More than 300 young singers will gather at UNSW in Kensington, Sydney next week when Gondwana Choirs presents the 2020 Festival of Summer Voices from January 16 – 19. The Grand Finale will feature all six Gondwana National Choirs in an evening of song including the world premiere of a work by Australian composer Lisa Young called Sacred Stepping Stones, written for the combined ensembles. Lisa Young spoke to Limelight about her new composition.

Lisa Young with some Gondwana Choristers. Photograph © Rainbow Chan, Gondwana Choirs

I believe your new work is a response to climate change? Is that right?

Yes. The piece is about the way the land shapes us and our planet being sacred and precious to us all. There’s a line in the chorus, “and we awaken to stand for the call’” which is written in support of the way the younger generation have so publicly and passionately voiced their concerns about climate change, demanding to be heard, and for action to be taken. In response to climate change, I wanted the interlude in the piece to evoke cool soothing places that I love. The lines “cold rocks and stepping stones”;...