Melbourne International Arts Festival
John Cage's Musicircus Artists
Below is a list of artists that will be performing as part of John Cage's Musicircus. This list will continue to be updated.
Andrew Gray and Brigid Jackson
Performance duet
Jackson & Gray use John Cage's 4:33 as a springboard for their installation piece meditating on the body and its relationship to stillness and time. The piece will comprise 3 movements of roughly 4:33 minutes in duration
Ben Colman
Impelled by a poignant dream he had as a child, Benoit has traversed the world seeking the perfect subject for his artistic masterpiece. He has recently arrived in Melbourne, armed only with an easel and some paint. And a few juggling balls to kill time. And some spare clothes obviously ...
Bernard Caleo and Bruce Woolley
Miracleman
1956. An age of lingering innocence. An age of golden dreams. An age for the MIRACLEMAN family! Bruce Woolley and Bernard Caleo bring a superhero comic to blazing life using the revolutionary bigframe TM process. Two separate ten-minute episodes featuring evil scientists, time travel, unaided flight and the golden apples of knowledge.
Musicircus the docu-comic
Bernard Caleo documents the Musicircus event as a large-format comic book, writing and drawing as it happens, He's pretty sure that the spirit of John Cage will be present and so fully expects that JC will have a part in the story.Ernie Althoff
Big Black Spider
Big Black Spider is a 16rpm turntable-powered machine where two suspended beaters strike eight long black metal tines attached to a soundboard.
Faux Organa
Faux Organa is a collaboration between artist Cameron Robbins and composer Kate Neal. It is a musical instrument, performance, and object of art.
Initially developed during a project at Melbourne Town Hall, it is a response to the Grand Organ and the feeling of the faux-baroque style of the interiors there. In fact part of the device is from the old Organ itself. It comprises 21 recorders, from sopranino to Great Bass, actuated by valves via a wind chest connected to a large industrial air blower. In addition, there are various percussion devices including a table of dangerously vibrating glasses and crockery.
Some of the very special German recorders are from the collection of Kate Neal, and some of the larger specimens are on loan from Melbourne University. Faux Organa represents a very even-handed collaboration, with the sculptural and practical side weighted towards Robbins, and the music composition and playing weighted towards Neal.
The Musicircus is this piece's third event, also performing at the Mash-Out experimental music night in October 17 2007.
Fusionart Dances
Eat Me!
A 2007 interpretation of a traditional fairy-tale story about a girl, who eats and drinks her way out of her office life into an altered consciousness, taking us on a choreographic journey to an alternative "Wonderland"
Choreographer: Emma Marie Casey
Assistant Choreographer: Ben Kazlauskas
Costumes: Larry Edwards
Music: Dare - Gorillaz
Dancers:
Rebekah Davey
Mietta Gornall
Danica Hendry
Ben Kazlauskas
Nadia Komazec
Chloe Smith
Georgia Taylor
Natasha Usmar
Roy Weissensteiner
Fusionart Dances is part of the company Fusionart Presents. For more information visit http://www.fusionartpresents.co.uk/
Klezmeritis
Klezmeritis derives its main inspiration from Eastern European Jewish celebration, ritual and dance music. The group ranges in style from traditional, to fusion with other music styles, including improvisation. Violinist Ernie Gruner has studied klezmer in USA and East Europe and is a keen improviser. Accordionist Phil Carroll brings his passion for middle-eastern music. Double Bass player Ron Hansen also brings classical and jazz elements.
Knife - Fork - Spoon
A trio of pieces for staircase and cutlery
Performed by Shona Innes
Devised by Meredith Rogers and Shona Innes
A sequence of three fifteen-minute performances - one on each of the three staircases connecting the top spot with the flat spot.
In 1997, Shona Innes, Robin Laurie and I collaborated with la Trobe University students on a performance piece called Knife, Fork, Spoon. In researching the piece we found Susan Sontag's In Memory of Their Feelings, her catalogue essay for a 1989 exhibition Dancers on a plane: Cage, Cunningham, Johns. Parts of the poem play with the customary lore of cutlery usage and collaborative processes in art making. This piece will reference both those earlier works in the process of constructing its own vocabulary of actions and associations.
re-sound
re-sound plans to perform Cage's FOUR and FIVE. These two pieces are concerned with performer-indeterminacy, that is, performers are given the task to provide some of the content and timing of the work, rather than being told by the composer what to do in every detail. This provision of choice for performers is exactly what makes Cage such an exciting composer for us.
about re-sound (http://www.re-sound.com/)
Diverse cultures, aesthetics, media, techniques and technologies (hard and soft) crowd the current new-arts terrain. re-sound responds flexibly to this information-rich environment by engaging with and presenting sound in a number of contexts. re-sound formed in Melbourne in 1996 with the intention of creating a performance platform for contemporary sound and music. The group grew out of Monash University where artistic director Thomas Reiner co-ordinates composition. Move Records has just released re-sound's 4th CD with works by Australian composers and sound artists (http://www.move.com.au/).
Roundangle
Roundangle creates multisensory theatre. To date our audiences have been blindfold, barefooted, sniffed at, pushed around in boxes and more... Amidst the madcap melodies of the Musicircus we bring you: ‘Potion': Not your average dining experience. Choose from a menu of smells and hope that the waiter brings what you've ordered... ‘Beyond Sheep': Take a seat, put on a blindfold and allow the senses to remind you of all the dreams you've never had... ‘All Aboard the Blindfold Bus': take a sightless tour of the Musicircus and let your ears be the tourist for a change...
