Australian performer-composers Katie Yap and Donald Nicolson entwine early music gems and lyrical new compositions for the poetic combination of viola and harpsichord: Strozzi, von Bingen, Telemann, Nicolson/Yap and Sheppard.

Katie Yap and Donald Nicolson share a passion for early music, and lyrical new music inspired by old compositional forms and the distinctive sound worlds of their unusual instruments: viola and harpsichord. 

Performing Donald’s arrangements of two gorgeous melodies — Hildegard von Bingen’s 12th-century Ave Generosa and Barbara Strozzi’s 17th-century Che si puo fare — alongside a soulful Georg Philipp Telemann viola da gamba sonata repurposed for baroque viola, and Francois Couperin’s dreamy harpsichord solo Les Baricades Misterieuses, their program then opens out into Australian works by Emily Sheppard and the two performers themselves.  Sheppard’s Aftermath has been championed far and wide by Katie Yap, and combines singing and playing to stunning effect.  Penumbra and Black Cockatoos are Katie and Donald’s co-compositions, moving seamlessly between historical and contemporary sonorities and instruments, creating music of rich palimpsests.