New Album From Sally Walker And Emily Granger
Flute and harp duo Sally Walker and Emily Granger are releasing a new album Something Like This on October 20, 2023. The debut recording by this pair on the AVIE label, Something Like This, is a collection of Walker and Granger’s favourite works for flute and harp, the result of decades of previous collaborations. Walker and Granger are delighted to announce a live tour in support of the album across NSW and ACT in October and November.
From their first performance together in 2020, flautist Sally Walker and harpist Emily Granger knew there was something special between them. The duo has since performed recitals together at the Sydney Opera House, for Musica Viva Australia and Art Gallery of New South Wales.
In 2021, Sally’s father, an ardent music lover, passed away peacefully in his home with Sally playing his favourite tune to him in a profound connection as he took his last breaths. Just a week before, out of nowhere, he had declared, “I should have been a composer!” Sally asked, “What kind of music would you have composed?” “Something like this,” he responded as he listened to some of his favourite music for the last time.
Moved by this story, Sally’s dear friend and composer, Elena Kats-Chernin, spontaneously sketched a tune calling it Something like this, wondering if it might have been something Sally’s father would have liked to have written and dedicated it to his memory.
This story and Kats-Chernin’s work form the concept of the album: the duo’s favourite pieces by their favourite composers. From new arrangements of Bach, Mozart and Satie by Granger to Australian works by Greenaway, Sainsbury and Skipworth, there is something for everyone.
The album was recorded over two days at the Australian National University (ANU) School of Music’s Llewellyn Hall with German Tonmeister Thomas Wieber who recorded Walker’s first three CDs in Leipzig.
Read our review of Sally Walker’s recital with pianist Simon Tedeschi.