Rustle of Spring
(Cumulative sound installation)
Artists: Judy Pile (concept, sound design), with Damaris Baker (sound engineer) and Annie Haines (visual design & construction)
The small voice of hope can survive under the most appalling circumstances; but in the modern world it is becoming more difficult to articulate it and to detect it amid the static of distraction and hype.
Our symbolic 'tree of hope' will gradually bloom with the recorded reflections of passers-by, about what sustains their hope for humanity and the planet in dark times. Each contribution will be relayed by a small speaker in the centre of an artificial flower placed on the tree. Individual voices will be heard from very close to each flower, whilst a general rustle of voices will be audible from further away. Chance procedures will determine the position in the mix and the overall time span of the performance.
I think of this piece as analogous in some ways to John Cage's 4'33". By placing a comparatively quiet installation in the midst of a potentially noisy environment I am inviting a deeper listening, one to another, than has become the norm. We need to hear the voices of hope.
Sally Smith
Inspired by the experience of a recent retrospective exhibition in NYC about Merce Cunningham, John Cage and Robert Rauschenberg, this dance solo uses newspapers to provide costume and musical accompaniment to the movement news of the day.
Shakespeare's Sonnets Complete
Sonneteer - David Adamson
The Sonnets have been read and performed in innumerable contexts over the centuries (2009 will be the 400th anniversary of their publication). Musicircus is an ideal opportunity for a cross-fertilising exploration of their presence in our aural culture, and it is wonderful to have an unpredictable performing context in which to present and share the entire cycle.
Silo String Quartet
Silo will perform a program of largely local Australian composers such as Colin Hopkins, David Chisholm, Caerwen Martin and John Peterson, with an international contingent of Terry Riley and Kazuhiko Hattori. Silo are Roger Johnson, Andrea Keeble, Ceridwen Davies and Caerwen Martin. The quartet has been performing world premiers of Australian and International works since it was founded by cellist and composer Caerwen Martin in 1998 and are still the only dedicated contemporary string quartet in Australia. Silo's heart felt mission is to build the contemporary string quartet repertoire through workshopping, recording and performing new compositions.
Sivan Gabielovich
I am originally from Irsael, and my work often revolves around these issues. The film is 6 minutes long and is basically made of footage of the 8m separation wall that's now dividing Israel and Palestine. The film was recently screened in Underbelly, a festival at Carriageworks in Sydney, and in Underbelly was accompanied by live music. It will be screened as part of the Musicircus project, accompanied by live music, interwoven with spoken word.
Co-artists:
Brahim Benhim - oud
Antonia Goodfellow - projection/technician
FOUR4 (1991)
Speak Percussion
Speak Percussion will be presenting John Cage's last work for percussion, FOUR4 (1991). 4 percussionist's are asked to select their own instruments for the realisation of this work that lasts 72 minutes, CD length. This work is a true reflection of Cage's Zen-like freedom of composition in which he both abstains from prescribing the instrumentation and precise length of the sections while making other aspects of the work fixed. The result is a kind of meditation on time, space and sonority....... As in many of Cage's pieces silence remains a raw and active participant in the performance and gives poise and grandeur to the simple and carefully sculpted percussive gestures. The process for Speak Percussion is a gentle interplay between our individual artistic voices and the humble instructions of the score.
Performers:
Eugene Ughetti
Peter Neville
Anna Webb
Matthias Schack-Arnott
Speak Percussion: http://www.speakpercussion.com/
Teapot Ensemble of Australia
Fresh from a Spiegeltent outpouring on October 22nd, the Teapots are pleased to join a ceremony of sound, music, art and performance - but you will have to listen closely to fully appreciate the delicate flavour.
Soprano Teapot - Jeannie Van de Velde
Alto Teapot/ Composer - Karen Berger
Tenor Teapot/ Blockfloetist - Kate Neal
Baritone Teapot/ Teapot Philosopher - David Adamson
The Jogger
This guy, who you might have seen on your way to work this morning running in the park while your in your car or on the tram, is a fanatical health freak, determined to show the world how easy it is to enjoy physical fitness, even if your not a natural, and believe me this guy has his moments of anything but natural movement, although somewhat physicaly capable being the gymnastics champion on deneliquin in 1982 at the age of 6 he does not necessarily brag this. But withhis display of flexibility, athleticism and gymnastics hopefully thiswill not draw your attention to his Olivia Newton John fashion.
Theresa Kirk and Kyle Schutz
Vocal and guitar duo performing four jazz standards: Dindi, The Very Thought of You, Night and Day, Moon River.
Tracy Bourne and Andrew Bray
Tracy and Andrew have between them an awfully large bag of musical tricks. It's contents include contemporary opera, teaching music theatre, choral direction, German pub rock and not a few things in between. There's been performance, development, direction, composition and all sorts of forays both successful and otherwise. Out of this bag we've pulled some of our favorite songs to sing for you - from Paul Kelly, Moe Jaffe and the cruelly neglected hillbilly-latin genre.
Victorian Opera
La Cage aux folles
Existentially, there couldn't be anything more present than the present or less past than the past without our future, which is never present. We happy band of musicians exist in a present which will one day, presently, be no longer present. Whether it be 4'33'' or a much later train depends on another 100 people, or the rain, or the patience etherised upon the tables.
Performing on the night will be: Nicholas Carter, Sarah Cole, Samuel Dundas, Richard Gill, David McSkimming and Jacqueline Porter.
