Charles Darwin University (CDU) announced its sponsorship of the Darwin Festival last week to coincide with the Darwin Festival Program launch.
CDU will sponsor internationally renowned Melbourne-based performance group Strange Fruit, as well as host the globally acclaimed pianist Gill Sullivan, whose Mozart piano concerts will be performed at the Casuarina campus.
CDU Vice Chancellor, Professor Helen Garnett, said the sponsorship was an excellent opportunity for the University to support an important cultural Territory event which encourages social, educational and artistic diversity, and brings leading national and international arts to the Territory.
“CDU seeks to support significant community events and our association with a strong community arts festival is a wonderful opportunity for the University to engage with young and old people alike – all of whom might attend the University to study at some time in their lives. We are thrilled to be in partnership with the Festival,” said Professor Garnett.
“We will be looking at ways to co-promote the Gill Sullivan concert series and Strange Fruit and I encourage all CDU staff and members of the community to come along and enjoy the performances.”
Strange Fruit will perform The Field, in which eight characters enact an intriguing ritual of courtship and discovery high above the ground on four metre poles. The poles bend and bow to impossible breath-taking angles. The company has played to more than one million people at festivals around the world. Local audiences can see them perform at a free spectacle in the Botanic Gardens.
Gill Sullivan will perform the complete Mozart piano sonatas over five nights at the CDU University Theatre, Casuarina Campus. The concert series will form part of the 250th anniversary celebrations of the birth of Wolfgang Amadaus Mozart.
Mr Sullivan is one of the only pianists in the world who plays the entire piano works of Mozart.
Strange Fruit performs 26-27 August at 6.45pm at The Heritage Lawn Darwin Botanical Gardens. FREE
Gill Sullivan performs from 22-26 August at 7.30pm at the Charles Darwin University Theatre. Bookings – visit www.darwinfestival.org.au.
To book tickets to the Festival phone 08 8980 3333 or visit www.darwinfestival.org.au