Homesick in the most beautiful way: The Lark Ascending

When TSO Concertmaster Emma McGrath steps into the spotlight to perform Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending, she brings a deeply personal connection to the piece.

‘It's a piece I've been playing since I was 18,’ Emma shares. ‘It's really nice to have a relationship with some pieces like this, where I play it multiple times. And it changes with you as a person. When I was 18, I was hopefully a little different to who I am now, and the piece, in the way that I play it, is the same – it evolves in the same way.’​

Born in northern England, Emma has lived and performed across the globe, including in the United States and now Tasmania, which she calls home. Yet, the English countryside continues to inspire her interpretation of The Lark Ascending.​

‘I really love calling Tasmania home – it's one of the most beautiful places in the world. And I've been to many beautiful, far-flung, wonderful places, and still, for me, just because my DNA was created in England, there's nothing more beautiful than English birdsong and beautiful English rolling hills and countryside,' Emma says.

'So when I play The Lark Ascending, it's like a homesickness, really. It's a feeling of homesickness in the most beautiful way.’​

As Emma told The Hobart Magazine for this month's cover story, ‘Getting out into nature is essential for me as a musician'.

She often finds inspiration in Tasmania's landscapes, from walks on Kunanyi to the misty beauty of the Pieman River.

‘I love the way the Derwent can be calm in the morning and then churning and almost made invisible by a storm in the afternoon,’ Emma told the magazine.​