VIVID PERFORMANCE GROUP
Electroluminescent Light suits roam the space
Enlivening the neon realms! Is it 'Tron' or are you seeing things?
Performers: Eleanor Riley and Kerrily Aitchison. Suits created by Peter Vosper
Weave
Capsule
Directed by Janice Florence
The performers dance on the edge. They break out into motley characters who vehemently expound a skewed view of reality. They gently thumb their noses.
Weave is thrilled to have Guest artist Michelle Heaven join Capsule as choreographic advisor. Michelle has worked with a number of cutting edge companies including Chunky Move. Working with this highly talented dancer/choreographer is an exciting step forward for this brave and unique company.
When you bend something out of shape, it doesn't break. You might just create something more interesting.
Weave Movement Theatre is an inclusive company of performers with and without disability, combining dance and physical theatre, laced with a rich vein of wacky, ironic humour. Weave, based in inner Melbourne, has been evolving its once-off style of physical theatre for 10 years.
In their upcoming show, they explore the contradictory human urges to control and be controlled, and the desire to break away, to fly and soar like a bird (or a plane??) far above the crowd.
'Civilised' humans are the ultimate control freaks. We clock, cramp, crush and cage our wild natures. Yet we are clutched by breathless urges to break out, take flight. From Icarus to Aristophanes to our obsession with jetting away from it all in a claustrophobic capsule, people have always wanted to breathe freely away from the comfortable, cramping cages they love to build for themselves. .
Murray Dempsey
WebWeaving
An Idea of skills and scales...
Have you ever looked closely at a spider web and been caught up in the wonder and magic in front of you and thought how do they do it and how does it work..?
As part of John Cage's Musicircus during the Melbourne International Arts Festival my intention is to weave the complex design of a spider web big enough for everyone to see the detail involved up close in front of a live audience. Fusing rigging, aerial performance, sculpture and installation Web Weaving will display the detail and complexities of just one family of the 32 thousand known species of spiders, resulting in a performance and visual installation attempting to emulate natures' grandeur.
Spiders' webs are just like a painting with the primary purpose of survival, and as in nature no two webs are ever the same. Therefore those who see Web Weaving will never see the space in the same way again. The web spanning approximately 3m x 3m will be rigged from the network of beams suspended above the stage in BMW Edge.
Young Voices of Melbourne
Director: Mark O'Leary
Accompanist: Julia Piggin
Young Voices of Melbourne was founded by Mark O'Leary in 1990, and is now regarded as one of Australia's finest children's choirs. Choir members aged 6 to 18 years rehearse weekly in one of four groups. The choir performs regularly in and around Melbourne, and has toured all states and territories of Australia, as well as Europe (1996 & 2004), South Africa (1998), Canada/USA (2001), Singapore and Thailand (2007).
Young Voices of Melbourne has released six CD recordings, performed at major events in Melbourne such the Opening Ceremony of the Commonwealth Games and recorded the theme music for Chris Lilley's popular TV shows We Can be Heroes and Summer Heights High. Young Voices has also collaborated with a range of other artists including in recent times world music ensemble Sirocco, soprano Xenia Hanusiak, and chamber ensemble the Southern Cross Soloists. In March/April 2008 the choir will be touring with American hammer dulcimer master Malcolm Dalglish.
Mark O'Leary, B.Mus.Ed M.Mus (hons) is well known within Australian choral circles for his work with young choirs. He is a regular guest conductor at festivals and presenter at conferences and workshops around the country and was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to study outstanding children's choirs overseas in 1989. His arrangements are published in the Young Voices of Melbourne Choral series and are widely performed. Mark is also Principal Guest Conductor of Gondwana Voices, Australia's national children's choir.
Catherine Connor and Jenny Magoulas
1. Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman. (2:40)
2. Join the General Dance. (4:30)
Composed for a traditional style brass sextet for the annual Composing Women's Concert performed at Boite World music Café, Melbourne, in September 2007.
Performers:
"Brass in Pocket"
1.Katy Addis Trumpet
2.Pru Montin Trumpet
3.Laura Clisby Horn
4.Erin Adams Trombone
5. Catherine Connor Trombone
6.Amelia MacDonald Euphonium
Dianne Reid
Dance and video artist
A 2007 danced response to my 1984 written response to Cages' 1939 "First Construction in Metal".
DON JORDAN - TROMBONE & GONG
Both the trombone and the gong are ancient instruments of extremely simple construction, yet they have played central parts in rituals and celebrations. In marking dramatic moments, creating awe, and inducing deep emotions, they still have a special place in our lives. It is not for nothing that the trombone has been called 'the king of instruments'!
At the heart of music is pure sound - and its alternation with silence. The player must become as one with both these instruments and then a surprising tonal range and variety can emerge, including sounds expressing great warmth and humour as well as pathos and isolation. Add poetry and vocalisation and you have a recipe for a musical journey into the depths of your soul. Join Don tonight as he charts his way into unknown territory.
FORGIVENESS
My name is Paola Morabito, I am a Wemba-Wemba & Gunditjmara woman. I am also of Italian and Chinese heritage. I come from Echuca, live in Melbourne and I am an artist. I have survived abuse and found healing through art, and learned that forgiveness is vital to my very survival. Tired of waiting for "sorry," I am offering unconditional forgiveness to myself and to others.
On the canvases of white, imperfect rags, like the little white mission dresses Aboriginal girls were placed in, I have written the words, sorry, forgive, love, hate, rage, transcend, escape, cower, fear, protect, nurture, hide, abuse, smother, invade, heal.
