Ahead of performances by the Omega Ensemble, great friends and musical collaborators flautist Sally Walker and composer Elena Kats-Chernin discuss a new flute quintet arrangement of Kats-Chernin’s flute concerto, Night and Now.

Elena Kats-Chernin and Sally WalkerElena Kats-Chernin and Sally Walker. Photo © Steven Godbee

How long have you known each other and when did you first meet?

Sally Walker: We have known each other 20 years now and we met through chance. I was talking to a teller at a bank, coincidentally at two different branches, and found out he was Elena’s son; he thought we should meet and put us in touch. We have much in common; we both did ice-skating as children, we both studied in Germany with the same (DAAD) scholarship and both lived in Coogee (Sydney) although we never crossed paths when I lived there as a music student (probably because she never goes to the beach…).

Elena Kats-Chernin: Some time in early 2000s Sally was at the bank, she happened to stay in the queue at two different bank branches and, as luck would have it, both times my son happened to be her teller. What are the chances!?...