Kate Miller-Heidke

The petite, sparkly Kate Miller-Heidke stepped onto the stage with her trademark ‘princess tiara’ and wowed the audience from start to finish. Accompanied by husband Keir Nuttall on guitars, Iain Grandage on piano and cello and backing singer Jess Hitchcock, Heidke had the audience laughing and spellbound by turns.

The Cabaret Festival invitation offered her a chance to share the full range of her compositions with the audience and give them some of the background to the songs and her writing. As she says, she’s not really a cabaret artist, but good music and communication with the audience is always a winner in any setting. 

Heidke’s songs are fresh and honest. Classically trained Heidke demonstrates a deep musicianship and incredible level of technical skill, which she makes look effortless. She moves between operatic trills to soft folk and powerful rock and roll, rewriting what pop sounds like today. Her lyrics deal with depression, bullying and the cowardice of being a bystander and the regret involved in that, a warning to abusive men that their time is limited, and songs for and about children. The lyrics are by turn moving, funny, intelligent and beautiful.

The range of her work is noteworthy as well. Apart from her recent appearance in the 2019 Euro-vision Song Contest, she has written the music for the opera Rabbits, based on the book by John Marsden and Shaun Tan, co written the music for Muriel with Keir Nuttall and been commissioned to write for International Women’s Day and The Hush Collection.  She has sung with the Melbourne, Tasmanian and Sydney Symphony Orchestras and she works with our top composers, such as Joseph Twist and Iain Grandage, developing her skills and breaking the artificial boundaries between genres.

Heidke, Nuttall, Grandage and Hitchcock provided a musical feast with Grandage and Nuttall producing some fabulous duets, with the guitarist and pianist playing against and with each other. Look out for Jess Hitchcock’s debut album due out in early July.

As could be seen at the concert, her fan base crosses a very wide age range, from children to the white-haired and the standing ovation and Adelaide ‘stamp’ showed that her talent is very much appreciated by all.

This was one of the best concerts I have ever attended and I hope it isn’t too long until Kate Miller-Heidke and her band return to Adelaide.

Sally Putnam

Photo credit: SBS

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