Islands capture our imagination as places where the sea meets the land, where cultures exchange signals across distance, and where solitude sparks creativity. This concert gathers music shaped by those powerful images.

To open the concert, guest conductor Fabian Russell conducts Mills’ composition Island Signal/Island Song, featuring four horn soloists from within the DSO. Inspired by the Torres Strait conch shell call and the echoes of Venetian canals, the work celebrates connection across distance and time. Rautavaara then offers a vision of a mythical isle of bliss, radiant with colour and harmony. Mendelssohn brings us the sweeping drama of the Hebrides, where wild seas crash against rugged cliffs. Finally, Tchaikovsky, writing
from the waterside in Venice, turns the island setting into an inner journey with his Fourth Symphony, a profound meditation on fate and resilience.

Together, these works invite us to consider islands not as places apart, but as spaces of encounter, beauty, and inspiration.