ULURU FESTIVAL 2 & 3 JUNE 2017

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1 ULURU FESTIVAL 2 & 3 JUNE 2017 Voyages Ayers Rock Resort

2 WELCOME Anangu are the traditional owners of Uluru, Kata Tjuta and the surrounding land that awaits you. For tens of thousands of years Anangu have cared for this land and for that we are deeply thankful. To them this has always been a special place. For Anangu this isn t just a rock, it s a living place. Creation beings have left their marks everywhere; their stories are alive in the landscape around you. Anangu invites you to learn about their land and their culture and form your own connection with this land. 02

3 Message from the MANAGING DIRECTOR It is a pleasure for the Australian Chamber Orchestra to be back for a weekend of music on Anangu Country, at the Voyages Ayers Rock Resort in Australia s breathtakingly beautiful desert centre. Voyages Ayers Rock Resort is our generous host for this Festival and I thank Voyages Indigenous Tourism for their support in making this event such a success. This year, the ACO is joined in performance by one of the country s finest vocal ensembles, the Gondwana Indigenous Children s Choir. Formed by the indomitable Lyn Williams, the choir gives voice to the diverse cultures of Australia s Indigenous youth, providing a vehicle to build identity through collaboration with local elders and community. Last month, Lyn and the ACO s Chief Operating Officer, Alex Cameron-Fraser, travelled to Uluru to meet with representatives of the Mutijulu Community regarding the Choir s and Orchestra s performances here. We are very grateful to the Community for their welcome and support. Also joining the Orchestra in this unique concert setting is Australian singing sensation Greta Bradman. Greta has performed with orchestras and opera companies around the world, and we are delighted that she can join us for this very special event. The ACO in a festival context is an intense and fortifying way of consuming and embracing our work. I am very grateful for the preparation both on and off stage, and pay tribute to all those who have worked so hard to make this Festival a reality. I look forward to seeing you during the course of the weekend, and at future ACO Festivals, concerts and events. Richard Evans Managing Director 03

4 Friday 2 June, 4.30pm Richard Tognetti Director & Violin Australian Chamber Orchestra WILHELM FRIEDEMANN BACH Born Weimar, Died Berlin, Sinfonia in F major, F.67 I. Vivace II. Andante III. Allegro IV. Menuetto I & II RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Born Down Ampney, Died London, (arr. Adam Johnson) The Lark Ascending MAURICE RAVEL Born Ciboure, Died Paris (arr. Richard Tognetti) String Quartet in F major I. Allegro moderato Très doux II. Assez vif Très rhythmé III. Très lent IV. Vif et agité 04

5 Central Australia is the enduring landscape of Aboriginal people but European culture has brushed its surface. Nearby Kata Tjuta was once known by the European name given it by the explorer Giles for Queen Olga of Württemberg and some of the early white settlers Lutheran missionaries brought Bach in their saddlebags. But usually that meant JS Bach, the composer of fugues and inventions and a cantata for every Sunday service in the Lutheran calendar. Wilhelm Friedemann Bach was Johann Sebastian s eldest son (and the second of his 20 children). Like his brothers, Johann Christian and Carl Philipp Emanuel, Wilhelm Friedemann was a pioneer of the more obviously-articulated architecture of the classical style, but fewer of his pieces have survived. Today s work however, gives a good sense of his refreshingly innovative imagination. This brief four-movement work (a precursor of the classical symphony) is typical WF. An account written at the time said his music had just the right ingredients to set the pulse racing, fresh ideas, striking changes of key, dissonant movements... Maybe Australians wouldn t have the same reaction as British nationals to the song of a lark. In the Central Australian mulga, there are chiming wedgebills and white winged trillers. Yulara is possibly a Pitjantjatjara verb-form for the howling or crying that is associated with dingoes. But surely we can sympathise with Vaughan Williams desire to pay tribute to his own native landscape in this work. Gloucestershire-born Vaughan Williams drew his inspiration for this violin rhapsody from a poem by George Meredith, one of a group of poets whose aim, under pressure from the Industrial Revolution, was to preserve England s rural landscape in literature. He rises and begins to round, He drops the silver chain of sound, Of many links without a break, In chirrup, whistle, slur and shake... 05

