Selected by Co-Artistic Directors, Paul and Trish Dean, Boots and All was a niche program with “folk-influenced music based on the dust that flies from the boot stomped on the ground, from the earthiest and most guttural call to cultural roots.”

The reverse seating, with the audience behind the stage, created an intimate setting and the musicians were fittingly booted up, with bassoonist David Mitchell sporting tight lederhosen for a Germanic flavour.

Boots and All: Ensemble Q. Photo © Darren Thomas

It was a musical dance around the world with Paul Dean’s niece, the UK-based mezzo-soprano Lotte Betts-Dean rousing the rabble with her robust voice and mastery of lingo, singing in seven different languages.

Her Gaelic crooning of Scottish composer Stuart MacRae’s Chaidh mo Dhonnachadh ‘na bheinn (My Duncan has Gone to the Hill) was impressive and a dramatic start to an intriguing concert. The wide-mouthed vowels and glottal stops did not deter her from beaming with infectious enjoyment throughout the haunting piece accompanied by cello and violin.

The Rashomon Confessions, by Perth composer James Ledger, had Paul Dean questioning their friendship after four fiendish movements in the form of confessions inspired by...