Last night that connection came together live for the first time with the world premiere of Sculthorpe Remixed at the Viva La Gong Big Top.

The show is a musical collaboration between the "chipper" Sculthorpe and musicians Freedman, Katie Noonan, Phil Slater and Matt McMahon, who have ploughed through his back catalogue for a fresh, new sound.

Freedman told the Mercury ahead of the show's soundcheck yesterday that he first met Sculthorpe at a music awards night in Sydney seven years ago.

"I was surprised that this Peter Sculthorpe who I studied at school was still alive and we became friends," he said. "It was about the same time that I moved down to Thirroul from the city and I started surfing again and wrote a song, Out The Back.

"Peter said he would write some strings for my next album and I said 'Well, Out The Back would suit', and so he wrote that and it went on the album.

"He didn't know he was writing about Thirroul, and it was a real coincidence, as one of his most famous early pieces was about Thirroul, called Small Town."

Freedman has a "large connection" with the Illawarra. His mother grew up in a house in Campbell St, Wollongong (since demolished), while his grandmother was a teacher and his grandfather was an electrician with Wollongong City Council.

Freedman moved to the northern suburbs in the early 1990s and stayed for more than a decade.