The second instalment of the State Library of NSW’s 200th anniversary concerts was a thoughtful collaboration of music, drama and animation, illuminating the library’s extensive collection of the Scott Sisters’ scientific illustrations.

The Scott Sisters: Pioneers of Science and Art was researched, conceptualised and directed by Skye McIntosh, artistic director of the Australian Haydn Ensemble, with script and direction by Rachel McDonald, and commissioned by the State Library.

The production detailed the lives of Harriet (Tierney Clark) and Helena Scott (Madeline Flood), and their father, Alexander Walker Scott (Ren Watson), 19th-century naturalists who produced trailblazing compendiums on Australia’s insects and flora.

Skye McIntosh, Ella Bennetts, Katie Yap and Edwina Cordingley: The Scott Sisters: Pioneers of Science and Art. Photo supplied

Najwa Adams-Ebel completed the four-person cast as Lucy, an Awabakal woman whose knowledge and narrative interweave with the colonial experiences of the Scott family. This small cast deftly juggled a variety of roles between them, from Ludwig van Beethoven to David Scott Mitchell, the namesake of the Mitchell Library.

In period attire, seated to the side of the stage, the Australian Haydn Ensemble’s string quartet provided interludes between each of these vignettes. Skye...