Craig Huthnance

It's not often you spend a morning with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in a recording session at Trackdown Studio. It's a real thrill when it involves a hug from the Principal Oboe player, Diana Doherty, but the story began some 16 months earlier.

On Saturday, the 5 October 2002 our son Craig was playing First Grade Cricket at Shaw Park, Werrington in the Nepean District competition. He had scored 18, coming in at number three, when he collapsed at the non-strikers end. He recovered momentarily but as he was helped from the field he collapsed again and did not survive. His last scoring shot was a square drive. I can picture it well. His Mother and I were in New Zealand at the time and we flew home in a state of shock and disbelief. Craig was so fit. The coroner's report said it was his heart, a rare condition that had gone undiagnosed, in fact would never have been expected in a young healthy male. Craig was thirty years old and how does a parent cope in such tragic circumstances?

It is at times like these that family and friends mean so much. Craig's cricket friends were also a wonderful support to us and we still go each Saturday to watch them play. But the seeds of 'Helter Skelter' germinated when I red a book, 'Lament for a Son' by Nicholas Wolterstorff, written by a father who had lost his son in a mountain climbing accident. Eric was 28. It was a real story and said real things that were a great help in coming to terms with our loss. In it he described how the family commissioned composer Gary Ratcliff to write a requiem in honour of Eric, to a text which they composed mainly from biblical passages and poems.

Inspired by such a thought I wrote to Mary Valentine, CEO of Symphony Australia in the November of 2002. Mary replied in a letter inviting us to meet with her and Margaret Moore, the Education Manager. Their idea was to have a young Australian composer write a piece for the Sydney Symphony Orchestra's Secondary Education Program to be performed to school students in concert under the baton of Richard Gill. Secondary schools in NSW would be sent a resource kit and CD of the piece, with other music, to help teachers and students in their music studies. This concept appealed to us because I have been in education for over 40 years, Phyllis, my wife, teaches piano, and our son Craig had been accomplished on the piano and guitar.

'Helter Skelter' the name of the piece dedicated to Craig's memory, was the result of our further meetings with Sydney Symphony and Paul Stanhope a young Australian composer. The piece came together as we spoke to Paul of Craig's life, his achievements and his passion for cricket. In 'Helter Skelter' Paul has been able to capture the essence of those powerful square drives, lofted straight drives over the bowler's head, cover and on drives, pull shots, hooks and cuts with the delicate leg glance and push into the covers or square leg for a single. Phyl and I can picture this clearly in our minds Craig being involved in those shots, the classic catches, run outs and the wickets taken when he bowled. So it has been an exciting journey that has given us the opportunity to do something worthwhile, to celebrate Craig's life and honour him as the very special person he 'is' and will always be to us and to the many others he touched in his short life. '