Trying to make everything clean and perfect again, I wash these rags in a washing tub. Wash, rinse and hang on my line, I'll leave them to dry and do it all over again.
Night Piece
Based on a poem by Ern Malley
Soprano: Sally Goode
Piano: Annie Hsieh
Strolling down a mysterious land of plantation, the moonlight sprinkles through the mist, and over the shallow silhouettes: a tree, a lake, a gate, or perhaps, a naked Nymph. Nothing, appears to be what it seems to be.
STORY OF A MARRIAGE
Performance by Annie Fiume of Alison Croggon's narrative poem about a woman who tries to find domestic bliss in an alien landscape.
Back to Back Theatre
Back to Back Theatre was founded in Geelong in 1987 to create theatre with people who are perceived to have a disability. With an ensemble of six actors, Back to Back creates work through a collaborative process of research and improvisation. The ensemble, with a director and invited artists, realise new work that focuses on questions about the value of individual lives.
Musicircus piece was devised by in response to landscape and iconic landmarks around the BMW Edge space.We were drawn to the circular patterns we find in Cage's soundscapes, in the free and random egress of audience members, the path of the Yarra River, Melbourne's underground raliway loop and the record player. We interpreted these stimuli in a world of our own imagining. We hope you enjoy our work.
Names of collaborators
Mark Deans (ensemble)
Rita Halabarec (ensemble)
Nicki Holland (ensemble)
Sarah Mainwaring (ensemble)
Scott Price (ensemble)
Marcia Ferguson (director)
Mark Cuthbertson (set design)
Esther Hayes (costume)
Katrina Collins, Visual Artist
The Creative Experience
Wow - what a mouth full !! It conjures up a rapid breath of energy - anything and everything - the extrordinary, the ever after, the
imaginary and the sublime. It moves in and out and up and down, it tingles in delight, and lurks in the darkness. It knows no credence, no barrier, no limit - for this it is so large, grand and abundant. It is also small - tiny, a whisper.
IT is, what we do.
From the moment WE begin, we create ...
Don't just take my word for it - come and see the creative experience in progress, through a canvas, some acrylic paint, a smile and a beginning.
Donna Coleman
Dr Donna Coleman, VCA Head of Keyboard, High Priestess of Voodoo Piano and Perpetrator of the Lunatic Fringe, troubled by the dearth of attention being afforded to this Domenico Scarlatti Year (300 big ones since he left this lifetime in 1757) and drawing inspiration from the fact that Musicircus is slated to commence on the evening of the master's birthday on 26th October, will take up rezzo in Federation Square's Atrium with a Roland RG-3 electronic grand piano (courtesy of Allans Music Melbourne) and the scores of all 550+ of his brilliant Sonatas, intent upon reading as many as possible through the course of the dusk-to-dawn event. Passersby, stray dogs, falling leaves and river debris, under the influence of planetary alignments and the vicissitudes of public transport and crowd uncontrol will realise John Cage's philosophy of allowing "chance" operations to dictate compositional choice, selecting the Sonatas for performance through rolls of the dice. The number and exact time of performance of each of the selected Sonatas will be recorded.
Arch: a cartography of sound
Artists: Georgie Roxby Smith and Paula van Beek
Providing a tactile reality to the etheral nature of sound and movement, visual artist Georgie Smith and animateur Paula van Beek will create a sculptural work mapping the evolving aural environment over the duration of the Musicircus event.
The work is inspired by visual artist John Wolseley's process of looking at and recording the layers of existence, activity and energy fields in a specific plot of the Australian landscape over a set period of time. Embracing Worsley's immersion in place and appropriating his methodology of making, the resulting sculptural work will act as a map and manuscript of the Musicircus experience - tracing and holding all the layers, trajectories and pathways of the soundscape.
Christos Linou
A parody on masculinity, action films and the comfort of pillow security "While the rest of Melbourne slumbers the sleepless dancer is transfixed by violent action movies. His marathon attempts to pillow-cocoon and sleep mimic the on-screen struggles of his heroes."
Catrina Seiffert
Ocean In
Singer-songwriter and pianist, Catrina Seiffert appears with a selection of original songs from her upcoming CD, "Ocean In". These songs draw inspiration from her chameleon-like adventures in jazz, pop, contemporary classical and acappella music.
Deanne Butterworth
ACT- 'the trouper'
'The Trouper' envisages a partially constructed environment. The participant is present for the amusement of others and their function as a performer depends on their ability to attract spectators. Therefore, one has to be more appealing than the average creature.
THE TRANSISTOR SHOW
Thalia Kyvernitakis & Neil Thomas
an unscripted transistorized tour slicing through the surface reality to another.
Domenico de Clario
Domenico de Clario was born in Trieste, Italy, in 1947 and migrated to Australia in 1956 He studied Architecture and Town Planning at the University of Melbourne and was awarded an Italian Government Scholarship to study Painting at the Accademia di Brera in Milan. In 1998 he completed an MA (Performance Studies) in the Faculty of Human Movement at Melbourne's Victoria University, and in 2001 he completed a PhD in the same Faculty. He has variously taught Painting, Drawing, Sculpture, Performance and Installation at RMIT in Melbourne (previously PIT), from 1973 until 1996. In 2001 he was appointed Head of the School of Contemporary Arts at Perth's Edith Cowan University and since august 2006 he has served as Head of the Department of Fine Arts at Monash University's Faculty of Art and Design.
