A musical tribute
April 2018 | Antonia Howarth-Wass
SEVERAL MONTHS after the passing of Kent Geoffrey Furmage, a passionate and dedicated group including family, friends, musical comrades and musical protégés collaborated to produce an afternoon in Gallery 9 at Deloraine, in celebration of one of Tasmania’s outstanding musicians and a Deloraine personage without peer.
On a Saturday in March, the Gallery was packed and music once again filled the room, flowing into the street and surrounds as those who knew and loved Kent brought heart and soul to a commemoration of his life and work.
They brought something of the outstanding quality of his presentations of celebrated music, to patrons committed to the sounds that emanate from Gothic cathedrals, ancient choirs and a history way before our time.
Kent was a formidable advocate of such music and one of the great musicians in the country.
It was a sad and beautiful afternoon with sunlight surreptitiously streaming through the upper windows, as every single attendee had in some way been touched by Kent. He was more than a local hero. His musicianship could have taken him much further than participation in Sydney Opera House choral works, but his life, his art, his extraordinary talent remained a local secret of the community where he was born and raised and where his wife Shirley and sister Robyn and her family, in part, remain.
Filling the shoes of Kent as an accompanist is downright impossible, but Roslyn Tierney ably conducted the Don Chorale and soloists known to all of us over the years; namely Leonie Gryta, Lois Evans, David Priddle, Rosie Stapleton, Tamsyn Stock Stafford, Carolyn Harris and Dorothy Baucza as they sang a variety of songs, arias and duets. Kent’s longtime friend Gillian Woods from Flinders Island came to provide her support on the piano, as did Jill Bacon, Jo Anne Kemp, Elizabeth Rockliffe and Meredith Stronach, all in recognition of a Master.
Kent’s early days in musical theatre in Hobart with Master of Ceremonies John Phelps, gave a glimpse into his repertoire. With music from Strauss, Delibes, Saint Saens, Schubert, Offenbach, Sondheim, Rossini, a partial rendition of Faure’s Requiem by the Don Chorale and a people’s celebration of The Hallelujah chorus, it was a tribute broad in range and befitting solemnity.
The pace of performance demanded by Kent and the astonishing sounds he exacted from his piano, together with iconic conducting from the piano stool may have been missing, but the emotion in the room was overflowing for a life cut short, for the loss and yet grateful thanks for the experience of having known and loved a more than lifesize and a truly unique identity.
An exceptional musician, a wonderful Tasmanian and a great Australian.
