Here and there: concert playlist

On the 28th of March 2017, concert goers at Elizabeth Bay House experienced a magical evening contrasting two different musical worlds.

Now available online, Here and There: Music at Home in Sydney and London, 1830–1845 contrasts the musical soundscape of colonial Sydney with that of cosmopolitan London. An initiative of Sound Heritage Sydney, the first half of the program contains music found in the collections of Sydney residents, while the second half consists of music that was more commonly played in London drawing rooms.

Part 1: Sydney

Part 2: London

Performer biographies

James Doig

James obtained a Bachelor in Music Performance at the Australian School of Music, where he studied piano. He later completed a Bachelor in Vocal Performance at the Queensland Conservatorium, and a Master of Music Studies (Performance) at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, specialising in early keyboard and singing. In 2012, James founded Prima Luce, a semi-professional vocal ensemble which has toured Europe and released three CDs. James has sung with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Australian Chamber Orchestra. He is currently undertaking further postgraduate research in the Historical Performance Division at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music specialising in the self-accompaniment of ‘art song’.

Katrina Faulds

Katrina Faulds studied fortepiano with Geoffrey Lancaster (University of Western Australia) and Colleen Rae-Gerrard (Australian National University) before completing postgraduate studies with Stanley Hoogland at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. In 2012 she formed a duet partnership with Dr Penelope Cave, performing several times at Chawton House Library, Chawton, Hampshire, as well as Lodge Park, Gloucestershire, and the Turner Sims Concert Hall in Southampton. Katrina and Penelope appear in four films about music at Tatton Park, Cheshire, directed by Professor Jeanice Brooks, which can be seen at www.hiddenhistories.co.uk, and recorded music by Larry Goves for Aura Satz’s installation Sound Ornaments in the Music Room, which was part of the Tatton Park Biennial in 2012.

Nyssa Milligan

Nyssa completed her Bachelor of Music (Performance) at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music in 2016, and has commenced postgraduate studies with the Conservatorium’s Historical Performance Division. During her undergraduate studies, Nyssa performed regularly with the Conservatorium’s Early Music Ensemble. This included participating in a series of performances in 2016 of pieces from the Dowling music collection, in affiliation with MHNSW. Nyssa has performed as a soloist for Gondwana Choirs, the Choir of Christ Church St Laurence, the Choir of St James’, and the Sydney Conservatorium of Music Chamber Choir. Earlier this year Nyssa participated in the Peninsula Summer Festival Academy under the tutelage of Sophie Daneman.

Objects on table in the morning room, Elizabeth Bay House

Here and there: music at home in Sydney and London, 1830–1845

On the 28th of March 2017, concert goers at Elizabeth Bay House experienced a magical evening contrasting two different musical worlds

Published on 
Dr Matthew Stephens

Dr Matthew Stephens

Research Librarian

Matthew Stephens is research librarian at the Caroline Simpson Library & Collection. He is particularly fascinated by early book, musical instrument and sheet music collections in NSW and the stories they tell. Addicted to the historical research process, Matthew has reframed the biography of the eighteenth-century British cross-dressing soldier, Hannah Snell, rediscovered the lost library of explorer Ludwig Leichhardt, and completed a PhD on the early history of the Australian Museum Library and the origins and use of scientific literature in nineteenth-century New South Wales. More recently, Matthew has led the interpretation of the history of domestic music in MHNSW house museums. Since 2015 he has been MHNSW’s representative in the Sound Heritage network (UK) and is co-author and co-editor of Sound Heritage: Making Music Matter in Historic Houses (Routledge, 2022). In 2019, Matthew curated the Songs of Home exhibition at the Museum of Sydney, which examined the musical landscape of NSW during the first 70 years of European settlement. He has collaborated with the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney, on numerous projects including as Partner Investigator on the Australian Research Council Discovery Project ‘Hearing the Music of Early NSW, 1788-1860’ (2021-23). Two research projects led by Matthew on the reinstatement of part of the dispersed Macleay family library at Elizabeth Bay House and the Dowling Songbook Project have received National Trust Heritage Awards.

A mannequin dressed in an elaborate Renaissance-style stage costume stands in a large Perspex-fronted display case . On the rear wall a small screen is showing a scene from the opera Lucrezia Borgia where Dame Joan Sutherland is wearing the same costume.

Dressing Joan Sutherland

One of the most spectacular costumes on display in the exhibition The People’s House: Sydney Opera House at 50 is an extraordinary Renaissance dress designed by Kristian Fredrikson and worn by Dame Joan Sutherland in the part of the notorious Lucrezia Borgia

Harold Blair sings at a piano played by Marjorie Lawrence
First Nations

Paving the way ... Harold Blair: The first Aboriginal opera singer

A short documentary that offers a glimpse into the life of Harold Blair, a world-renowned tenor, family man and political campaigner who sought social justice and human rights for Australia’s First Nations people

Todd Duncan (baritone) with Harold Blair, c.1950s
First Nations

Harold Blair, trailblazer

Wulli Wulli tenor Harold Blair AM was Australia’s first professionally trained Aboriginal opera singer

Rolled piece of music on wooden scroll.
WW1

The Allies in camp music roll

Rouse Hill house boasts a fine pianola, a player piano, which came into the house just a few years before the outbreak of World War I