Since 1966 he has held more than 150 solo exhibitions of paintings, drawings, prints, installations and performances, and has been invited to exhibit in more than 120 group shows presented worldwide and in major Australian cities. He has been awarded numerous international residencies and 5 grants by the Australia Council, including the Australia Council Fellowship in 1996-8. He is represented in all major public and private collections in Australia, including the MOMA in New York, as well as in numerous private collections worldwide.
this person sits at a keyboard through the full moon night of october 26 2007, beginning at 6.48 pm (sunset) october 26 and ending at 5.20 am (sunrise),october 27. whilst sitting this person engages in a dialogue with a representation of the night sky above melbourne; at times this dialogue manifests as keyboard sounds and at other times as silence. throughout the sitting this person may or may not be aware of the presence of sounds and events manifesting nearby; in either case this space is in no way different from any other. the sunset dialogue begins inside the sitter and extends beyond him; simultaneously the sunrise dialogue begins beyond the sitter and extends inside him; inner/outer, visible/invisible, one thing.
OBSERVATION SPACE - MSO ARTPLAY ENSEMBLE
Devised and directed by Gillian Howell
This performance has been created especially for the MSO ArtPlay Ensemble's performance in the Musicircus. Inspired by the music and scores of John Cage, it uses elements of chance and interactions with space to create an interplay of sound and movement, of improvisation and through-composed music. The MSO ArtPlay Ensemble is a year-long composition and performance program for young musicians aged 8-13 years; this performance in the Musicircus involves young performers and their families from the 2007 and 2006 ensembles.
The MSO ArtPlay Ensemble is a flagship program of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Community Outreach Program, which explores the power of music to connect people, and creates opportunities for groups and individuals to interact and collaborate with musicians from the Orchestra in diverse ways. Under the guidance of creative director Gillian Howell, it demonstrates the capacity of a symphony orchestra to contribute to the lives of all members of the wider community beyond the concert platform.
Monica Dullard- Mon's Comedy Cooker
Golden Gibbo Award - 'Highly Commended' 2006
It's Melbourne International Arts Festival's very own 7-Eleven run by the CWA for John cage's musicircus
After sell-out pie runs in Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Mon's irrepressible comedy foodvan rolls into BMW Edge in Federation Square dispensing food, humour and conversation under the eaves of a candy striped caravan as part of ‘John Cage's Musicircus'. ‘MON'S COMEDY COOKER is now an institution. Don't miss out on watching some doozy characters dishing up hot live and funny food at the Melbourne International Arts Festival!
" the lamb pizza kicks arse" The Pun
Monica Dullard, recipient of the 2004 Moosehead Award, is fast becoming one of Melbourne's favourite live comics with her chatty, relaxed style and harebrained characters. In Melbourne's Federation Square, 'MON'S COMEDY COOKER' will be a soup kitchen for artists and a night out for the public.
Soak it all up watching your favourite artists and loveable doozy characters, dishing up hot delicacies in the deluxe foodvan at ‘John Cage's Musicircus'.
.."Dullard has the knack of making everyone feel special" The Age
"the audience just adore her" Beat Magazine
NSEW
This score and performance for 40 Clear Double Balloons has been prepared for the 2007 Melbourne International Arts Festival performance of John Cage's Musicircus, in celebration of the 40 year anniversary of its first performance at the University of Illinois in the United States.
For this performance of NSEW, screen printed on each balloon (one print being in cyan, the other magenta), is a 100mm x 100mm fragment based on the architectural documentation of Federation Square in Melbourne, where the work is being performed. One balloon is inflated inside the other (one inflation with helium, the other oxygen), and inside the innermost balloon is a free floating piece of printed red acetate as another fragment. One balloon is to be released per minute, according to the second (in time) within the minute allocated as noted on the score. Each release has been determined by chance operations, as has the spatial location within the designated performance area where each balloon is to be released.
Performed concurrently with NSEW, Michael Fowler and Sophie Brous present The Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs, Songbooks, Music for Piano 53-68 and 6'42.435" for a pianist.
paper on water (excerpts) presents an ongoing creative association between dancer Delia Silvan and choreographer Neil Adams that is investigating image-based choreography. The work involves absorbing and processing deeply personalised imagery, and alternative approaches to the development of movement materials with the aim of revealing the internal realms of the dancer's embodiment during performance.
Skin Hunger
Shaun McLeod
Skin Hunger is an improvised movement performance that invites the audience to engage directly with the performer. The performer is accompanied by a sign that invites the audience to 'touch me and see what happens'. He then uses the tactile information as a stimulus to generate movement and motivation for what he does. Small moments of relationship emerge from the initiations offered by the audience and the performer's ability to be responsive to the moment of touch.
The sign reads:
Touch me.
Touch me and see what happens.
Perhaps I will dance
Or I may do something else.
If you hit me I will bruise I do not enjoy physical pain.
Tenderness is rare.
Brush, scratch, rub, pat, prod, punch, bump, jiggle, stroke, push, nudge, tickle, hug, squeeze, caress, feel, grope, fondle, graze, tap, fiddle with, handle, slap, knead, cuff, spank, thump, shake, jerk, clout, graze, chafe, tap, poke, jab, dig, skim, shove, pet, cuddle, embrace, finger, maul, paw, manipulate, pump, support.
