Trish Hayward & Philip Griffin

In French, chanson means a song written and sung in French.

Our planet offers a rich and vast diversity of styles of chansons, from different epoques and different francophone countries. Unfortunately, the French language isn’t spoken or understood in many anglophone countries, so these places sadly miss out on this wonderful repertoire.

The Hayward / Griffin duo offers songs by monsters like the Belgian Jacques Brel, the legendary Michel Legrand, the young and ill-fated Daniel Balavoine, Charles Aznavour who, on the contrary, died recently at the age of 94, the great grand-father of a huge tribe. We perform songs by the author-composer duos Boris Vian-Alain Goraguer, and Joseph Kosma-Jacques Prevert, and we have attempted to honor the songs of Yves Montand, Barbara, Piaf and Piazzolla, as well as William Sheller, and the Breton Gabriel Yacoub who collaborated with Alain Stivel.

Our wider repertoire includes the Swiss chansonnier (singer /songwriter) Ricet Barrier, the Canadian group Pink Martini and other French evergreens like Complainte de la Butte, or Mon Amant de Saint Jean.

Trish was born in Australia (a rather long time ago). She has led almost her entire professional career in France and in Europe, as a singer performing and /or recording often in the domain of contemporary classical music, and in music theatre, cabaret ‘lyrique’, opera and more recently chanson.

She composes her own songs, in French and in English, and performs them regularly with her French group ‘Kirsch et les Glaçons Chauds’. She sings in many different languages, including Ladino (Judéo Espagnol), Tamazight (Kabyle), 14th Century latin, Occitan (Langue d’oc), Scots, Breton, Gaelic, and most modern European langages. She also plays the guitar (if necessary) and the piano.

Philip Griffin, also a composer, is an experienced accompanist, on a variety of instruments. Currently Brisbane-based, he has lived in New Zealand, Israel, Switzerland and England where he has performed widely as a musician in many styles, including Baroque, Renaissance, Arab, Turkish Classical, Jazz, Hawaiian and now French.

Their debut CD, LOST LOVE - SOUS LE CIEL DE PARIS - released in July 2023, was recorded across the hemispheres and across several years, either side of the COVID pandemic.

Video extracts from live performance at BUg (Brisbane Unplugged Gigs) - February 2020 (11’36”)