Program Note:
In the early stages of planning Water Mirrors I took a solo road trip down part of the East coast of Australia, and spent a lot of time marvelling at the reflective, mirror-like qualities of the large, still bodies of water that lay beside the road in a particular part of my travels. When I returned home I began researching the concept further and found a collection of poems that shared the same title, written by an Australian poet Nicholas Powell (who is now based in Finland). The poems feature references to water, and Australian & Finnish landscape. The poet often draws upon subtle musical analogies to describe these settings. The poems in the collection are quite contrasting - some poems are very intimate and introspective; while other poems are more playful and humorous. Each movement of the piece takes influence from a certain poem within the collection.
