The Cello On The Ghan

Travellers on The Ghan will enjoy an added dimension to their journeys as Melbourne cellist Richard Narroway performs on the railway adventure from Saturday, May 29 until Tuesday, June 1, 2021.

As well as playing for guests on board The Ghan, Narroway will entertain locals along the journey from Darwin to Katherine, Alice Springs, Coober Pedy and Adelaide.

The Ghan project is the result of Narroway’s prize of $21,000 in the 2020 Freedman Classical Fellowship, one of the most prestigious national music awards offered to Australian musicians. The life-changing prize enables recipients to undertake a proposed creative and career-defining project. The repertoire featured on The Ghan tour will include works by Peter Sculthorpe, Ross Edwards, Kate Moore, Elena Kats Chernin, and two exciting new electro-acoustic commissions from Melbourne based composers Tilman Robinson and Stephen Selios Adam. These works will also feature on an upcoming album Narroway will record later in the year.

Repeater Productions will film The Ghan journey, directed by Ben Golotta. The visual recordings will undoubtedly lend a striking narrative dimension to the endeavour, which will accompany the
eventual recording release, and ultimately entice a broad range of listeners to his music.
“Whether my performances are aboard the train for fellow guests, underground in the opal mining town of Coober Pedy or out in the vast deserted landscape, the profound presence of these stunning visual backdrops will serve to elevate the music in a truly exceptional way,” says Narroway.

Richard Narroway is currently Cello lecturer at Melbourne Conservatorium, University of Melbourne. He spent ten years overseas earning degrees from the Juilliard School and Northwestern, with a Doctorate at the University of Michigan. 

Narroway will give a pre-tour concert which includes some of the pieces on the program on May 13 at Hanson Dyer Hall, Melbourne Conservatorium.