This composition was a gift to my good friend Mary Jo Capps on the occasion of her sixtieth birthday, just five days after mine. Mary Jo was the CEO of Musica Viva Australia, the world’s most prolific entrepreneur of chamber music, and was directly responsible for appointing me Artistic Director of that company. Our successful collaboration over the ensuing nineteen years had a profound impact on my life.
 
At the time Mary Jo had just moved to Balmain in Sydney’s 'inner west', and this music imagines her travelling to work by ferry on Sydney’s magnificent harbour. It fancifully conjures the passing watery sights and corresponding states of mind as she prepares for the day ahead.


The Borodin Quartet gave the world premiere in 2014 at a private function celebrating our combined birthdays, and the public premiere two days later at the Melbourne Recital Centre.

Carl Vine, November 2014