FESTIVAL FOCUS: EIGHTH BLACKBIRD

STOP PRESS: The Festival would like to announce that since the publication of the Program Guide an exciting new event has been added to the 2008 program! The innovative Chicago-based ensemble eighth blackbird with its new concert The Only Moving Thing

_{eight blackbird
photo: Luke Ratray}

Described by The New Yorker as "friendly, unpretentious, idealistic and highly skilled," this Grammy Award-winning ensemble brings its exciting new program to Melbourne

eighth blackbird is widely lauded for its provocative and engaging performing style, often playing from memory with virtuosic and theatrical flair, and its efforts to make new music accessible to wide audiences. The Only Moving Thing is its new, kinetic program and is the ensemble at its most vivid and theatrical.

The program includes two works. The first, Double Sextet, represents a return to the rhythmic intensity that is synonymous with Steve Reich's most venerable works such as Music for 18 Musicians and Drumming and features eighth blackbird performing simultaneously, both live and pre-recorded. The second work, singing in the dead of night, is inspired by eighth blackbird's distinctive predilection for memorisation and is a continuous weave of music and motion; an intrepid collaboration between composers David Lang, Michael Gordon and Julia Wolfe and choreographer Susan Marshall.

Tim Munro Flutes
Michael J Maccaferri Clarinets
Matt Albert Violin & Viola
Nicholas Photinos Cello
Matthew Duvall Percussion
Lisa Kaplan Piano
Double Sextet Composer Steve Reich
singing in the dead of night Composers David Lang Michael Gordon Julia Wolfe
Stage Direction by Susan Marshall

REPERTOIRE

Double Sextet (2007) - Steve Reich (b 1936)

INTERVAL

singing in the dead of night (2007):
Prologue: these broken wings, one - David Lang (b 1957)
Episode 1: the light of the dark - Michael Gordon (b 1956)
Episode 2: these broken wings, two (passacaille) - David Lang
Episode 3: singing in the dead of night - Julia Wolfe (b 1958)
Epilogue: these broken wings, three - David Lang

Federation Square, BMW Edge
Thu 16 - Fri 17 Oct at 8pm
1hr 10min no interval

Full $30
Groups (8+) $27
Conc $22.50
MF-Y $25

Tickets available from Ticketmaster 1300 136 166

This event joins an already impressive and diverse contemporary music program that includes the groundbreaking Schönberg Ensemble conducted by Reinbert de Leeuw; world-renowned sitar virtuoso and composer Kartik Seshadri accompanied by outstanding tabla artist Arup Chattopadyay; Chamber Music Australia with two distinct programs of repertoire including an evening with members from the Schönberg Ensemble; The Jerusalem Quartet; Interpreti Veneziani Baroque Ensemble in Concert; a unique retrospective of Australia's most widely heard composer, Nigel Westlake: Shadow Dances; Goran Bregovic and his 37-piece Wedding and Funeral Choir and Orchestra with Tales & Songs for Weddings & Funerals; Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu; and Turkish virtuoso Kudsi Erguner and his ensemble in two concerts: Sufi Invocations and Sufi Jazz Fusion Concert; The Black Arm Band joins forces with members of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in the epic, historic concert event Hidden Republic; Patti Smith in two unforgettable concerts with her band at Hamer Hall; and Philip Glass and his ensemble in the acclaimed Book of Longing, a concert event based on the poetry and images of Leonard Cohen.