By Helen Musa 

When harpist Alice Giles and her pianist husband Arnan Wiesel speak about the 2026 season of Harmonic Curves, there’s excitement and a sense of homecoming.

The four-concert series opens with a coup, the world premiere of Larry Sitsky’s Worlds of the Kabbalah for cello and harp. Composed in 2015 specifically for Giles and cellist David Pereira, the substantial four-movement work has been waiting patiently on her shelf for more than a decade.

Now, at last, it will be heard.

“It’s a major work, about 20 to 25 minutes,” Giles says. “Larry has written on a virtuosic level for both instruments. The sounds are incredibly stimulating, and there’s a spiritual language to the concept. It’s unique.”

The combination of cello and harp is for Giles deeply meaningful. She describes the instruments as sympathetic relatives, their strings resonating with one another through bowing and plucking, creating colours that differ markedly from the more familiar harp and piano pairing.

For her family, the premiere carries added emotional weight. Wiesel’s mother Aviva, was a professional harpist and his father Uzi was a famous cellist who toured Australia and internationally. 

Sitsky, now 91 and frail, may not be able to attend the performance. If he cannot, Giles and Pereira intend to take the music to him. 

“If he’s not well enough to come, we’ll go to his home and perform it for him. It’s really important he hears this first performance,” Giles says. 

The premiere sets the tone for a season shaped by independence and renewal. They launched Harmonic Curves last year with an ambitious six-concert program, Wiesel initially collaborating with his former student pianist Aaron Chew in four-hand repertoire. In 2026 they pared the series back to four concerts, a more sustainable offering.

The desire to create their own platform runs deep. After a traumatic upheaval at the ANU School of Music in 2012, both artists stepped away from Canberra’s music scene and pursued international careers. From their home in Murrumbateman, they continued to perform around the world.

“We were determined to do something locally,” Giles says. “We wanted to create something ourselves, to present the kind of pieces we play instead of just being asked. That was really important at this stage of our lives. And we wanted to make a statement that we are part of a musical community we’d been separated from for a while.”

Far from slowing down, both have remained prolific. Giles has performed in Antarctica on her wind harps and formed the Penta [five] Harp Ensemble while Wiesel served as inaugural president of the ACT Keyboard Association. 

Now, entering what they call the “older generation” stage of their careers, they are embracing collaboration once more, inviting longtime colleagues David Pereira and guitarist Timothy Kain to join them in a nod to the good old days of Canberra music. 

“We still have much to offer,” Giles says. 

Alongside the Sitsky premiere, audiences will hear a new composition, Pereira’s Still Dancing, for cello and piano, featuring evocative passages and rhythmically charged sections, as well as the Fantasiestücke Op. 73 by Robert Schumann. 

Giles promises balance. “We like to present an assorted program on a Sunday afternoon. We don’t want people to feel like they’re in an education session. They’ll encounter the new among familiar sounds,” she says.

One of the season’s most personal highlights comes in Concert Three, Elemental, where their daughter, performance poet Moran Wiesel, will present works from her forthcoming anthology woven through music inspired by ice, water, fire, earth and air.

The 2026 Harmonic Curves season, Wesley Music Centre, at a glance:

• Concert 1, Mystic, cellist David Pereira joins Alice Giles and Arnan Wiesel, March 15

• Concert 2, Resonance, guitarist Timothy Kain joins harpist Alice Giles, June 7.

• Concert 3, Elemental, with performance poet Moran Wiesel inspired by Ice, Water, Fire, Earth, Air, with works by JS Bach, Schumann, Scriabin, and Debussy, September 13

• Concert 4, Kaleidoscope, works by Martin Wesley-Smith, Carl Vine, Luciano Berio, Arnold Schönberg, Mozart Variations and Bartok piano, November 1.