GLYN LEHMANN
COMPOSER • SONGWRITER • ARRANGER
Glyn Lehmann
As the Universe Expands
for bass voice, oboe and piano
Celia Craig - oboe
Pelham Andrews - bass voice
Penelope Cashman - piano
Album release 26 June 2025
On all streaming platforms and for download from iTunes
Available now on pre-release from Bandcamp, digital and CD
Available now on pre-release from Bandcamp, digital and CD
For more information contact Glyn Lehmann | info@glynlehmann.com | +61 438 947 179
It has been one of the highlights of my life as a composer to experience this very personal work performed and recorded with such care, passion and sensitivity by these three wonderful, world-class artists.
Glyn Lehmann
The Music
This work is a meditation on the connection between the endless expansion of the universe and the 'becoming' of a life, from its first breath to its last.Original program notes by the composer
Adelaide Town Hall, May 2024
In 2006 author Kurt Vonnegut wrote to a group of high school students:
Practice any art, music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, painting, sculpting, poetry, fiction, essays, reportage, no matter how well or badly, not to get money and fame, but to experience becoming, to find out what’s inside you, to make your soul grow.
To ‘experience becoming’ is a wonderful expression of what it is to be human. Richard Feynman, a theoretical physicist, wrote that we are:
atoms with consciousness... matter with curiosity...
I...a universe of atoms...
an atom in the universe.
Cosmologist Carl Sagan suggests that as conscious beings ‘We are a way for the universe to know itself’.
Reflecting on my mother’s slowly fading final years after a full and energetic life, these words, by Alan Lightman from his novel Mr g, ring true:
And the individual atoms, cycled through her body and then cycled through wind and water and soil, cycled through generations and generations of living creatures and minds, will repeat and connect and make a whole out of parts.
Released from their temporary confinement, her atoms slowly spread out and diffused through the atmosphere.
A final breath.
A silent heart.
Still becoming.
Glyn Lehmann - composer
Dedicated to my mum, Eileen
The People
L-R. Celia Craig, Glyn Lehmann, Penelope Cashman, Pelham Andrews. Photo: Jason Mildwaters
Composer Glyn Lehmann has more than forty years’ experience composing for orchestra, choir, television and theatre. His song I Am the Earth, for children’s choir, has over five million views on YouTube and was performed at Buckingham Palace during the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Pageant. The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra has performed his works Space Race (2019, with Young Adelaide Voices), In This Place (2022) and The Wisdom of Trees (2023). He was composer/sound designer for the State Theatre Company of South Australia’s productions of Art (Yasmina Reza), Scenes from an Execution (Howard Barker) and Maestro (Peter Goldsworthy). In 2024 Glyn was accepted as an Associate Artist of the Australian Music Centre. glynlehmann.com
Oboist Celia Craig is an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music and an elite orchestral player. She was elected Chairman of London’s BBC Symphony Orchestra working with artists such as Adams, Boulez, Berio, Haitink and Sir Andrew Davis, and has recorded at Abbey Road Studios with the London Symphony Orchestra. She was principal oboe of Adelaide Symphony Orchestra from 2011-2018 and is currently a Biennial Artist, CreateSA (2024-2026) celiacraig.com.au
Bass singer Pelham Andrews has been principal artist for Opera Australia, State Opera South Australia, and English National Opera. He performed in the premiere of Watershed – The Death of Dr Duncan (Adelaide Festival) and recently with Opera Australia at the Sydney Opera House. pelhamandrews
Pianist Dr Penelope Cashman has performed with singers at venues including Haus der Musik (Vienna), Ukaria Cultural Centre, and the Holywell Music Room (Oxford). Opera credits include music director for Opera Queensland’s “Moving Opera” and for Mopoke Theatre, as well as pianist for Bel Canto in Tuscany Opera School (Italy) and repetiteur for State Opera South Australia. penelopecashman.com
Oboist Celia Craig is an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music and an elite orchestral player. She was elected Chairman of London’s BBC Symphony Orchestra working with artists such as Adams, Boulez, Berio, Haitink and Sir Andrew Davis, and has recorded at Abbey Road Studios with the London Symphony Orchestra. She was principal oboe of Adelaide Symphony Orchestra from 2011-2018 and is currently a Biennial Artist, CreateSA (2024-2026) celiacraig.com.au
Bass singer Pelham Andrews has been principal artist for Opera Australia, State Opera South Australia, and English National Opera. He performed in the premiere of Watershed – The Death of Dr Duncan (Adelaide Festival) and recently with Opera Australia at the Sydney Opera House. pelhamandrews
Pianist Dr Penelope Cashman has performed with singers at venues including Haus der Musik (Vienna), Ukaria Cultural Centre, and the Holywell Music Room (Oxford). Opera credits include music director for Opera Queensland’s “Moving Opera” and for Mopoke Theatre, as well as pianist for Bel Canto in Tuscany Opera School (Italy) and repetiteur for State Opera South Australia. penelopecashman.com
The Venue
UKARIA, Peramangk Country, Adelaide Hills, South Australia
UKARIA was designed with chamber music at its heart, so there was no better place to record a work such as As the Universe Expands.
