Eltham-based pianist/composer Nat Bartsch performs her ARIA-nominated ABC Classic album Hope, joined by Lucy Warren (violin) and Charlotte Jacke (cello).

Hope is an album for piano, strings and electronics built around Nat’s distinctive blend of gentle melodic improvisation, jazz harmony and cinematic neoclassical composition. The suite was composed in 2020, first with the smell of bushfire smoke in her home from the Black Summer fires, and later during Melbourne’s long covid lockdowns. Hence the title is an abbreviation of hopefulness and hopelessness, and music exploring the space between.