Katia Beaugeais’s Like Snowdrops You Will Shine premiere by Australian Chamber Orchestra Collective
2024 main theme tune for ABC Classic
ABC Classic Breakfast with Dr Megan Burslem (2023/2024)
and with Russell Torrance in 2022
Wake up with Like Snowdrops You Will Shine daily:
https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/classic-breakfast
ABC Classic’s Easter Special
Features my dual role as composer and saxophonist
Includes Like Snowdrops You Will Shine for string orchestra:
Click here for more info “Classical Music for Dawn”
ABC CLASSIC ALBUMS
“Women of Note: A Century of Australian Composers” CD
https://www.abc.net.au/classic/shop/women-of-note-volume-3/13215312
ACO Collective/Hush ABC CD
https://www.abcmusic.com.au/discography/collective-wisdom-hush-volume-18-aco-collective
Selected for ACO’s Worldwide Playlist
Australian Chamber Orchestra’s playlist celebrating “Incredible Female Artists”
https://www.aco.com.au/blog/post/playlist-international-womens-day
SHEET MUSIC
Score/Parts
Published by the Australian Music Centre:
https://www.australianmusiccentre.com.au/work/beaugeais-katia-like-snowdrops-you-will-shine
LISTEN Like Snowdrops You Will Shine for string orchestra
FOR CONCERT PROGRAMS
Composer’s Note
Like Snowdrops You Will Shine for string orchestra refers to the delicate white snowdrop flower that symbolises hope, optimism, courage, resilience and new beginnings. It features Australian nature sounds to create a soothing, peaceful and uplifting sound world.
My aim was to create a piece that would have a calming effect and serve as a distraction to reduce stress and anxiety. Through my music I hope to provide comfort for anyone who is facing a challenging time in their lives.
Like Snowdrops You Will Shine is currently the main theme tune (since 2022) for ABC’s Classic Breakfast daily program with Dr Megan Burslem.
This piece is regularly performed around the world. Highlights include: Australian Chamber Orchestra Collective, Kansas City Chamber Orchestra, AYO’s Australian String Orchestra directed by Dr Elizabeth Layton, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and recently selected from 350 submissions for the 2024 American String Teachers Association.
Like Snowdrops You Will Shine was composed for the 2018 Hush Hospital Foundation CD and selected for the Australian Chamber Orchestra’s 2019 worldwide playlist celebrating “Incredible Female Artists”, ABC’s “Best of Australian Classical Music” and re-released on ABC Classic’s 2021 “Women of Note” Vol. 3 album. It is also currently the theme music for a QLD Mental Health course.
The stylistic character of my piece is inspired by a musical activity during my composer residency at the Sydney Children’s Hospital in Randwick, where we composed, played and improvised over a pentatonic scale. Like Snowdrops You Will Shine is based on a set of pitches of a pentatonic nature that evolve into a series of various modulations to form the main musical material. Opening with a delicate and playful ‘snowdrop’ pizzicato motif bouncing around the ensemble, shining melodic colours and thick, warm chordal harmonies create an uplifting and positive ambiance. Soothing seagull bird-like harmonic glissando sounds enhance a calm and meditative soundscape atmosphere.
Like Snowdrops You Will Shine is dedicated to doctors, nurses, volunteers and the general public whose compassion, kindness and encouragement we could not do without during difficult times.
Program Note by Katia Beaugeais – Updated January 2024.
REVIEWS
The Music Trust
“Like Snowdrops You Will Shine by Katia Beaugeais opens softly, with a theme that weaves through gently downward moving patterns that might have the effect of bringing a troubled person from heightened levels of stress to a place of peace; the birdsong coda might elicit images of escape to a world outside the hospital environment.” – Gwen Bennett 31/10/18.
The Culture Concept
“In Katia Beaugeais’s Like Snowdrops You Will Shine wisps of white petals are harvested and blended to create a mysterious mixture of subdued sadness and comforting joy. Together these themes cascade to form a contented chorus of continual radiant shine.
The music tumbles with triumph and unassuming bravery.” – Rose Niland 31/10/18.
CD Launch
16 + 17 September 2018 – ACO Collective Sydney & Melbourne
Broadcast live on ABC Classic FM