nyilamum song cycles is a concert experience featuring string quartet and voice that intertwines ancient stories and a celebration of language with contemporary reflections on land, identity, and resilience showcasing music from Yorta Yorta Dja Dja Wurrung Dr Lou Bennett AM, and Paul Stanhope.
Two works composed and performed by Dr Lou Bennett AM open this concert with an exploration of the deep connections between people, music and the land. jaara nyilamum is a sacred story of life, loss, and rematriation after 99 years of separation from Country. baiyan woka, which translates from Yorta Yorta language as ‘singing for country/land’, is birthed from the understanding that we are all connected.
Dirrari Lament comes from Paul Stanhope’s String Quartet No.3 From the Kimberley, written after a multi-year collaboration with the Bunuba Community in the central-west Kimberley region of Western Australia. The work incorporates a Bunuba song Dirrari Lament, with kind permission from the song’s custodians June Oscar and Patsy Bedford, which describes a mother Black Cockatoo grieving for the loss of her baby.
This program culminates with nyilamum song cycles, a collaborative First Nations-led work by Dr Bennett and Paul Stanhope. Through this work, the Quartet becomes the voice of Country, guiding nyilamum home to her final resting place amongst the treetops. Experience this significant collaboration for the first time in Geelong.
nyilamum song cycles debuted at the prestigious 2024 String Quartet Biennale Amsterdam and garnered five-star reviews from its Australian Premiere at the 2025 Adelaide Festival. It has since won a 2025 CreateSA Ruby Award (Outstanding Collaboration), the 2025 Paul Lowin Song Cycle Prize, the 2026 APRA AMCOS Art Music Award for Performance of the Year: Classical & Experimental, and was a finalist in the 2025 APRA AMCOS Art Music Awards (Chamber Music Work of the Year).
Artists
Australian String Quartet
Dr Lou Bennett AM
Dale Barltrop
Francesca Hiew
Chris Cartlidge
Michael Dahlenburg
Program
Dr Lou Bennett AM (arr. Iain Grandage)
Dr Lou Bennett AM (arr. Iain Grandage)
Paul Stanhope
Dr Lou Bennett AM & Paul Stanhope
*jaara nyilamum commissioned as part of Quartet & Country, a commissioning project by the Port Fairy Spring Music Festival and its 2016-2019 Artistic Director, composer Iain Grandage, UKARIA and the Australian String Quartet
**Melody for Dirrari Lament composed by Molly Jalakbiya. Used with permission of the custodians of this song, June Oscar and Patsy Bedford (Bunuba Community, Western Australia)
***nyilamum song cycles was commissioned by the ASQ with generous support from the nyilamum song cycles Commissioning Circle and other donors
We acknowledge the Jaara Community and the stories they hold.
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