6 We can hear the influence of Meredith s lines in the emergence of the solo violin trilling, swooping, rising, in emulation of a lark soaring above the English countryside. Vaughan Williams began this work in Sadly, the sounds of war would soon replace his pastoral vision. Ravel taught Vaughan Williams but Ravel s masterly String Quartet actually dates from his student years in Paris. It was composed in late 1902/early 1903 around the time of the second of Ravel s four attempts to win the Prix de Rome. Hearing it, can we regret that Ravel didn t impress the Rome jury with his facility at pseudo-bach fugues? Its impressionistic mood and varied tone colours suggest the influence of the older composer Debussy who had written his own work a decade earlier. Ravel s work has been praised for its translucent textures, economic utterance, Mozartian elegance. Some have heard the influence here of Asian music, such as Balinese gamelan, which Ravel would have heard at the Paris Exposition of But for all its freshness, Ravel was aiming not so much for innovation as perfection, which he undoubtedly achieved. His teacher, Fauré, had issues with the final movement, but Debussy warned him not to touch a single note... Gordon Kalton Williams

7 Saturday 3 June, 11am Richard Tognetti Director & Violin Australian Chamber Orchestra Gondwana Indigenous Children s Choir Maxime Bibeau Double Bass LUKE BYRNE Born Sydney, Acknowledgement of Country LUKE BYRNE Stormbird BRETT DEAN Born Brisbane, Between the Spaces in the Sky (In Memoriam Richard Hickox) JOE CHINDAMO Born Melbourne, Five Revelations* PETER SCULTHORPE Sonata for Strings No.1 Sun song Chorale Interlude Chorale Sun song TRADITIONAL Songs from the Torres Strait Islands LUKE BYRNE Buruwan Elegy SCULTHORPE Born Launceston, Died Sydney, Lament for Strings * Commissioned by Jennifer Darin for her husband Dennis Cooper s 75th birthday. 07

8 As might be said in the local Yankunytjatjara language: Nganana Australianya ngurrara munula inma Australia-tjara tjuta inkantjaku! (We are Australians and should sing songs about Australia!) 1. Sydney-based composer, Luke Byrne, has had a longstanding association with the Gondwana Indigenous Children s Choir and was present at the 2015 residential camp in Cairns where elder, Gudju Gudju, taught Yidinji songs and stories. As Luke says, The way Gudju Gudju describes the Stormbird story is that the storm bird (black) sings first and the wind bird (grey) replies, and upon hearing this the Yidinji people infer there is a cyclone coming. Some of the lyrics for Luke s version arose from words that came up in workshop with the choristers. Luke s image of the storm looking like a sea-shell from above is intended to convey the idea of a calm aerial perspective while violence brews below. Brett Dean divides his time between Australia and Europe. His opera Hamlet premieres at Glyndebourne this June. Between the spaces in the sky was originally the fifth movement of a string quintet (enriched by extra viola) called Epitaphs, which Brett wrote as a tribute to friends and colleagues who had recently died. He made this string orchestra version in This epitaph is dedicated to Richard Hickox who was to have conducted Brett s first opera, Bliss. A quote from Amanda Holden s libretto, prefaces the score: Ecstasy touched me I slid between the spaces in the sky / And smelt things living and dying in the valleys of the forest. Buruwan Elegy was written for the Campbelltown Gondwana Indigenous Children s Choir to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the massacre of Dharawal people southwest of Sydney in Luke does not translate Jodi Edwards Dharawal text, which describes the massacre, but rather conveys the massacre s tragic effect on the country. The buruwan is a Sydney-region rock lily. In Lament for Strings, written in 1976 for the newly-formed Australian Chamber Orchestra, Sculthorpe saw himself reflecting upon a type of melancholic despair that the Australian landscape has frequently inspired in the minds of Australians of European descent. In the outer sections, a transposed version of a motif inspired by Mahler s Song of the Earth and later found to match the 08