From the UKARIA website…
"The concert hall has been modelled to have a spacious and enveloping sound while preserving the intimate scale and aesthetic character of the space.
Musicians have remarked on the fullness of the sound, its clarity, richness and warmth. The exemplary acoustics have been recognised, with commentators stating that there is no better or comparable chamber music space in Australia."
The intimacy of the space, combined with the Steinway D-274, the stunning architecture and the beautiful surroundings, created the relaxed atmosphere that was required to record this simple yet subtle work.
From the UKARIA website…
"The concert hall has been modelled to have a spacious and enveloping sound while preserving the intimate scale and aesthetic character of the space.
Musicians have remarked on the fullness of the sound, its clarity, richness and warmth. The exemplary acoustics have been recognised, with commentators stating that there is no better or comparable chamber music space in Australia."
The intimacy of the space, combined with the Steinway D-274, the stunning architecture and the beautiful surroundings, created the relaxed atmosphere that was required to record this simple yet subtle work.
The combination of an iconic South Australian music venue, three outstanding South Australian artists, a South Australian composer and a work commissioned by Chamber Music Adelaide, supported by The City of Adelaide and a recording grant from CreateSA, makes this recording a truly South Australian affair, born and bred in Australia's only UN City of Music.
Glyn Lehmann
This work was commissioned by Chamber Music Adelaide in 2024 as part of Perspectives, a Cultural Partnership with the City of Adelaide.
Recorded at UKARIA Cultural Centre, Peramangk Country, SA Australia
Produced by Glyn Lehmann
Recorded by Jakub Gaudasinski
Mastered by Anthony Scott
Cover image by Glyn Lehmann
Recording funded by a grant from CreateSA
Recorded at UKARIA Cultural Centre, Peramangk Country, SA Australia
Produced by Glyn Lehmann
Recorded by Jakub Gaudasinski
Mastered by Anthony Scott
Cover image by Glyn Lehmann
Recording funded by a grant from CreateSA
As the Universe Expands
I. Prelude
II. As the Universe Expands
III. Atoms
Atoms scattering
Atoms gathering
Becoming
IV. A Single Breath
With a breath
A single breath
A beating heart Becoming
With a breath
The universe expands
Within a life
Becoming
V. In Wonder
A world within a grain of sand
Held in the palm of a child’s hand In wonder
As one
(adapted from William Blake’s Auguries of Innocence, 1803)
VI. Create!
Atoms gathering
Awakened by wonder
To paint to play
To sculpt to sing
To dance to draw
To write to make
Create!
A world within
VII. Still, becoming
With a breath
A final breath
A silent heart
Still, becoming
Atoms scattering
Atoms gathering
As the universe expands
I. Prelude
II. As the Universe Expands
III. Atoms
Atoms scattering
Atoms gathering
Becoming
IV. A Single Breath
With a breath
A single breath
A beating heart Becoming
With a breath
The universe expands
Within a life
Becoming
V. In Wonder
A world within a grain of sand
Held in the palm of a child’s hand In wonder
As one
(adapted from William Blake’s Auguries of Innocence, 1803)
VI. Create!
Atoms gathering
Awakened by wonder
To paint to play
To sculpt to sing
To dance to draw
To write to make
Create!
A world within
VII. Still, becoming
With a breath
A final breath
A silent heart
Still, becoming
Atoms scattering
Atoms gathering
As the universe expands
Prelude / As the Universe Expands
Atoms
A Single Breath
In Wonder
Create!
Still, becoming
PO BOX 412
Bridgewater
South Australia 5155
Australia
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