Dawn Upshaw begins a two-week tour of Australia with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, led by Artistic Director and Lead Violin Richard Tognetti, at Llewellyn Hall, in the country's capital of Canberra, Friday night.

On the tour program are works by Mozart, Strauss, Bartók, and Upshaw's frequent collaborator, Osvaldo Golijov: his Night of the Flying Horses, Lúa Descolorida, and How Slow the Wind. Over the coming weeks, Dawn and the ACO will bring the program to Melbourne's Arts Centre, Adelaide Town Hall, Perth Concert Hall, the Sydney Opera House, and, for three nights, Sydney's City Recital Hall Angel Place.

Upshaw is the subject of a feature article in The Australian, in which writer Matthew Westwood lauds her "near-rapturous devotion to art." Westwood explores the singer's affinity for new music, citing her collaborations with Henryk Górecki, John Adams, Kaija Saariaho, and Golijov, and asserting: "Few singers of Upshaw's international standing have her commitment to contemporary music."

Even so, says Westwood, "Upshaw's commitment to music goes beyond her choice of repertoire, however. It's in the texture and expressive shading of her voice, the aural evidence of her intelligent probing of text and music."

Dawn tells the writer of her connection to the ACO, with whom she has appeared in Europe and in the States, explaining: "The energy and love that they play with was really intoxicating, the music-making and collaborating that I love to do and search for."

You can read the complete article at theaustralian.news.com.au. For more on the program, visit the Australian Chamber Orchestra site at aco.com.au.