A hymnal to the country under our feet.

A living songbook more than four years in the making, Andrew Ford’s hymnal brings together the words of sixteen contemporary Australian writers – poets, essayists, and folksingers. Born in a time of fire and darkness, grief, and loss, and then fragile, tender hope, Red Dirt Hymns are songs of awe and praise, dedicated not to a god, but to the land.

Red Dirt Hymns is performed by the ever-daring voices of Luminescence Chamber Singers alongside with singers from the Orange Regional Conservatorium, and two rising stars: Hilary Geddes (electric guitar), 2021 Freedman Jazz Fellow and lead guitarist of Triple J favourites The Buoys, and category-defying cellist Freya Schack-Arnott. Songs that span art music, folk song, country ballad, and Aussie rock, unfold to the evocative imagery of Sammy Hawker, whose art is created within the fabric of country itself: saltwater, limestone and eucalypt.

From Ellen van Neerven’s dark clouds to John Kinsella’s abundant gardens, Red Dirt Hymns does what a hymnal is meant to do: it draws us closer – to each other, and to the light and shade of our wide brown land.

Presented in partnership with Orange Civic Theatre and the Orange Regional Conservatorium.

For detailed information about Red Dirt Hymns please visit: https://www.luminescence.org.au/reddirt