ROS BANDT
Ros Bandt is an internationally acclaimed sound artist. composer, performer, installation artist, sound researcher and author. She has pioneered many forms of sound art including sounding industrial chambers, original glass music, building sound playgrounds, and interactive mixed media installations and sound sculptures. She is a founding member of ensembles, LIME, Back to Back Zithers, La Romanesca, Carte Blanche and the Free Music Ensemble. She was awarded the Don Banks Composers Award for her original work and many national and international innovation awards including the Benjamin Cohen Peace Prize. She is published by Move, Wergo, EMI, New Albion Records Fine Arts Press, and Cambridge Scholars Press.As well as her artistic practice she directs the award winning on line the Australian Sound Design Project at the Australian Centre, the University of Melbourne, funded on her third ARC grant. Her books and writings on sound are well known.
http://www.rosbandt.com/
http://www.sounddesign.unimelb.edu.au/
BRIGID BURKE
Brigid is an Australian composer, multi media artist, clarinet soloist, visual artist, and educator. She has performed extensively in solo and chamber recitals, both nationally and internationally. Highlights in 2007 have been Music Marathon Boston, Futura Festival Paris and The International Clarinet Festival in Vancouver Canada. In 2006 her work was performed in the Generative Art Conference GA06 in Milan Italy, Empirical Soundings for the Commonwealth Games, and various other performances throughout Australia. Brigid regularly performs with ensembles Tri Duo, Carte Blanche, David McNicole and The Free Music Ensemble.
She has received many awards and exhibited through out Japan and Taiwan and Australia in the Japanese International Hand Printed & Shhin Kohanga exhibitions. Her most recent CD recordings have been reviewed and broadcast internationally. The Performing Arts Board of the Australia Council, Japanese Printing Corporation, ANAT, South Australian Govt., Australian Asian Foundation, Community Arts Centers and Universities has supported Brigid in her performances, compositions and artwork. She has a Master of Music in Composition from Melbourne University Australia.
Petals Scream 2006
Duration 7:55 minutes
The concept of the composition was to transform the rose petal, breath, acoustic clarinet and percussive sounds another timbral plane of textural ambience, colours and exploration. The sounds and transformations came from images based on a series of graphics I created from the rose petal. The aim of the transformation of the sounds is to match timbres to give off a rich canvas of sonorities around similar pitches, particularly in the last section of the piece. In the graphics I chose series of red shades side by side with the combination of computer transparencies of images emerging within the work. The objective was to make these images grow in and out of the work to create depth with combinations of definition and confusion but as a whole to create unity. The opening images of sound make a clean yet rough statement as to what is to come through dynamic and pulse alterations. This is broken down quite soon with many ‘peaks' and subtle layers, the piece emerges into transformed breath sounds moving into complex paths and high overtones as if speaking to each other with occasional hoarse interruptions of rhythmic frequencies.
Illuminated Breath 2006
Duration 7:57minutes
Air sounds and interwoven rhythms depicting races against time and reaching the finishing line are the bases of " Illuminated Breath ". It uses air and rhythmic forces from the Javanese Gamelan interlaced with clarinet and air sounds to create this energetic and pulse driven work. A layer of processed improvisations from the clarinet and voice dances above an intense and thick rhythmic pulse in a relaxed manner. The visuals tack you to a place with snapshots of both Asian and Australian cityscapes capturing and entwining abstract illusions of people, buildings and flowers as if there is a race against time but a peacefulness of acceptance.
The Free Music Ensemble
Ros Bandt: tarhu and sound sculptures, slide Whistle
Brigid Burke: clarinet and bass clarinet
Simon Charles: soprano and alto saxophones
Rod Cooper: original instruments
RupertG: violin
The Free Music Ensemble are composers, performers, improvisers and instrument makers, exploring new timbres and sound worlds, using these as a raw material for composition.
There is a continuing enquiry exploring new sonic possibilities, creating a pallet of sounds and organizational techniques that can be applied in performance to create insightful musical gestures. Our rehearsal process is a workshop to find new and interesting sounds to work with and our 'compositions' are more like a framework or sketch to guide, so that there is clarity and intent in the finished piece.
The composition really comes into it's own in performance. There is just as much consideration and refinement as a carefully crafted as a notated work, however with a new ethic toward performance- one with an extra significance on the ritual of performance and creates a balance between with musical intention and the immediate visceral experience of the sounds themselves. In this way sounds are used as a raw material for composition.
Compositions are something closer to visual art, living in the space as a tangible and real object, rather than a piece of literature that is a pre-conceived gesture of things to come. Much like a sculpture or painting, the composition is the performance.
This approach provides a new ethic for performance and thus creates a sense of reclaiming the culture of performance. It is this sense of reclaiming the culture, through site-specific performance, extra-musical subject matter and new methods of composition, that is the spirit and driving force behind the ensemble. By engaging in a process of composition in which the audience can observe and actively take part in, we hope to provide a rich cultural experience- one that provides and sense of collaboration been ensemble and audience and that also encourages a spirit exploration into unknown territories.
Emma Strapps and Paul Romano
nomadic and spontaneous; a realm of unknown potentials, affecting and affected by the places between space and body, coincidence and purpose, dusk and dawn.
Mobius
Whilst performing in Canberra last year David and Jacob overheard, in the foyer before the show, a lady and gentleman discussing the program notes. The gentleman suggested that the notes were pretentious intellectual dribble.
Our dribble for this installation project is as follows:
David and Jacob have been working for many years in the area of contemporary improvised performance. Our base physicality is a dance form called Contact Improvisation. We are interested in how meaning is created whether it is intentional or not. We enjoy performing with no explicit meaning intended and observing the feedback loop that is created through us, each other and the observers.
For this installation we have chosen the The Mobius strip as a metaphor for something simple, yet profound. If we were pushed to contextualise this installation we would probably point at current political, social and environment concerns and draw some analogy between them and a sense of oneness. We would do this to create a contemporary sense of meaning and connection.