9 sound for earth in Kepler s theory of the music of the spheres (G A-flat G) is developed into a doleful rocking melody by solo cello and solo violin. Melbourne-based composer Joe Chindamo describes himself as a musical polyglot in the tradition of Bernstein and André Previn. Revelations, he says, is not so much a concerto for double-bass with ping-ponging between orchestra and soloist nor is the soloist placed centre-stage. Rather the bass is liberated from its position as foundation for a musical structure dominated usually by the violin. A composer loves all his children equally, says Chindamo, and the bass here participates in a kind of instrumental gender fluidity, often escaping the shackles of its ground floor status and flying about, taking the throne or any other echelon at whim. Peter Sculthorpe was asked to compose for the ACO again in Not having time to compose a new work, he arranged his String Quartet No.10. The outer sections and a central episode of the work are based on songs of the Pueblo Native Americans from the other side of the Pacific, the southwestern USA. The contrasting chorales represent what Sculthorpe paradoxically calls the Old World, Europe. Peter Sculthorpe counted among his ancestors Fanny Cochrane-Smith who, in 1903, gave us the only recordings of traditional Tasmanian song. The concert ends with music from the other end of the country. The Gondwana Indigenous Children s Choir was established in 2008 through collaboration between the Sydney Children s Choir and local school communities on the Torres Strait Islands. As the Choir s Artistic Administrator Sam Allchurch says, This collaboration grew out of Lyn Williams partnership with Torres Strait dancer Sani Townson, who continues to support the choristers as a mentor. The songs of the Torres Strait are diverse in style and subject matter and have been arranged in three-part harmony, often by Lyn Williams. Accompanied by dances, they capture the beauty of the natural landscape with the beach as a focal point. Gordon Kalton Williams Thanks to Neil Bell for the phrase 09

10 Saturday 3 June, 4.30pm Richard Tognetti Director & Violin Australian Chamber Orchestra Greta Bradman Soprano DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH Born St Petersburg, Died Moscow, Prelude and Scherzo, Op.11 OSVALDO GOLIJOV Born La Plata, Three Songs for Soprano and Strings 1. Night of the Flying Horses 2. Lúa descolorida 3. How slow the wind DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH (arr. Barshai) Chamber Symphony, Op.110a I. Largo II. Allegro molto III. Allegretto IV. Largo V. Largo 10

11 Is music purely structured sound, or does it project meanings beyond itself? That is an ongoing debate in Western culture but particularly with Shostakovich, whose music is sometimes thought to conceal veiled criticism of the Soviet regime under which he lived. His Prelude and Scherzo was written when Shostakovich was still a student in Leningrad. The Revolution was new then and many intellectuals were sympathetic to its aims. Why then music that foreshadows the darker tones of later works? Shostakovich said this work indicated that he was becoming more of a modernist (albeit one who was unafraid of baroque allusions, as in this prelude s stately opening). But what is really impressive here is Shostakovich s convincing control over extremes of expression, particularly in the grotesque scherzo. When a composer uses texts, we may think we re surer of their meaning. But Golijov s Three Songs hover around elusive poetic symbols pertaining to life, nature-identification, consciousness and dying. They were originally written as separate pieces. Golijov collected and arranged them for soprano and orchestra. Night of the Flying Horses, arranged for the Australian Chamber Orchestra in 2009, comes from music Golijov wrote for Sally Potter s film The Man Who Cried. Close your eyes/ And you shall go/ To that sweet land/ All dreamers know begins this lullaby in Yiddish to Faygele, the heroine, whose name also means bird. Lúa descolorida comes from a poem by Rosalía de Castro, a Galician poet whom, Golijov says, defines despair in a way that is simultaneously tender and tragic. The music brings together contradictory elements a homage to François Couperin and velvet bells coming from three different churches. Golijov wanted to write music so quiet it would bring an echo of the single tear that Schubert brings without warning in his voicing of a C major chord. How slow the wind, a setting of two Emily Dickinson poems, is Golijov s response to a friend s sudden death: I had in mind one of those seconds in life that is frozen in the memory, forever... 11

