Several months ago, I found myself captivated by a video a friend had posted online. Sitting at her kitchen table, she read from her journal, “I met my 90-year-old self for coffee this morning.” The video imagined a conversation between her current self and a version of herself 50 years from now – how her 90-year-old self would perceive her now, what wisdom and encouragement she would share, what questions they would ask each other. It was heartwarming and affirming, touching on a feeling I have been experiencing a lot this year – moments in which I look around at my family, my home and the natural environment that surrounds us and feel an intense sense of gratitude, love and grief. I find myself soaking it all in, simultaneously imagining a future in which I am looking back on these moments as memories.

Ella Macens. Photo © Tenis Dimants

This new work, commissioned by Simone Young, Chief Conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, with the generous support of Christine Bishop, draws on all of these elements, woven together with a wistful yearning – an awareness of the impermanence of all...