To be honest we like the mobius strip because for us it has a sense of change, strangeness, continuity and inspires curiousity.
Simulus Improvising Electroacoustic Ensemble
Description:
Simulus features Melbourne based composers Steve Adam, Ross Bencina and, absent for the Musicircus performance, Tim Kreger. The ensemble combines studio aesthetics with live improvisation, performing on instruments created through a diverse range of electroacoustic software running on Macintosh and Windows computers. For further information visit http://www.simulus.org/.
Ernie Althoff
An intimate acoustic performance
An intimate acoustic performance using redgum woodblocks and wooden curtain rings on a small theeplay table. Secret cassette sounds from under the table. It should ber quite a challenge to concentrate on this "little" activity amidst the surrounding racket of the rest of the Musicircus during this time.
midnight marauders
Emily Amisano and Jade Dewi Tyas Tunggal
During a long nights' journey from nowhere to goodbye there exists a pact to reach the destination intact. The paranoia of a crash forces a confined battle that irrevocably altes the nighttime navigation. Join Jade and Emily on their midnight mission...
Jade Dewi Tyas Tunggal and Emily Amisano are internationally travelled dance artists based in Melbourne. This is their first creative collaboration since having met almost two decades ago, whilst competing in the Junior Classical Ballet Championship at Lismore Eisteddfod in Northern Rivers NSW.
Australian Contemporary Chorale
The Australian Contemporary Chorale will present a number of new choral works by Australian composers. These include works by Brenton Broadstock, Kit Grahame, Russell Hodges and Lorenzo Alvaro.
Australian Contemporary Chorale was founded in 2001 by director Hildy Essex to encourage staff and students of the University of Melbourne's Faculty of Music to compose new choral works. Its mission statement is to perform new Australian choral music in interesting venues and in engaging and unique ways. Many of the choir's committed and highly musical young singers are studying music at the University of Melbourne and have an interest in composition. Since 2001, Australian Contemporary Chorale has performed over 55 world premieres of new Australian choral works. The choir regularly workshops pieces by Melbourne composers such as Brenton Broadstock, Stuart Greenbaum, Linda Kouvaras and Katy Abbott as well as other up-and-coming composers, and each year holds a series of concerts for all new choral works. They released their debut recording "Stations" in April 2006, have commissioned a number of new choral works and are renowned for their innovative and exciting concerts of new, Australian music.
Performance highlights include:
- performing over 55 world premieres of Australian choral music
- performing at the Melba Festival in March 2007 to great critical acclaim
- touring Brenton Broadstock's Stations of the Cross - Via Crucis to regional Victoria in April 2007
- performing the world premiere of that same work to a sell-out crowd and great acclaim at BMW Edge, Federation Square in April 2006
- performing as part of the BMW Edge open-air Christmas choral music program in December 2006
- commissioning and performing in 2006 the unique 12 Days of Christmas by 12 different Australian composers
- performing at the Port Fairy Spring Music Festival (2002-2004)
- opening the 2005 ASME National Conference
- broadcasts on ABC radio and 3MBSFM.
and we can look down over people who are passing through past this town and others to the cities with it's migraines and it's nightmares we float, long stretches of buildings below...
The Phasmid Branch performance collective sit at a table. pens, paper, a girl, microphones, a guitarist, a dancer, a swing, a trumpet, a mixing desk, an overhead projector and a bowl of eggs. From the roll of a dice and the passing of cards, a game ensues and the climate of the evening is decided. Shadows from the clouds above form shapes to encase the Girl up a Tree with Clouds; I like being up here. I climb up alone and keep the tree company. I can see everywhere, and if I'm quiet nobody can see me. This tree looks after me...
Sound by Katie Symes, Text by Sandra Long, Directed by Naomi Steinborner, Sandra Long and Katie Symes, in collaboration with Phil McInnes, Jenny Priest, Nick Sommerville, Andrew Davis, Jodee Mundy, Tiffany Ball and Wawan Sofwan. The Phasmid Branch is a performance collective based in sound, dance, theatre, music and projection.
Recordings from:
Ernie Althoff dark by 6 from an installation recording, 2003
Assomiddin Fahkriev, Uzbekistan, 2007
Genevieve Lacey and Poul Hoxbro: Tre Fontane from Upon a Time, 2004
Kagome: Nadoya music and dance company: Sacred Cow by Anne Norman, Peter Neville, Satsuki Odamura and Michael Hewes.
