Reviews/Music/Perth Festival

Songstress adds new strings to her bow

19 February 2022

An intimate concert with Katie Noonan confirms the breadth of her reach as one of Australia’s leading performers, and takes long-time fan Rosalind Appleby back to an earlier encounter.

It’s been two decades since a young Queenslander and her indie rock band george performed with the WA Symphony Orchestra in Kings Park.

It was evident, as her voice spiralled over the orchestra, that Katie Noonan’s skills were broader than your average rock singer, and she has since traversed jazz, opera, classical music and more in her ascent to becoming Australia’s favourite songstress.

Or perhaps a more fitting moniker is the title some of Noonan’s Queenslander fans have bestowed on her: yellow-crested cockatoo (an apt description of her fluffy mohawk!)

On Friday night in the foyer of the Art Gallery of WA, the songbird is at her most personal and poetic. Her Perth Festival performances with the Sartory String Quartet (including a regional tour) provide vignettes of the musical worlds Noonan has explored thus far.

Singer Katie Noonan sits behind a keyboard as she sings into a mic. The woman wears a black t-shirt, red and white scarf and a yellow pair of glasses.
Katie Noonan wields her voice like a double-edged sword. Photo: Court McAllister.

Starting at the piano she leads us through some early songs “Quiet Day” and “Bluebird”, her entrancing voice – pure, breathy and agile – testing out the gallery acoustics with increasing assertiveness. There is almost a fragility to these opening jazz ballads, cushioned by the warm chords from the quartet as they wrap around Noonan’s emotion-laden voice.

Intensely personal songs, like “I Found You” and “Emperor’s Box”, offer glimpses into motherhood and soulmate love, arranged for piano and quartet by jazz luminaries Paul Grabowsky and Stephen Newcomb.

Noonan wields her voice like a double-edged sword, slicing with the precise clarity of a digital sine wave, then carving with vibrato-laced delicacy.

The horizon broadens in the second half, and we hear songs Noonan has commissioned from Australian composers, setting to music the poetry of iconic artists such as Judith Wright and Michael Leunig.

The restlessness of Wright’s poem Late Spring is captured in Elena Kats-Chernin’s unsettled string harmonies. There is a strength without harshness which epitomises both of these great artists, and Noonan and the quartet convey it masterfully.

The poetry of Oodgeroo Noonuccal (activist Kath Walker) is the inspiration behind a series of three songs for voice and quartet composed by Thomas Green, Robert Davidson and Noonan. The quartet – Pascale Whiting (violin), Susannah Williams (violin), Katherine Potter (viola) and Sophie Curtis (cello) – shine in these challenging works, which have an almost operatic breadth. Emancipated from the piano, Noonan sculpts the music with her hands, articulating each line with detailed artistry.

It might be nostalgia, but my favourite is the closing number “Breath in Now”, from Noonan’s double platinum 2002 debut album Polyserena. There’s been another seven platinum albums and 27 ARIA Awards nominations since then, but there is a youthful passion immortalised in this indie rock power ballad. The strings capture the rhythmic energy with pizzicato plucking and Walker’s cello sings in counterpoint with Noonan’s trademark stratospheric soprano.

Noonan possesses an incredible instrument and what makes her artistry even more impressive, as she takes her place as one of Australia’s great musicians, is the way she utilises her renown to give also voice to poets, composers, musicians and Australia’s First Nations people.

Katie Noonan performs at AGWA on 19 February and Bunbury Regional Entertainment Centre on 20 February.

Pictured top: Katie Noonan and the Sartory String Quartet. Photo by Court McAllister.

For the latest news and reviews, subscribe to Seesaw’s fortnightly free e-magazine here.

Like what you're reading? Support Seesaw.

Author —
Rosalind Appleby

Rosalind is an arts journalist, author and speaker. She was co-managing editor and founding board member of Seesaw Magazine 2018 – 2023, is author of Women of Note, and has written for The West Australian, The Guardian, The Australian, Limelight magazine and Opera magazine (UK). She loves park percussion instruments.

Past Articles

  • Celebrating five years of independent journalism

    Seesaw Magazine has reached a new milestone in our quest to ignite conversation about the arts in WA. Find out how you can support us and keep courageous, professional and independent journalism alive.

  • Perth’s international organist

    Enticed from England 14 years ago by the Dean of St George’s Cathedral, Joseph Nolan’s impact on the local music scene has been significant. He chats with Rosalind Appleby about his latest overseas tour and why Perth audiences need to hear Handel’s Samson.

Read Next

  • Just what the doctor ordered
    Reviews

    Just what the doctor ordered

    29 September 2023

    Dr AudiYO uses vocal gymnastics to take the audience on a fun adventure. Junior reviewers Jackson and Chloe Davis are happy to take this prescription. 

    Reading time • 3 minutesTheatre
  • Seadragon weaves magic spell
    Reviews

    Seadragon weaves magic spell

    28 September 2023

    The Magical Weedy Seadragon enchants junior reviewer Isabel Greentree with a winning blend of story, song and humour.   

    Reading time • 4 minutesMulti-arts
  • Lifting the weight of the world
    Reviews

    Lifting the weight of the world

    28 September 2023

    Junior reviewers Jackson and Chloe Davis are taken on a thoughtful and funny journey to the Moon with one overwhelmed girl.

    Reading time • 4 minutesTheatre

Cleaver Street Studio

Cleaver Street Studio

 

Cleaver Street Studio