The world premiere of new orchestral work commissioned as part of Stonnington Symphony’s Artistic Development Fund.
Considering Matthew Shepard, a fusion oratorio inspired by the 1998 murder of a young gay man in Wyoming.
The Australian Conducting Academy Summer School will take place from January 25 to January 31, 2020. Under the leadership of Director and TSO Principal Guest Conductor Johannes Fritzsch, students will benefit from rehearsals with pianists as well as six orchestra calls with the TSO over the course of the school.
Open to Australian and New Zealand permanent residents, The Australian Conducting Academy plays a vital role in nourishing talented emerging conductors, and supports graduates in building substantial careers both in Australia and internationally.
We are delighted to announce an expansion of the program to include a Spring Module (8-10 September, 2020) hosted by Australian Conducting Academy partners Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University and the Queensland Symphony Orchestra. The Spring Module with take place in Brisbane, Queensland
Eight applicants have been selected to take part in the Australian Conducting Academy 2020 Summer School: Patrick Brennan (NSW), Daniel Cooper (New Zealand), Benjamin Crocker (NSW), Andrew Groch (SA), Vivian Horn (VIC), Evan Lawson (VIC), Sam Weller (NSW), and Jen Winley (WA).
DRAWING ATTENTION (2019) World Premiere
ANTONIA BARNETT-MCINTOSH
CLEAVING TO SECONDS (2019) World Premiere
DYLAN LARDELLI
Two world premiere commissions from two of the freshest compositional voices in contemporary New Zealand. Antonia Barnett-McIntosh’s Drawing Attention tasks players to interact with each other in real-time, questioning the hierarchical notion of instruments within an ensemble and pointing to the privilege that the human brain instinctively gives to speech with meaning, and the human voice, over other sounds. Dylan Lardelli’s Cleaving to Seconds is built from collections of musical materials which undergo recursive processes. These materials, often consisting of faded and delicate sounds interacting with silence, are retold in disintegrated and hollowed states, through a recurring injection of sound energy. Argonaut Ensemble makes its heraldic return to the front and centre of BIFEM, led for the first time by Melbourne conductor Evan J Lawson.
Tickets available here.
Aaron BARNDEN, Violin
Samuel DUNSCOMBE, Clarinets
Phoebe GREEN, Viola
Jonathan HEILBRON, Double Bass
Gemma KNEALE, Cello
Rebecca LANE, Flutes
Evan J LAWSON, Conductor
Alex MACDONALD, Viola
Mark MENZIES, Violin
David MORAN, Cello
Michiko OGAWA, Clarinets
Hamish UPTON, Percussion
Kathryn WILLIAMS, Flutes
Argonaut in Aotearoa is supported by Creative Victoria, Creative New Zealand, Australia Council for the Arts, City of Greater Bendigo and the Robert Salzer Foundation. Cleaving to Seconds and Drawing Attention were commissioned by BIFEM with funds from Creative New Zealand.
Nick Cave and Warren Ellis’ film scores are instantly recognisable for their minimal and hauntingly beautiful tones. Full of light and shade, creeping dread and inconsolable yearning, the heavily instrumental sounds inject humanity into the ghostly frontier towns, parched desert landscapes, post-apocalyptic war zones and extra-terrestrial vistas of their renowned films.
As part of the Melbourne International Film Festival, Cave and Ellis join the MSO for the first time to perform a selection of suites in full symphonic sound.
“This is a unique opportunity to celebrate the work and creativity of two outstanding composers who have made a significant and lasting contribution to Australian music.”
- Benjamin Northey, conductor.
Benjamin Northey conductor
Nick Cave & Warren Ellis soloists
Suites and selections from The Proposition, The Road, Hell or High Water, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, West of Memphis and Wind River.
The past 15 years has seen Nick Cave and Warren Ellis compose for both indie films and Hollywood features. Their first commissioned soundtrack, the brutal outback western The Proposition (2005) directed by John Hillcoat and scripted by Cave himself, introduced the widescreen compositions that would become their signature for future films.
Big studio work beckoned in the shape of Andrew Dominik’s anti-western The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007). The eerie score underwrote the movie’s sombre mood and the lead character’s impending doom.
Cave and Ellis reunited with Hillcoat for the adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s highly successful novel The Road (2009). The artfully minimal score combined with mournful piano and clanging industrial percussion, enhanced the lurking malice.
‘’Very often a tension can happen between music and picture that is about chance and a kind of unknowingness that can be really amazing. Just by putting together two things that were created in isolation, music and film, suddenly something quite magical can happen.”
- Nick Cave.
In 2012 Cave and Ellis composed a moving score for Amy Berg’s documentary West of Memphisabout a controversial murder case in Arkansas. Returning to the American West, Cave and Ellis collaborated with David McKenzie for his masterful heist thriller Hell or High Water (2016), the score’s melancholy strains sounded as parched as the Texan visuals on screen.
Wind River (2017) was a chilling murder set on a Native American reservation in Wyoming, delivering more orchestration and vocals into their usually spartan instrumental palette. Cave and Ellis delivered drama to the film’s wintry landscapes with rousing string arrangements, haunting choral chants and softly whispered cries.
Presented in collaboration with MIFF as part of the 68th Melbourne International Film Festival.
Tickets available here.
prismatx ensemble is a young contemporary chamber ensemble with a mission of pairing visual art with contemporary music. We have been an active ensemble in the Austin, Texas area since summer 2016, and have collaborated with several brilliant artists and musicians on our concerts throughout the past few years. In our inaugural year, we won the Richard A. Rainwater grant that helped to sponsor our concert of Arnold Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire paired with digital media artist, Rachel Stuckey. We have additionally collaborated with composers Samuel Lipman and Andrew Sigler, artists Alison Pilon and Rick Reed, and choreographer Dorothy O'Shea Overbey, to name a few.
Many of us in the ensemble have graduated or will be graduating from The University of Texas at Austin. We all love the Austin music scene, and believe that our ensemble helps to shape the creativity of such a vibrant community of people.
Evan Lawson (composer of Orpheus and artistic director of Forest Collective) and Sara Sasaki (artistic director of prismatx ensemble) met several years ago at soundSCAPE Music Festival in Italy. They kept in touch over the years, and Evan had presented the idea of having a performance of his newest opera premiered in the United States. Evan and Forest Collective are based in Melbourne, Australia, and Orpheus received outstanding reviews from press and the public that attended.
With the help of the Austin-based contemporary music collective Density512, we are so excited to be putting on a performance of this amazing work in the United States!
June 5 and June 6
Austin, TX at Imagine Art, performed by prismatx ensemble, Density512 and led by Evan Lawson.
Evan’s appearance with prismatx ensemble is made possible with a grant from the Ian Potter Cultural Trust.
To donate to help with funding this performance, go here.
Tickets $12 available from here.
