Music / Dear Camilla, Letters to My Teacher. Patrick Galvin, violin, and Jennifer Hou piano. At Wesley Music Centre January 23. Reviewed by ALANNA MACLEAN.

A gentle evening dedicated to American violinist and teacher Camilla Wicks made for lovely listening at the Wesley Music Centre.

Violinist Patrick Galvin and pianist Jennifer Hou hav been touring this tribute and finished in front of an appreciative audience in Canberra. Galvin was fortunate enough to have her as a teacher late in her life and is now using her Australian AE Smith violin.

And what a lush and singing instrument it was in Galvin’s hands in a program that ranged from Chausson and Sibelius and Chopin and Part to Emma Greenhill, Jennifer Higdon and Amy Beach. There was much tunefulness and an awareness of history and a quiet acknowledgement of the struggles of female composers and players such as Wicks.

The evening’s formal conclusion was appropriately a new piece commissioned by the duo by Jolin Jiang, which came out of her growing up in Shanghai. Extended images of riding a bike, first as a child under guidance then finally as an adult, part of the city’s traffic were augmented by a Shanghai children’s song, Du Du Bay.

Versatile Hou stepped away from the piano to sing this clear and undecorated piece about a child being carried by an adult.

The image of growth under guidance mirrored Galvin’s descriptions of sessions with the ageing Wicks, hands no longer what they were but capacity to guide a student still there. Hou never met her but eloquently acknowledged Wick’s legacy in her own narration.

It was an understated tribute but had great value in reminding of the legacy of a great performer and teacher.

And the encore was a pure bit of joy as Galvin and Hou combined to give us William Kroll’s Banjo and Fiddle, a spritely and wonderful short piece that enabled that Australian violin to really show off.