High culture comes to the Murraylands with the Three Bridges Festival

Arts lovers have feasted upon fine music over the weekend with the debut of a Chamber Music Adelaide festival in Murray Bridge.

The Three Bridges Festival program included 19 performances by six artists at the city’s art gallery and performing arts centre.

Highlights included a presentation of early 20th century and contemporary music by the Kegelstatt Ensemble on Sunday afternoon; three soundscapes by local sound artist Jesse Budel; and a Saturday collaboration between singer-songwriter Nathan May and an Adelaide Baroque string quartet.

The performance by May and the quartet, staged amid an exhibition of central Australian art from the National Museum, drew warmth from the pictures on the gallery’s walls as it brought together two cultures and musical traditions.

May’s down-to-earth tunes married rustic country tones with themes of truth-telling and reconciliation.

The quartet finished with a Vivaldi concerto; the juxtaposition of the Italian composer’s sounds and the Indigenous art gave the impression that an 18th-century ensemble had somehow been transported from an opera house to the outback.

Festival organiser Liz McCall said more than 300 audience members of all ages had attended performances during the weekend.

It had helped that many were free, and none longer than an hour, she suspected.

She hoped to bring the festival back again sometime, ideally with a longer lead-in period.

This year’s inaugural festival was brought forward so that local expat Jesse Budel, heading overseas on an Arts SA fellowship in the near future, could be involved.

“I get a real sense that there are a lot of people in the community who sing and make music, and we’d love to connect with them,” Ms McCall said.

Gallery director Fulvia Mantelli expressed her hope that the festival might return to Murray Bridge every second year.