Flowers of Peace presents: WWII Memorial concert ‘Greater Love’ including Simon Tedeschi performing Isadore Goodman’s New Guinea Fantasy.

80 years ago on the 15 August 1945, the Declaration of Peace in the Pacific was signed. The Australian War Memorial and the Flowers of Peace will commemorate this historic anniversary with an epic concert that will describe through music, paintings, images, poetry and narrations these defining events. This nationally significant reflection will remember those who served abroad and at home, describing our nation’s supreme efforts to help defeat fascism and deliver a lasting peace.

The concert will be narrated by Australia’s greatest theatre actor, John Bell AO OBE FRSN, performed by the Canberra Symphony Orchestra and the Australian Defence Force’s finest musicians with soloists William Barton, didjeridu; Simon Tedeschi and Edward Neeman, piano; Alice Giles, harp; Dong Ma, erhu; Andrew Goodwin, tenor; Rachel Mink, soprano; Brisbane Chamber Choir, Flowers of Peace Chorus and the Luminescence Children’s Choir.

Christopher Latham OAM, Artist in Residence at the Australian War Memorial and Director of the Flowers of Peace project created the Second World War Memorial: Greater Love, to describe the willingness of that generation to face truly daunting challenges, and to sacrifice their health and happiness for the greater good. “I wanted to describe this idea of a love beyond self, a greater love that took the form of service for the benefit of others, which I find enormously inspiring. It still amazes me what people were willing to sacrifice to achieve a peaceful, free, democratic world. [….]

We have commissioned our finest composers to create 15 works. Elena Kats-Chernin AO, Graeme Koehne AO and the Japanese American composer Karen Tanaka are being featured, alongside Andrew Schultz, William Barton, Dr Cyrus Meurant, Julian Yu, Peggy Polias and the British Australian composer Paul Carr. The music of Sergei Rachmaninoff, one of the most beloved composers and pianists of all time, who died in 1943, is also featured.”