Val Gavin (1935– 2003) migrated to Australia from the UK with her parents in 1950. She was offered a place at the Sydney Conservatorium but left due to her family’ s financial strictures. After her disasterous first marriage, Val met Melbourne-based Paul Gavin on a trip to Orange to visit her parents. After a whirlwind romance Val and Paul married and had three children. Val helped support the family with her work as an ‘ official ABC accompanist’, and was a familiar sight in Melbourne’ s theatreland.
During this time her fascination with composition matured producing several song-cycles, concertos, an opera and many smaller works. Val always maintained that being a woman and an Australian was "two strikes against her" and having been spurned by the music publishers she eventually gave up composing, devoting herself to teaching and later, performing with her daughter May as Duo Gavin for over 15 years.
Her music is not cutting-edge in its modernity, but is notable for her gift of melody, her unique harmonic language and beautiful structure.
This CD offers world premiere recordings of two of Val Gavin's song cycles, sung by her son – internationally acclaimed tenor, Julian – and accompanied by her daughter May, a Melbourne-based pianist.