12 In 1960, Shostakovich visited Dresden to write music for a film. But this wasn t W.F. Bach s beautiful Dresden. This was a city ruined by Allied bombing. Apparently, Shostakovich was so mortified by what he saw that he secluded himself in a room. The result after three days was the Eighth String Quartet, later turned into a Chamber Symphony. The Eighth Quartet was formally dedicated to the victims of fascism and war. With Shostakovich we can never be certain there is a direct correlation between sound and non-musical concept. But maybe there are concrete reasons for the quotes from previous pieces or the appearance of Shostakovich s musical motto (D E-flat C B, which stands for the composer s initials in German note-names: Dmitri Schostakowich). Failing health? Self-loathing for having succumbed to recent pressure to join the Communist Party? Shostakovich told a friend this piece could be dedicated to his memory. We are a long way from Russia here at Yulara, even if it s the same time of day in Russia s Far East. And the focus on death contrasts with the enduring charm of music. Perhaps we should marvel at the power of music to survive its creators lives and circumstances while we sit in this eternal landscape. Gordon Kalton Williams

13 Richard Tognetti Violin Richard Tognetti is the Artistic Director of the Australian Chamber Orchestra. After studying both in Australia and overseas at the Bern Conservatory with Igor Ozim, Richard Tognetti returned home in 1989 to lead several performances with the Australian Chamber Orchestra. In November that year, he was appointed the Orchestra s lead violin and, subsequently, Artistic Director. He was Artistic Director of the Festival Maribor in Slovenia from 2008 to As director or soloist, Richard has appeared with various orchestras around the world. In November last year, he was London s Barbican Centre s first Artist-in-Residence at Milton Court Concert Hall. Richard is an acclaimed composer and has also worked on numerous film soundtracks. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in He holds honorary doctorates from three Australian universities and was made a National Living Treasure in He performs on a 1743 Guarneri del Gesù violin, lent to him by an anonymous Australian private benefactor. Chair sponsored by the late Michael Ball AM and Daria Ball, Wendy Edwards, Andrew and Andrea Roberts. 13

14 Greta Bradman Soprano Renowned Australian soprano Greta Bradman commenced her professional career in Greta completed a Fellowship at the Australian National Academy of Voice, was the winner of the Australian International Opera Award and moved to Cardiff to complete a Master of Advanced Vocal Studies at the Wales International Academy of Voice. Recent highlights include the title role in Handel s opera Rodelinda, regina de Longobardi, Eurydice (L anima del filosofo), Australian/NZ tour of Broadway to La Scala and an international tour with Zubin Mehta and the Australian World Orchestra. In 2015 Greta recorded My Hero, her debut album with Decca Classics. My Hero has become the highest ever charting Australian classical album on the pop chart and debuted at number 1 on the classical chart. This year Greta debuted the role of Mimi in La Bohème for Opera Australia and Lisa in La Sonnambula for Victorian Opera. Other engagements include a national tour, and Elijah for Festival of Voices in Hobart. 14

15 Maxime Bibeau Double Bass Canadian-born Maxime Bibeau s musical career started, as many young musicians do, in a high school garage band! Initially he wanted to pursue a career as a scientist, but the lure of music, particularly jazz, inspired Maxime to take up double bass at 17. He completed his undergraduate degree at the Conservatoire de Musique du Québec à Montréal with René Gosselin. He received his Master s of Music from Rice University in Houston with Timothy Pitts and Paul Ellison. Maxime has been Principal Double Bass with the ACO since He has appeared as a featured soloist with the Orchestra on many occasions, most recently in the world premiere of Elena Kats Chernin s Singing Trees. He is a keen advocate of new music, with many premieres, both world and Australian, to his name. As an educator, he has been involved with the Australian Youth Orchestra s National Music Camp, Sydney Youth Orchestra, University of NSW, Australian National Academy of Music, and as a lecturer at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Maxime plays a late-16th-century Gasparo da Salò bass kindly on loan from a private Australian benefactor. Chair sponsored by Darin Cooper Foundation. 15

