Listen to the land

New string quartets by First Peoples composers - uniting music, culture, and environment.

Thank you to everyone who supported Listen to the Land on AusArt Day!

Your generosity helped us reach our initial goal, which is a powerful start to this ambitious multi-year project bringing together First Peoples composers to create new string quartets inspired by Country.

Curated by Chris Sainsbury (composer, academic, Dharug person, and founder of the Ngarra-Burria First Peoples Composers Initiative), Listen to the Land is a living, breathing exploration of the bond between music and place.

As bushwalkers and lifelong lovers of the natural world, we dream of music that can carry someone back to a windswept ridge, a quiet riverbend, a stretch of desert sky, or lead them there for the first time. Over the coming years, this growing collection of works will ripple outward: performed, recorded, and shared so that music lovers may find nature, and nature lovers may find music.

This is just the beginning. We’re continuing to raise funds to bring more of these works to life, supporting creative collaborations and recordings that connect audiences more deeply with place and story.

Listen to the Land brings together First Peoples composers to create new string quartets inspired by Country — connecting people to place through music and storytelling.

Your gift directly funds composer commissions, workshops, and recording sessions that elevate First Peoples voices through string quartet music. Together, we can launch this important new chapter for Australian music.

THANK YOU
Listen to the Land Supporters

Linda Herd
Special thanks to our matched-funding patron, whose generosity doubled every gift made on AusArt Day (23 Oct 2025) up to $10,000.

Barry Jones AC and Rachel Faggetter
Brad and Maggie Robinson
Christobel Botten
Doug Hooley
Elise Callander
Emily Wraight
Faye Goldsmith
Geoff Hayes
Greg Byrne
Janet Limb
Joanna Baevski
Julie and Godfrey Ireland
June Marks
Kate Tribe
Linda Norman
Lois Goodin
Margot Costanzo
Maria Axarlis-Coulter
Maria Radford
Marian Neal
Mary Muirhead
Mel Birks
Merlyn Quaife AM
Peter Kingsbury
Richard Gubbins
Robyn Sloan
Sam and Elizabeth Golding
Sarah Cuming
Sarah Hunt
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