In 2014, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra joined with composer Nigel Westlake and singer/songwriter Lior to present Compassion – and it proved a huge hit, winning awards and becoming an instant audience favourite. In 2024, the Orchestra reunites with Westlake and Lior for their rich new collaboration with language activist Lou Bennett.

Ngapa William Cooper is a tribute to the life of Yorta Yorta activist William Cooper, an Aboriginal activist who played a pivotal role in establishing equal rights for Aboriginal Australians and led the Australian Aborigine’s League protest against the events of Kristallnacht in Nazi Germany.

Sung in English and Yorta Yorta language, this powerful story combines Westlake’s signature rich musical palette with moving vocals from Lior and Bennett to celebrate Cooper’s legacy of resistance, solidarity and empathy.

This performance will also feature Nigel Westlake’s Trumpet Concerto Psyche, written for the Orchestra’s Associate Principal Trumpet Brent Grapes, and Frederick Septimus Kelly’s Elegy in Memoriam Rupert Brooke. Written while Kelly was in the trenches at Gallipoli, this piece speaks equally powerfully to compassion and our shared humanity.