16 GONDWANA INDIGENOUS CHILDREN S CHOIR CHORISTERS ON STAGE Jasmin Adams Brianna Durante Lara Miller Dakota Peeters Marnee Seden Georgiana Thomas-Peddell Created in 2008 by Gondwana Choirs Artistic Director and founder Lyn Williams OAM, Gondwana Indigenous Children s Choir (GICC) gives voice to the diverse culture of Australia s Indigenous youth, providing a vehicle to build identity through deep collaboration with local elders and community. At the core of GICC s mission is the preservation and development of language and story through song, involving intergenerational cultural activity and developing a new contemporary Indigenous repertoire. There have been many commissions and new works created, including the children s opera Ngailu, Boy of the Stars by Sani Townson and Dan Walker, and Spinifex Gum a song cycle by Felix Riebl, presented by GICC at Gondwana National Choral School In 2017, the Choir will undertake a unique collaboration with the world-renowned Vienna Boys Choir, featuring the creation of new work, significant cultural interaction and live performances in Vienna, Sydney and Cairns. Their sound is unique, with a richness, warmth and strength that is now recognised and loved by audiences. In 2015 the Choir performed at the Red Earth Arts Festival in the Western Pilbara and at the Business Council of Australia Annual Dinner in Sydney for the fourth consecutive year. Other tours include the Kimberley, Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra and internationally to the China World Expo. The Choir has recorded with the Uncle Seaman Dan, performed at the Cairns G20Summit, the Cairns NAIDOC Gala Ball and at the Sydney Opera House for the premiere of Paul Stanhope s Jandamarra Sing for the Country. Recent performances have included collaborations with Gurrumul, Christine Anu, Troy Cassar-Daley and the Soweto Gospel Choir. 16 The GICC program is built on a foundation of choral hubs in Cairns, Western Sydney and Inner Sydney. Through a weekly commitment, choristers receive the same high-level ongoing training as the world-renowned Sydney Children s Choir, including ensemble rehearsals, sight-singing and music theory presented by leading national choral artists.

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18 Australian Chamber Orchestra Inspiring programming, unrivalled virtuosity, energy and individuality, the Australian Chamber Orchestra s performances span popular masterworks, adventurous cross artform projects and pieces specially commissioned for the ensemble. Founded by John Painter, the ACO originally comprised just 13 players, who came together for concerts as they were invited. Today, the ACO has grown to 20 players (three part-time), giving more than 100 performances in Australia each year, as well as touring internationally. The Orchestra performs all over the world: from red-dust regional centres of Australia to New York night clubs, from Australian capital cities to the world s most prestigious concert halls. The ACO s dedication and musicianship has created warm relationships with celebrated musicians and artists around the world. The ACO has recorded for the world s top labels. Recent recordings have won three consecutive ARIA Awards and documentaries featuring the ACO have been shown on television worldwide and won awards at film festivals on four continents. Richard Tognetti Artistic Director & Leader Chair sponsored by the late Michael Ball AM & Daria Ball, Wendy Edwards, Andrew & Andrea Roberts Helena Rathbone Principal Violin Chair sponsored by Kate & Daryl Dixon Satu Vänskä Principal Violin Chair sponsored by Kay Bryan Glenn Christensen Violin Chair sponsored by Terry Campbell AO & Christine Campbell Aiko Goto Violin Chair sponsored by Anthony & Sharon Lee Foundation Mark Ingwersen Violin Chair sponsored by Julie Steiner & Judyth Sachs Ilya Isakovich Violin Chair sponsored by The Humanity Foundation Liisa Pallandi Violin Chair sponsored by The Melbourne Medical Syndicate Maja Savnik Violin Chair sponsored by Alenka Tindale Ike See Violin Chair sponsored by Di Jameson Principal Viola Chair sponsored by peckvonhartel architects Nicole Divall Viola Chair sponsored by Ian Lansdown Ripieno Viola Chair sponsored by Philip Bacon AM Timo-Veikko Valve Principal Cello Chair sponsored by Peter Weiss AO Melissa Barnard Cello Chair sponsored by Martin Dickson AM & Susie Dickson Julian Thompson Cello Chair sponsored by The Grist & Stewart Families Maxime Bibeau Principal Double Bass Chair sponsored by Darin Cooper Foundation PART-TIME MUSICIANS Zoë Black Violin Thibaud Pavlovic-Hobba Violin Caroline Henbest Viola Daniel Yeadon Cello 18

