Jonathan Henderson will premiere the Australian composer’s new work with the Brisbane Philharmonic Orchestra.

“I believe that at the heart of the work is a sense of questioning and transformation,” Australian composer Lisa Cheney tells me ahead of the premiere of her brand new Concerto for Flute. Her work will be performed this Sunday by Australian flautist Jonathan Henderson and the Brisbane Philharmonic Orchestra, under the baton of Michael Keen. “The musical landscape is still, but never stagnant as it slowly expands in energy, textural shapes, momentum and transforming beauty. The harmonic language is an organic and colourful blend, blurring sonorities, chromatic flute lines and shifting perspectives of light and dark that seeks out a strange kind of harmonic beauty.”

The 29-year-old composer is one of the fast-rising stars of the Australian composition scene and her work has been performed by ensembles such Plexus, Syzygy, Sydney Antiphony, the Queensland Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, as well as the Australian Ballet, to name just a few.

Lisa CheneyComposer Lisa Cheney. Photo © Daniele Martinie

This new work commissioned by the Brisbane Philharmonic Orchestra, however, marks a milestone...