It was an eerie beginning to the calling of the Kiravanu. A hush came over the Sydney Showground and expectant parents and family from MLC School sat intently focused on the stage and screen. It had been months of work, intense preparation, and many of the army of volunteers could also finally take their seats. With percussion backing, in resonant tones, Mr Doug Finlay, as Father Time, unlocked the magic that began the mantra of Kiravanu. For children to perform in an opera is rare - opera is an art form. To write one for them even more so. As the drama in opera is sung, it demands a special quality of singing and acting. Children’s opera must focus on the musical possibilities of chidren’s voices while at the same time tell an empathetic and appealing tale rather than a didactic one. Benjamin Britten is one of the few renowned exponents. Enter composer James Humberstone and librettist Mary Elizabeth. They collaborated as artists who were half a world apart (as James was here in Sydney and Mary Elizabeth in Vermont) but who shared a passion for a global message that was perfect for children to tell - that our planet is in the collective hands of future generations, as long as they are willing to attempt the “tasks” they face to save it. The Kindergarten to Year 6 children of MLC School, and our warmly welcomed visitors from Broken Hill Primary School, brought to life the endearing “creatures”, that are so vulnerable to human indifference. Poignantly it was our youngest girls, in delicate costumes of colour and light, who gave the complex environmental lesson choreographed as the interdependence of the elements. The haunting Kiravanu choir of Years 5 and 6 offered a cross-cultural spirituality, while the music with Latin and Asian influence linked us to cultural diversity. The staff of MLC’s Music Department has always demanded that music making be an intellectual journey for all our students. They believe that, as another “language”, music can awaken, teach, challenge and exhilarate the performer and the audience. Kiravanu was a demonstration of all of this. From the community perspective we too, collectively, solved the tasks of Kiravanu. Many small children were measured, fitted, elaborately costumed and made-up, taught and rehearsed, transported then shepherded, and of course engaged. Lighting, sound, ticketing, ushering…and the list goes on. Our wonderful families, our friends and our girls did all this. The planet is possibly beginning to feel the effects of small groups of “safe hands” if so many forces in a school community can join to bring to life such a beautiful production for children, about children – the challenge is now to spread the many messages of Kiravanu. Ms Pam Hatfield The Premiere performance of Kiravanu was held on 16 September, 2008 in The Amphitheatre of Sydney Showgrounds. BackgroundMLC School has a nationally recognised music program developed under the artistic direction of Karen Carey, a renowned Australian music educator. Central to the success of the MLC program is the focus on creativity and teaching students of all abilities to compose. The program develops students’ music skills and techniques sequentially through ensembles, performances and in the classroom from K-12. KIRAVANU is the latest of MLC School’s ambitious music projects – a full school children’s opera which is accessible for infants and primary aged students. MLC has an extensive history of commissioning, performing and recording innovative works by Australian composers. Integrated collaborative units of teaching materials are being developed, along with the opera, to provide infants and primary classroom teachers with activities and resources to support the teaching and learning of Kiravanu. Kiravanu is an uniquely accessible opera written for children and performed by children. The outdoor Sydney Showground venue was deliberately chosen to make this opera experience suitable for all the family and for student groups. Infants aged children will be captivated by the fanciful story and magical music. Kiravanu’s theme of the environmental responsibility of generations to come makes it particularly relevant to all primary aged students. As teachers, as well as artists, Mary Elizabeth and James Humberstone have carefully woven into Kiravanu, curriculum elements appropriate to all K-6 students, not only in the area of Creative Arts but also in HSIE and through required language and literacy skills. Integrated collaborative learning units and teaching materials for Kiravanu have been developed throughout the 2008 rehearsal period and performances. These will be available in 2009. This premiere performance of the opera will be performed by the students of MLC School’s infants and primary classes. The cast of Creatures, Elements and Kiravanu have rehearsed the opera through classroom activities. The children have had input into the final production and performance. It is a great pleasure for MLC that in this premiere they will beaccompanied by students from Broken Hill Public School, a school with which MLC shares a unique collaborative learning relationship.
