Jodie O'Regan and Sally-Anne Russell talk Hope Song Cycle before its UKARIA premiere

Jodie O'Regan's new song cycle began, in a sense, in 2023, when Sally-Anne Russell visited the composer's studio in Burra and left with a setting of Emily Dickinson's Hope Is the Thing with Feathers. That single song had legs. Russell went on to perform it at the Sydney Opera House and in concert halls across Europe, and it clearly stayed with O'Regan too, because it's now the seed of a full cycle.

The completed work sets poems by Hone Tūwhare, Sara Teasdale, Christina Rossetti and Frances Frost, chosen and shaped around Russell's voice and artistry. It's a good reminder that a song cycle doesn't have to arrive fully formed. Sometimes it grows out of a single commission and a strong working relationship between composer and performer.

For the premiere at UKARIA Cultural Centre on 23 October 2026, the cycle will be heard in an arrangement for mezzo-soprano, flute, cello and harp. Russell is joined by flautist Linda Pirie, cellist Joseph Freer and harpist Suneetha Carter, an ensemble that suits the intimacy of the poetry and the room. UKARIA's acoustic has a way of rewarding this kind of chamber writing, where texture and text need to sit close to the listener.

The evening opens with a pre-concert conversation between O'Regan and Russell at 7pm, a chance to hear directly from the two artists about how the cycle came together before the music does the rest of the talking. Light meals are available from 5:30pm for anyone wanting to make a proper evening of it.

The full concert runs approximately two hours including interval, and the performance will be recorded live, so there's a sense of occasion beyond just the one night in the room. New Australian song cycles built specifically around a particular singer's voice don't come along often, and fewer still get to premiere in a venue as suited to the material as UKARIA. Worth making the drive into the hills for.