Noongar musician, composer Aaron Wyatt first Indigenous conductor for WASO on Perth Concert Hall stage

Noongar musician and composer Aaron Wyatt becomes the first First Nations conductor to take the podium with WA Symphony Orchestra when the 2024 season starts on Friday. Wyatt will direct his own work for didgeridoo and orchestra, The Coming Dawn — a programmatic title that could also reflect the rise of Indigenous artists in classical music across Australia. A UWA graduate who started as a casual viola player with WASO, Wyatt was also the first Indigenous conductor to direct any of the major State symphony orchestras when he took the podium in Melbourne in 2021, and has since taken the Sydney and Adelaide orchestras. He also conducted the first and second Noongar operas, both by Gina Williams and Guy Ghouse — Koolbardi wer Wardong (Magpie and Crow) in 2021, and Wundig wer Wilura at this year’s Perth Festival. “It’s a bit wild that it wasn’t until 2021 that we had someone Indigenous conduct one of the State orchestras,” Wyatt says.. “Coming from a classical background and knowing how much training goes into that kind of career pathway, and some of the barriers to entry that exist there which are hard to overcome at times, it’s amazing that it has happened now. “It’s an honour and a privilege to be the first up there but hopefully I’m not the last.” His engagement with Melbourne Symphony Orchestra followed a stint as viola soloist for the premiere of Indigenous composer Deborah Cheetham Fraillon’s Nanyubak. “The MSO conducting gig was the acknowledgement-of-country piece, Deborah Cheetham’s Long Time Living Here, so it was kind of over very quickly; it’s only a three-minute piece, so it was done in a flash,” Wyatt says. “But that led to bigger opportunities further down the line, and of course with WA Opera for Koolbardi wer Wardong.” Based at Monash University as an assistant lecturer, he is better known as a conductor in the Eastern States, though the success of the Noongar operas has boosted his profile in Perth. “The first one was such a crazy time because it was still in the middle of the pandemic, so things were incredibly normal in Perth but not so normal in Melbourne,” Wyatt. “It looked like I was going to get over initially but then we had cases kicking off in July and I had to be over there in September, and so the closer that day got the more obvious it was there was no way I was getting over to Perth without doing two weeks of quarantine.” Stressful as it was, he says it was phenomenal working with the two stars of Koolbardi wer Wardong, Jarred Wall and Jarrad Inman. “Just watching their progress, and I think, for Jarred Wall, he was saying it was a really moving experience for him,” Wyatt says. “He’d come on board just thinking it’d be a fun show to do, the musical aspect of it. But then really, I think cultural connection was a part of his life he hadn’t even realised he was missing previously. “So that kind of experience, from the principal cast was really just beautiful to see, and of course audiences loved it, they were really engaged with it. It was fantastic to see that sort of traditional tale being told somewhere like His Majesty’s Theatre.” Both Noongar operas had universal stories, the first relating closely to Cain and Able in the Bible, and the second reflecting a common theme with Romeo and Juliet and West Side Story. The stories also embed well in opera, where audiences are accustomed to hearing a variety of languages and reading English surtitles for meaning. “Koolbardi wer Wardong was a kids’ opera, generally aimed at families and short on run time as well,” Wyatt says. “Wundig wer Wilura is still a one-act opera but definitely a lot more substance to it, but obviously a much more adult tale of forbidden love. And once again, Gina and Guy’s music just complemented the story beautifully, and really set the mood and took the audience through the drama.” Wyatt’s own composition, The Coming Dawn, was originally for Canberra Symphony Orchestra’s chamber ensemble, so Perth audiences will hear the first fully orchestrated version. The title, he says, came after composition. “Whenever I’m writing stuff, so often it’s the music that comes first, and then the imagery and the title come afterwards,” Wyatt says. “In the case of this one, Red was the theme, so that initial theme that tied their program together suggested this felt a bit like the first light of dawn in those vibrant golden, occasionally reddy colours that you get in the early morning. So the theme came after the musical material. “It’s an exploration of the interplay between the didgeridoo and the strings, with added colour from vibraphone, so it spun out from there.” Richard Walley plays the didgeridoo, as he did for the Perth Festival wind up, Under the Same Sun, which combined First Nations with classical and World Music artists in a melting pot of culture. How might that play in future? “There’s definitely a lot of potential there to be explored, I think there are growing collaborations that exist between people like Gina and Guy, and arts organisation like WA Opera,” Wyatt says. “That’s a really encouraging thing that the opera gave them so much freedom really, to do what they want to do. That’s what made those two projects such a success. “There’s a lot of good things happening in our arts organisations and definitely a lot of potential into the future. One of the things that’s sort of helping now is, going back even a few years, if I was asked to name an Indigenous composer, there wouldn’t be many people that I could mention, at least in the Western art music world; Deborah Cheetham, obviously is out there, the main person. There weren’t too many other people in the mix.” Now he says there are a lot of programs available to mentor established musicians to help them “sidestep” into the classical world, including Christopher Sainbury’s Ngarra-Burria program at Eora TAFE in Redfern, which Wyatt attended. “For some people they might be from the pop scene, they might not have notation skills, they might not have the theoretical skills,” Wyatt says. “Or there are people like myself — James Henry who’s been writing for theatre and for stage and screen for a long time — who already are very capable in the writing level but have mostly been performers, and giving us a platform for our music, to have our music performed by Ensemble Offspring, and to be mentored by another composer we can bounce our ideas off and hone our craft with.” Alumni are getting regular commissions, he says. “Having that pool of Indigenous composers mean that these projects will become much easier to put on and have happen,” Wyatt says. “Hopefully it’ll inspire the next generation of Indigenous musicians, young people who hopefully can see that there are pathways open that aren’t just popular music sphere, and there’s all this other stuff available to them.” Wyatt, too, has a flow of work in composition and conducting. “We’ll see what comes of the recent Festival performances, but it would be great if Wundig wer Wilura tours somewhere else, it’ll be a shame if it just sees Perth,” he says. “Koolbardi wer Wardong did a lot of regional touring but Wundig wer Wilura is a much bigger production so it probably lends itself better to national touring. “It’s always a problem with new commissions that they get commissioned and then they get played and you don’t necessarily hear of them again. “But hopefully some of these projects will have some legs and longevity.” WASO plays The Coming Dawn under Aaron Wyatt, plus Rachmaninov’s Third Piano Concerto with Yeol Eom Son, and Richard Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben, under principal conductor Asher Fisch, at 7.30pm on Friday and Saturday at Perth Concert Hall.