A year ago, the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra launched Floods of Fire, a collaborative composition project that draws on the cultural heritage of a spectrum of communities in South Australia to explore the impact and process the trauma of the devastating fires and floods that hit the country in 2019-20. Floods of Fire is a partnership of the orchestra with members of diverse communities, local arts groups, and musicians from a broad range of cultural backgrounds—and they participate in workshops with composers including Julian Ferraretto, Hilary Kleinig, Adam Page, Luke Harold, Grayson Rotumah, Jakub Jankowski, Zhao Liang, and Belinda Gehlert. Conductor Luke Dollman and Chris Drummond, artistic director of Adelaide theater company Brink Productions, are linking the varied narratives, visions, and approaches to artmaking. Audiences get a look at the project during the ASO’s Festival of Orchestra in November—although Floods of Fire’s value may reside as much in its meaning for its co-creators as it does for viewers.