Pedagogy of KiravanuThe children’s opera Kiravanu has been written to integrate into the K-6 curriculum. In its current form, each scene is accompanied by music and cross-curricular lesson plans which are mapped to the NSW syllabus. In 2009 mapping to all Australian state and territory syllabi will be completed. The benefit of this approach is that preparing the opera in your school shouldn’t have to involve hundreds of hours of out-of-school rehearsals. The majority of the opera can be taught in class and then brought to the stage within a few weeks. The characterisation of the opera relates to age groups, so that the whole school doesn’t have to learn all of the opera. The characters are:
There are also solo parts for both students and teachers as well as many opportunities for instrumentalists to solo. There is a professional pit orchestra score but this can be substituted by a recording provided on CD.
The story of KiravanuThe story of Kiravanu was conceived by Mary Elizabeth, a specialist language, literacy and curriculum expert based in the US, and James Humberstone, composer and music educator. The libretto was written by Mary Elizabeth. She introduces the opera: It was a very dark moment in the history of the world—the present moment, as it happens—and Father Time knew that something must be done if the destructive disregard of the world and its denizens was not to have the direst consequences for all. By now, there was no chance that a single hero or even a small group could do enough to bring us back. No: only the concerted effort of the many could address the issues of global warming, drought, famine, endangered species, poverty, and pollution with which the world was fraught. And so, Father Time took the daring step of calling forth the Kiravanu—the spirits of each and every natural place in the world—to gather with him and see what might be done to save the world. But the Kiravanu cannot stay long from their homes without detriment to the world. Will they take the risk of answering Father Time’s call? Is there enough time to accomplish anything before they must return home? And where can they find the help that is so sorely needed? Key Personnel
Composer: James Humberstone James Humberstone is one of MLC School's three composers-in-residence. Along with Dr Stanhope and Mr Barbeler he teaches composition to all age groups at MLC and gets involved with all of the MLC music projects like the biennial Opera House Concert or special projects like Kiravanu. James grew up in the beautiful Lake District in England where he started writing music while he was still in primary school. He wrote the sketches for a musical called "The Scintillating Circus of Professor Gabor" aged 11, then several large works for concert band and orchestra over the next few years - which he played trombone in too. James studied composition first with Anthony Milledge, then at the University of Exeter with Philip Grange and before moving to Australia privately with Howard Skempton, who had the greatest influence on him as a young composer. James moved to Australia in 1997 and started teaching at MLC School in 2001. He continued his studies in composition at the University of Sydney where he completed a Masters under Anne Boyd. Last year he began PhD studies at UNSW: the Kiravanu opera is centrepiece of his research which is all about how to compose music and create supporting resources that help children learn musical skills. Music for communities was always very important to James. His first group performance experiences during primary school were with a small community group called the Duddon Music Workshop, and he performed in many community and regional orchestras as he grew up. In Australia the majority of his musical output has been for schools, colleges, community choirs and orchestras, and the influence of Skempton and his scratch orchestra background continues to this day.
Librettist: Mary Elizabeth Mary Elizabeth is an educator, author and musician living in Vermont, USA . She was born in Los Angeles, California and wrote her first story there when she was six. She grew up in Evanston, Illinois, and began composing, acting in children’s theatre, and doing stage crew work while she was in secondary school. Mary Elizabeth wrote her first opera, The Toasted Cheese Sandwich—a spoof of food connoisseurs and of opera itself—when she was in high school, and it was performed in her senior year. Following her graduation from the University of Chicago, where she received a BA in English in the Writing Program and wrote a mystery for her senior paper, she moved to New York, where she began working in the US textbook publishing industry. After working on K–12 student and teacher materials in language and literature, social studies, and mathematics for many of the major US textbook publishers, Mary Elizabeth moved to Vermont with her family in 1983 in order to become a private tutor. After earning a teaching degree—an M Ed in Reading and Language Arts—from the University of Vermont, where her thesis was on the role of imaging in the reading process, she began to write and design original educational materials in language arts and literature in 1997 for Barron’s Educational Series, Inc. and Garlic Press. Her first international education experience came when she researched and designed the international content for the Sibelius Worksheet Creator and co-authored the Groovy Music series (Groovy Shapes, Groovy Jungle, and Groovy City). The libretto of Kiravanu, her next international project, was inspired by many diverse sources from around the world, including the the HoCak Indian tribe’s concept of the “Keepers of Harmony,” the Classical Greek, Aboriginal, and Chinese Elements, Cambodian native Loung Ung’s autobiographical writings about her family, the view of the natural world presented in Thomas Wolfe’s Look Homeward Angel, and the Vermont-based Water Music Project in which Mary Elizabeth is a collaborator. She is now working on her own line of international education products in the areas of language, literature and music called Patterns for Learning, beginning with workbooks on key signatures. She is also working on a new kind of reference book, another libretto, and a fantasy quintology.
