"—the little that we get for
free,
the little of our earthly trust.
Not much.
About the size of our abidance
along with theirs: the munching
cows,
the iris, crisp and shivering,
the water
still standing from spring
freshets,
the yet-to-be-dismantled elms,
the geese."
—Elizabeth Bishop, “Poem”
"Each day with so much ceremony
begins, with birds, with bells,
with whistles from the
factories…."
—Elizabeth Bishop, “Anaphora”
Today marks 33 years since
Elizabeth Bishop’s death. With so many creative projects happening around the
world inspired by and in tribute to Elizabeth Bishop, her legacy is alive and
well.
One of the most exciting of these
projects is the Elizabeth Bishop Legacy Recording being done in Nova Scotia by Suzie
LeBlanc (
www.suzieleblanc.com) and
her fantastic team of composers and musicians. Music was an abiding love for
Bishop, all kinds of music, and to honour her with a CD of glorious settings of
her poems (including “Anaphora”), is appropriate indeed. All of the music being
recorded was premiered in 2011 during the Elizabeth Bishop Centenary Festival
in Nova Scotia.
A crowd-source fund-raising
campaign is underway to raise money for this independent project. You can find
out more, learn about it progress and make a contribution at
www.eb100legacyrecording.blogspot.ca.
Contributions have come from all over the world and we are deeply grateful for
this support.
A SPECIAL FUND-RAISER IN AUSTRALIA!
I am thrilled to tell you about a
special fund-raising event for the Nova Scotia Bishop CD, which will happen in Australia! Acclaimed
Australian composer Dindy Vaughan
will be holding a fund-raiser in Melbourne
on Sunday, 28 October 2012. It will be a gathering of singers and musicians
from Dindy’s wide circle, who will perform in support of this Bishop project.
Dindy Vaughan
Suzie LeBlanc and Blue Engine
String Quartet performed one of Vaughan’s
“Sea shells on Bruny” during the final EB100 gala concert on 3 October 2011.
In a recent email, explaining her
reasons for offering this amazing support, Dindy wrote: “I am passionate to
make things such as this [the CD] happen; women have to work extremely hard to
be recognised. Many of the friends I have invited have worked with me for years
on different aspects of the women’s movement, and we all care deeply that
women’s achievements, such as Elizabeth Bishop’s, are not swept under the
carpet. So, the prospect has fallen amongst a very committed gang of Australian
friends.”
We are profoundly grateful to
Dindy and her friends for this interest and support. It demonstrates the global
reach of Elizabeth Bishop’s and Suzie LeBlanc’s art. It is thrilling to imagine
these distant friends taking up the cause, raising funds through their own
songs.
******
More about Dindy Vaughan:
“Dindy Vaughan is a composer, environmentalist,
organiser, writer and educator. Her music is frequently performed live and has
been broadcast on 3MBS FM and the ABC. Happiest in the thick of artistic,
intellectual but above all practical, activity, she thrives in social groups
where imagination and creativity combine with plenty of grass roots growth in a
hurry.
In 1996 Dindy was awarded the prestigious University of Sydney Alumni Award for Achievement in
Community Service. The award was given for her innovation, stimulation of new
ideas and services, creativity, dedication and leadership in the areas of arts
and education. She was nominated and selected for inclusion in Who’s Who in the
World, Millennium 2000 edition, having demonstrated ‘outstanding achievements
in (her own) fields of endeavour… thereby, contributed significantly to the
betterment of contemporary society’.” This information has been taken from the
following website:
http://www.move.com.au/artist/dindy-vaughan
Check out these websites for even more
information about Dindy:
Posts
