Australia, a land of vast, red-soaked plains that span to endless horizons. A land of jagged, snow-covered mountains housing wild brumbies within their thick forests. A land of prehistoric rainforests steeped in drenching mystery and strange creatures.
Australia is a land as diverse as it is ancient, and many have set off to represent its bounds within music. However, only one as diverse as the land itself could attempt to do so with any success, and succeed Sophie Hutchings has.Growing up in Watsons Bay on Sydney Harbour and spending summer afternoons along the coast surfing with her father, Hutchings began sinking her roots in the Australian terrain early on.
Her daily explorations melded with evenings housed between walls swelling with notes and harmony flowing effortlessly from family members' instruments and voices, and the marriage of music and land was complete.
"My life really was the ocean and music," Hutchings muses from her post-European tour stop in Costa Brava. "There wasn't a huge amount of classical music within the walls of my house, it was mainly a war of jazz and indie rock.
"My place was always instrumental, but I was really shy with it. I started classical tuition at about five, and went in and out. I was naughty and didn't stick to it, so I wouldn't say I'm a traditional classical pianist."
Perhaps due to this unconventional style, the success of Hutchings' 2010 debut album 'Becalmed' ensured she could hide no longer, nudging her to the front of the stage. After multiple major award nominations, Hutchings released 'Echoes In The Valley' in 2021, which soared to #1 on the UK classical charts.
The way Hutchings plays with a gentle strength and indelible surety mirrors some essence of Australia itself, standing tall and, in large parts, unchanged by time.
Hutchings, with time, did begin to embrace the connection between performance and audience. "It's about the connection with people more than the stage.
"I shy away from the stage, which surprises people, because I'm an outgoing person, but music and composition is the very introverted side of me. I've learned over the years how important it is to share that with people. I love to engage with my audience, so whether I like the stage or not, performing plays that key role in connecting with people."
Hutchings represents the vulnerable reality of her experiences through the melodies and motifs of her work, a sonic diary with the ambiguity instrumental music provides, allowing perfect space for personal interpretation.
"It doesn't matter what part of the globe you come from, you can connect through music. Music goes beyond human language. It says things that we either can't or may not want to say. It transports things back and forth between listener and performer. I think that's a really strong language."
Forging a piano path between Chopin's Nocturnes and personal favourite Satie's 'Gymnopédie One', Hutchings was drawn to romantic lulls and silence.
However, as an ineptitude for sight reading loomed as potentially disastrous, a saintly tutor perceived alternate potential and led Hutchings down a safe route that became a lifelong career.
"I was a tragic sight reader and it was about to destroy my self-confidence. Thankfully, my incredible teacher, along with sight reading, encouraged me to compose my own pieces from a really young age.
"I've kept my old classical books and recently did pull a few out. I struggle to sight read the ones I never learned, but the ones with my teacher's writing all over them, as soon as I sit down to play them, they all come back.
"I would pretend to sight read. My teacher used to test me, she'd say, 'where are you?' And I'd be like, 'oh, here?' And she'd say, 'no', and I'd be like, 'here?' 'No, let's start again.' That's why I say I'm an artist and a creator.
"When I was younger, I used to feel like it was a bad thing, but I use it as my strength now and I'm able to tour the world and not feel bad about that.
"I went through psychological hurdles to feel good about that. And thankfully my teacher instilled that confidence in me, because I certainly didn't think it was ever going to be my career.
"My father's an incredible musician, he plays 13 different instruments, all the woodwinds. He's an incredible sight reader, and he reminds me of all the famous composers in the world who can't sight read," Hutchings laughs.
As it did for so many, COVID forced Hutchings to examine the unappreciated gifts of her own backyard, and awoke dormant connections to land that bubbled into intense desire to again immerse in the roots where it all began.
Hutchings, freshly inspired with knowledge of songlines and history, set out on a fateful journey through the heart of Australia, collecting visual snapshots and life changing memories she would later carve into her craft. She named her ode to the intricate land she calls home, 'A World Outside'.
"To feel what I felt, I don't think you can until you experience it with your own mind, body and soul. It's a very moving, almost spiritual, experience. I called it 'A World Outside' because it feels like another planet.
"What better way to experience that than to discover it for myself, landing where the tropics meet the desert, the bright orange hues and days on end not seeing humanity, a red dust blowing behind you.
"The serenity of it all, continually seeing endless horizons, it makes you feel time is endless. That has a coaxing effect on your whole sense of mind. We're so bombarded with technology and stress, and I felt like time was floating.
"The land speaks as you stand on cliff peaks overlooking everything. You can hear this white noise, a hum. There's this ghostliness that engulfs you entirely. Every corner you turn, there's contrasting landscapes and that's why the musical landscapes change so much on the album.
"I wasn't thinking of music at all. You're just absorbing, staring out into everything entering your field of vision. You're connecting with the feeling, floating about within non-thinking thoughts, and then they leak somewhere eventually – and for me, that's music."
Sophie returned to Sydney to compose the album, but knew she had to re-encounter the Northern Territory for her collaborations with revered Yolngu songman Rrawun Maymuru and Larrakia girl Lena Kellie, blending their history with land and Hutchings' fresh perspective.
"It wouldn't have been the same having him singing in Sydney, and Lena Kellie, who sings very similar to Lisa Gerrard actually. Recording up there was a beautiful experience of being invited into their place. We come from incredibly different worlds. I wanted to combine a sense of their beauty with mine in some way. Having them interconnect was a unique experience. It was beautiful."
Fortunately, Sydneysiders will not have to make a trip to the far reaches to encounter Hutchings' stunning works, as she will perform for Piano+Place, a series of intimate concerts held across historic Sydney spaces every Friday in July.
Hutchings will perform at the Paddington Town Hall, just a few houses down from where she was born. "I was born at Paddington Hospital. A lot of the venues I've been playing in Europe have this incredibly rich history, you can feel the history in the space.
"And that's what I'm looking forward to about Paddington Town Hall, it dates from the late 1800s, and music has always been a constant element there. To play in a place that has so much history, along the same strip I was born, makes the whole event so personable and special. I'm so excited to have a festival that's embracing history."
Swaying from moving and melodic to vibrant and epic, Hutchings' songs borne of a life lived in our great land and performed where her life began are sure to create her own unmissable piece of history.
Piano+Place 2024 Tour Dates
Fri 5 Jul - Jim Moginie at The Auditorium @ Anzac Memorial, Hyde Park (7pm)* sold outFri 12 Jul - Chris Abrahams at Elizabeth Bay House (6pm, 8pm)
Fri 19 Jul - Sophie Hutchings at Stapleton Room @ Paddington Town Hall (7pm)
Fri 26 Jul - David Bridie at Paintings Galleries @ State Library of NSW (7pm)
