A MOVING symphonic work will be performed by the Australian Youth Orchestra at Llewellyn Hall.

Conducted and orchestrated by Nigel Westlake, best-known as the composer of the score for the “Babe” films, the centrepiece of the performance will be a full version of “Ngapa William Cooper” [“Ngapa means “grandfather” in Yorta Yorta]. 

Since 1948, the AYO’s mission has been to provide Australia’s gifted school-aged musicians and those on the verge of a professional career opportunities to reach their full potential and this work seems ideally pitched at their talents. 

The work, co-created by Westlake, Lior and Lou Bennett with additional lyrics by Sarah Gory, tells the story of Yorta Yorta activist William Cooper who, in 1938, led the Australian Aborigines’ League through the streets of Melbourne in the only non-Jewish protest worldwide against the events of Kristallnacht in Nazi Germany.

The Llewellyn Hall concert opens with Westlake’s “The Glass Soldier,” dedicated to the memory of World War I veteran and artist Nelson Ferguson, followed by the orchestral premiere of “Beneath the Waves”, taken from a distillation of Westlake’s score for the 2022 movie “Blueback”, which follows a fight to protect Australia’s coral reefs. 

While Westlake is celebrated in this country as one of our leading classical composers, he has an ongoing career in film, having also composed scores for films such as “Ali’s Wedding”, “Miss Potter” and “Children of the Revolution”, as well as the theme for “SBS World News”. 

But when I catch up with him for a phone chat, we focus on “Ngapa William Cooper”, initially premiered with a chamber ensemble at the Adelaide Festival earlier this year but now, under a commission from the AYO, expanded by Westlake into just under 40 minutes of full symphonic music, for which this will be the world premiere.

It’s part of an on-going collaborative process with his co-writer, Israel-born singer-songwriter, Lior, that’s been going on for about 10 years, since they collaborated on the song cycle “Compassion”. 

“But this work is a little different. It was always in the back of our minds as we were casting around for an act of compassion to enshrine in music,” he says.

“Lior, being Jewish, brought this amazing story to my attention and we decided to work on it… he wrote the main narrative before we put a note of music down, but then we realised we had to get some cultural guidance to help us navigate the story.” 

Luckily they came across the work of Yorta Yorta Dja Dja Wurrung artist and academic Lou Bennett, who has devoted her life to music and language.

“We approached Lou initially, thinking she could be holding our hands,” he says, “but to our astonishment found that William Cooper was her great, great uncle… we asked her to translate some of Lior’s text from English into Yorta Yorta then asked her to read the text, which she did. We were so excited that we asked her to join us.”

Westlake will be holding the baton, while Bennett shares the stage with Lior and encapsulates the spirit of William Cooper, with moments of frustration, anger and beauty underscored with tenderness and beauty as Cooper looks back on his life.

“Lior has crafted very beautiful lyrics pared down to their most basic elements – he doesn’t waffle around,” Westlake says, but adds, “Lou brings in a whole other dimension. She is a very expressive singer who uses a lot of physical hand gestures specific to her culture and when singing in language, says, ‘I’m channelling the old ones’.

“Lior and Lou sent me their melodies unaccompanied. I put it all together into the context of a symphony, a bit like writing a film score… they related the story, and I supported that by working around the vocal line and following the dramatic action. “

 “The story does traverse a lot of emotional territory. It’s a little bit cinematic, I feel.”

“Ngapa William Cooper”, Australian Youth Orchestra, Llewellyn Hall, 5pm, July 9.