19 MUSICIANS ON STAGE Richard Tognetti AO 1 Artistic Director & Violin Helena Rathbone 2 Principal Violin Glenn Christensen Violin Mark Ingwersen Violin Maja Savnik Violin Ilya Isakovich Violin Nicole Divall Viola Thomas Chawner Viola Timo-Veikko Valve 3 Principal Cello Julian Thompson 4 Cello Maxime Bibeau 5 Principal Bass 1 Richard Tognetti plays a 1743 Guarneri del Gesù violin kindly on loan from an anonymous Australian private benefactor. 2 Helena Rathbone plays a 1759 J.B. Guadagnini kindly on loan from the Commonwealth Bank Group. 3 Timo-Veikko Valve plays a 1616 Hieronymus and Antonio Amati cello kindly on loan from the ACO Instrument Fund. 4 Julian Thompson plays a 1729 Giuseppe Guarneri filius Andreæ cello with elements of the instrument crafted by his son, Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù, kindly donated to the ACO by Peter Weiss AO. 5 Maxime Bibeau plays a late-16th-century Gasparo da Salò bass kindly on loan from a private Australian benefactor. 19

20 ACO NATIONAL EDUCATION PROGRAM The ACO pays tribute to all of our generous donors who have contributed to our National Education Program, which focuses on the development of young Australian musicians. This initiative is pivotal in securing the future of the ACO and the future of music in Australia. We are extremely grateful for the support that we receive. If you would like to make a donation or bequest to the ACO, or would like to direct your support in other ways, please contact Jill Colvin on (02) or jill.colvin@aco.com.au 20 PATRONS Marc Besen AC & Mrs Eva Besen AO Janet Holmes à Court AC EMERGING ARTISTS & EDUCATION PATRONS $10,000+ Mr Robert Albert AO & Mrs Libby Albert Geoff Alder Australian Communities Foundation Ballandry Fund Steven Bardy & Andrew Patterson The Belalberi Foundation Anita & Luca Belgiorno-Nettis Foundation Guido Belgiorno-Nettis AM & Michelle Belgiorno-Nettis Helen Breekveldt Rod Cameron & Margaret Gibbs Michael & Helen Carapiet Stephen & Jenny Charles Rowena Danziger AM & Ken Coles AM Irina Kuzminsky & Mark Delaney Mr Bruce Fink Dr Ian Frazer AC & Mrs Caroline Frazer Ann Gamble Myer Daniel & Helen Gauchat Kimberley Holden Di Jameson John & Lisa Kench Miss Nancy Kimpton Liz & Walter Lewin Andrew Low Anthony & Suzanne Maple-Brown Jim & Averill Minto Louise & Martyn Myer Foundation Jennie & Ivor Orchard Bruce & Joy Reid Trust Andrew & Andrea Roberts Mark & Anne Robertson Margie Seale & David Hardy Rosy Seaton & Seumas Dawes Tony Shepherd AO Anthony Strachan Leslie C. Thiess David & Julia Turner Libby & Nick Wright E Xipell Peter Yates AM & Susan Yates Peter Young AM & Susan Young Anonymous (3)

21 ACO RECONCILIATION CIRCLE Contributions to the ACO Reconciliation Circle directly support ACO music education activities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, with the aim to build positive and effective partnerships between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and the broader Australian community. To find out more about becoming a member of the Circle, please contact Jill Colvin on or jill.colvin@aco.com.au PATRONS Colin & Debbie Golvan Peter & Ruth McMullin Sam Ricketson & Rosie Ayton 21

22 THANK YOU PATRONS NATIONAL EDUCATION PROGRAM Janet Holmes à Court ac Marc Besen ac & Eva Besen ao trusts and foundations GOVERNMENT PARTNERS The ACO is assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body The ACO is supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW Holmes à Court Family Foundation The Ross Trust 22

23 VOYAGES PARTNER ACKNOWLEDGEMENT PRESENTING PARTNER MAJOR EVENT PARTNERS EVENT PARTNERS 23

24 Artistic Director Richard Tognetti AO Managing Director Richard Evans Director of Artistic Operations Luke Shaw Tour Manager Lisa Mullineux PO Box R21 Royal Exchange NSW 1225 Opera Quays, 2 East Circular Quay, Sydney NSW 2000 T (Box Office Mon Fri, 9am 5pm) E aco@aco.com.au W aco.com.au Voyages Ayers Rock Resort Yulara Drive Yulara NT 0872 T (Mon Fri, 8am 6.30pm. Sat Sun, 9am 5pm.) E travel@voyages.com.au W Voyages.com.au