Producer: Karen Carey MLC School Music Director, Mrs Karen Carey's outstanding professional career and contribution to music education has been recognised in a national award. The Federal Minister for Education Science and Training, The Hon Julie Bishop MP, announced Karen’s National Award for Excellence at the recent awards ceremony for the Australian Society for Music Education and the Australian Government Quality Teacher Programme. Karen was appointed Director of Music at MLC School in 1989 and has, over the period of her leadership, seen the school’s music department become a multi award winning exemplar of music education, both state and nationally, winning awards from the Australian Music Centre (AMC), the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA), the Fellowship of Australian Composers, ASME (NSW) and Orchestras Australia. In 2006 the MLC music program was selected as a model of exemplary practice for the National School Music Review. At MLC, Karen has developed an outstanding music program that is integrated and sequenced from K-12, where the links between classroom, choral and instrumental teaching are constantly being drawn together. Parents are involved in the students’ music program and are invited into the creative classroom as participants in order to better understand the importance, enjoyment and value of music education The school music program also extends to the wider community, including other school students and school teachers. ‘Australian Music Days’ and composition workshops are held every year offering innovative resources to other school students. Teacher inservices are provided in composition, particularly using technology. Currently there are three composers on the music staff at MLC. Performance has been a major focus for many years. Under her direction MLC girls have prepared challenging performances of opera and music theatre, as well as a variety of choral, chamber and symphonic repertoire. Karen has organised and led several international music tours all of which have been highly acclaimed for their high standard of performance and for the presentation of Australian music in venues including St Mark’s Basilica in Venice. In September she will lead a tour of MLC musicians through Europe culminating in a performance in Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.
Robin Carter is currently working as a part-time classroom teacher in the Music Department, while Mrs Humberstone is on maternity leave. Robin Carter has had over 20 years experience as a music educator and performer after studying a Bachelor of Music Education at the NSW Conservatorium of Music in Sydney. She was Director of Music for 13 years at William Clarke College and has worked in many other schools as a music teacher and examiner. She has worked as an adjudicator at eisteddfods and performing arts competitions including House Music Festivals in a number of schools. Robin has enjoyed success as a choral conductor, piano accompanist and trainer of choirs of all age groups, competing winning eisteddfods and festivals and performing in major community events. She has vast experience of Music Theatre, having been Musical Director or Rehearsal Pianist for many musicals and stage plays across Sydney, as well as Production Manager for school shows and Stage Manager for a school performance of West Side Story. Specialising in working with large groups of school students on stage, Robin has directed, choreographed and staged scenes in shows. She has acted as well, performing in a number of small plays, including the lead female role in The Happiest Days of our Lives. She has worked professionally as a freelance singer in quartets and small ensembles and taken part in a number of performing shows for small venues, including a cabaret travelling group and a two woman show at the Tilbury Hotel in Woolloomooloo in Sydney. Currently she is a member of the Sydneian Bach Choir and is performing as a chorister and soloist. She has Dawn Martin graduated from the University of Kent at Canterbury, England with a Bachelors Degree in the Performing Arts. Since then Dawn has gained professional experience working as a Stage Manager throughout the UK, in London’s West End, touring internationally and in Australia. Throughout her career Dawn has also gained experience as a Coordinator and Stage Manager for both indoor and outdoor events. Dawn was calling Stage Manager for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. Since 2000 Dawn has worked as Production Stage Manager on a number of shows including: The Phantom Of The Opera in Seoul, Cape Town & Shanghai, Oliver! in Sydney, The Lion King in Sydney & Melbourne and Priscilla Queen of the Desert the Musical in Sydney. Recently Dawn provided Production Stage Management for the Kookaburra productions of Pippin, Company and An Audience with Stephen Sondheim. She has a vast experience of working large scale productions involving young children. Dawn has also been the General Manager for Martin Production Pty Ltd since founding the company in 1999 with her husband and business partner Richard Martin. Musical Director: Kimbali Harding |
Click here to hear - Call of the Creatures
Clear here to hear - You May Safely Go 
