A radical experiment in limitless music, words and truth

Between 2008 and 2011 I undertook a lot of personal development training because I somehow needed to become brave enough to be a composer. I met a lot of fellow students from all walks of life, each with their reason for wanting some personal growth in their lives. The enrolment was huge so we would interact only very briefly, such as when we formed small groups to practice techniques.

In one of the sessions, I met a lawyer from (I think) Environmental Justice Australia. When she found out my goal was to be a composer, she said, lawyers and politicians can legislate all we want about making injustices to animals and plants illegal, but laws are not going to change people’s minds. What we need are storytellers — like Hollywood writers, actors, artists, singers, composers — to put these themes into their stories, so that people are moved into wanting to care.

I’ve thought about it ever since.

When my friend Sally Walker asked if I might want to write a work about dolphins, I knew something about this responsibility would come into it, poetically, compassionately, movingly. When I discovered Sally’s lifelong fascination with dolphins and whales, my own abiding love for our living, breathing planet was channeled into a work that I hope does exactly that — move people into wanting to care.

When we started, Sally and I didn’t know what form or genre the work would take — all we had was the fact she’d played her flute in the dolphin habitat of Port Stephens (near where she used to live, in Newcastle, NSW) and tantalizingly, dolphins followed the boat, even to a part of the bay where they wouldn’t normally go.

The show I wrote took Sally outside her usual rôle as a flautist. Living Poems Of The Sea fuses personal storytelling, science, mythology and environmental concern into a dramatic whole.

My utmost admiration goes to her for delivering this demanding one-person show with aplomb — she has to play 4 flutes plus toy flute on stage (in addition to four pre-recorded flutes), speak a demanding narrative as an actor, and play percussion, including water percussion, all timed meticulously to a video.

Here is an extended preview (first 10 minutes) from the 2025 Canberra International Music Festival.

Click below for:

Full credits, background and the complete show.

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