Margery Smith’s new flute concerto for Ewa Kowalski and The Hourglass Ensemble was inspired by the haiku of Kobayashi Issa and the Twitter micropoetry of Susan Sleepwriter. She spoke to Limelight about her new work, ‘haiku moments’ and why playing clarinet in the orchestra gave her flute envy.

Margery Smith. Photo: supplied

How did the idea for Everything I Touch evolve?

The first part of any new project for me, is searching for an angle to act as a springboard for inspiration. I will churn through many ideas before the central argument for the work becomes clear, and sometimes I don’t figure out what the work is doing until I am a fair way through the process. At other times it seems that hours are spent without much to show for the effort, and then as if by magic, a whole lot of ideas will crystallise into a score very quickly and looking back, I think “Where did all that come from?” A creative process is fascinating to step back and observe, so much happens behind the scenes in one’s mind – relationships happen between your ideas that you are not consciously aware of.

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