist to tread Australian soil. This scientific Viking was also the first Swede to circumnavigate the globe. Solander arrived on the Endeavour in 1770 under James Cook and sailed the entire east coast of Terra Australis.

Celebrating in music and words the 250-year friendship between Australia and Sweden, the program consists of rarely heard Swedish folk tunes and baroque music from the time of Solander, along with songs by Sweden’s ‘National Poet’, Carl Michael Bellman, also known as ‘The Swedish Schubert.’ The concert specially features two songs by the Australian colonial era composer, Isaac Nathan, whom some call the Father of Australian Music. The famous Australian conductor, Charles Mackerras, is a descendant of Nathan. A musical ‘Acknowledgment of Country’ by First Nations’ musician, Troy Russell, commissioned by Jenny Eriksson, is an integral component of this event.

Drawing on the unique insights of Tommie Andersson, gambist, Jenny Eriksson who also has a Swedish heritage, and singer Susie Bishop, who speaks Swedish, the show was first heard to critical acclaim on Australian Digital Concert Hall. The performance was subsequently broadcast across Scandinavia with the support of the Australian Ambassador to Norway, Iceland and Denmark, and the Swedish Ambassador to Iceland, a nation Solander visited in 1772.

This rare and diverse music is artfully intertwined with selected readings from the journals of James Cook and Sir Joseph Banks that describe the strange, ‘upside down’ world that expedition members encountered as the Endeavour moved north from New Zealand to Botany Bay, Cooktown, and beyond.

Tickets $50/$35/20

Bookings

Read our review of Two, an album from The Marais Project featuring Jenny Erikson and Tommie Andersson.

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