Anthony Pateras: Residue from Chasms, 2007
Darren Robinson: Processes for Piano, 2007
Andrian Pertout:
Carte Blanche
Wendy Suiter
Pieces for the 16 channel Atrium System
Symbiosis : Nebsphere, ModelKit Construct, Still Life, Backface, Landscape
| TITLE | COMPOSER |
| Acetylsaletylsyra | Que Nguyen |
| Symbiosis | Lawrence Harvey |
| Vivonne Bay | Philip Samartzis |
| Shoe Gazing | Stephen Parker |
| The Dead Shall Walk The Earth | Jo Petrina |
| Dusk | Gabrielle Norden |
| Landscape | Lawrence Harvey |
| Echoes of suburbia | Nigel Frayne |
| Old White Spider | Roger Alsop |
| Nebsphere | Lawrence Harvey |
| Southern Bentwing Bats | Philip Samartzis |
| Backface | Lawrence Harvey |
| Wired | Sam Page |
| Sonic Pool | Yiu-Bun Chan |
| Puffing Billy | Tessa Elieff/Jimi Richardson/Rod Price |
| ModelKit Construct | Lawrence Harvey |
| Federation Bells | Nick Van Cuylenberg |
| Murray Lagoon | Philip Samartzis |
| Shimmer | Jeffrey Hannam and Melissa Hawkless |
| Undulation | Elizabeth Pogson |
| Layers of Gathering Stone | Michael Hewes |
| Special | Tessa Elieff |
| Streichmusik | Jan Kertscher |
| Still Life | Lawrence Harvey |
| Technical co-ordination and system design:Nigel Frayne | |
Jo Lloyd
'I Smiled for a full Minute'
This solo demonstrates experiences of inhabiting an environment or being involved in an scenario that enforces restrictions. Dealing with being in control and being controlled. http:// jolloyd.alphalink.com.au
Arnaud Gallois
The Grass-Roots in the Crown: Committees of Management of Public Reserves as Enduring Micro-Democracy
Crown (that is, Public) Land makes up one third of Victoria's surface area. Much Crown Land is in the form of large parcels that constitute National Parks, State Forests, Water Catchments, and Transport Reserves. On the other hand, there are also several thousand much smaller Reserves, set aside for public use and enjoyment. More often than not, these small Crown Land Reserves exist as sporting fields, local parks, and/or community halls. A large proportion of these are run by Committees of Management that are directly elected by their local (mostly rural) communities. These Committees provide a valuable public service, can play a significant role in fostering positive social networks in local communities, and indeed are an enduring form of grass-roots democracy: many having been in existence for fifty years or more. In this presentation I will discuss some of the key issues that current members of Committees of Management of Crown Reserves face, including: group dynamics and workloads; community and network building; cross-institutional relations; and present and future challenges. This will hopefully lead to discussion and reflection about how these Committee members' experiences and insights might relate to other organizational and social settings.
Arnaud is in the third year of his PhD studies in the School of Political Science, Criminology and Sociology at The University of Melbourne. His research is supported by the Victorian Government's Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE). a.gallois@pgrad.unimelb.edu.au
Mistresspiece - The Gallery
Do I dare
Disturb the Universe?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse. T.S Eliot
Mistresspiece - The Gallery is an unfolding performance installation which will take place over the duration of Music Circus by theatre makers Tania Bosak, Margie Mackay and Tom Morey and fire artist Bernard Nagle.
The trio of women, sandwiched for most of the night in betwixt the glass walls of the fracture gallery, will create, destroy and refashion worlds and dominions, boudoirs and bathing tubs, as time ticks past.
Celebrating mundane objects as warmly as extraordinary ones, Mistresspiece - The Gallery is an improvised exploration incorporating percussion, song and movement in an ever-changing cosmos. Korean Drums, temple gongs and bowls will be heard as the trio, at the darkest hour before dawn, finally escape their glass cage.
Pre-dawn the trio will process outside to the fire installation on the grass outside BMW edge. Here they will create a fire ceremony to wake the new day and to honour John Cage and the Music Circus event. The fire will be lit at approximately 5.20am.
- Tania Bosak
- Margie Mackay
- Tom Morey
- Bernard Nagle
Xenia Hanusiak Soprano
Forever and Sunsmell, John Cage
Solveig's Song - Dorian le Gallienne
Live from Tiananmen Square at Sunset during the daily Flag Lowering Ceremony.
'This was a virtuoso performance'
The Mercury 2007
Soprano Xenia Hanusiak is currently in Beijing on an Asia Link residency.
She is collaborating with Chinese artists on new projects and is writing a new work.
Last week she gave the Chinese premiere of a vocal suite from the ballet Wild Swans by Australian composer Elena Kats Chernin, which she especially transcribed for Voice and Er hu. That same night, she also made her Karaoke debut with distinguished members of the Melbourne Football team and sporting legends Ron Barassi and Max Walker. The Melbourne Football club is in China giving football clinics. Xenia looks forward to further collaborations with the Melbourne Football Club.
This week Xenia was a awarded a Literature Board grant to write a new work, garnering the distinction of being the only Australian artist to receive awards from three different boards of the Australia Council - Music, Theatre and Literature.
Xenia last performed for the Melbourne International Arts Festival in 2004 with her critically applauded show A thousand doors, a thousand windows.
Since this time the work has been performed at every major festival in Australia and is to embark on an overseas tour.
Xenia Hanusiak graduated from the Elder Conservatorium, Adelaide with an honours degree in Voice. At the same time, she completed an Arts Degree.Following her studies she attended the Music Theatre course at the Banff School of Arts in Canada and was awarded a scholarship to do so. Since this time she has performed with all the major Australian companies and ensembles. Her numerous credits include: the symphony orchestras of Adelaide, Queensland, Tasmania and Melbourne, Opera Australia, Victoria State Opera, State Opera of South Australia, State Theatre Company of South Australia, the Australian String Quartet, Opera Queensland, Chamber Made Opera, Perihelion to name a few.
She has performed extensively on four continents and her appearances include: Adelaide, Melbourne, Perth, Sydney and Tasmanian Festivals, Aarhus Festival (Denmark), Banff Festival of Arts (Canada), Next Wave Festival at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (New York), Kennedy Center (Washington), Gruppo Aperto Musica Oggi (Florence), The Esplanade Theatre on The Bay (Singapore) and the Ljubljana Spring Festival.
A touch of Motion from A Tickle in The Right Direction
David Tolley
This piece has a number of elements that relate to Cage's preoccupations- the playing itself, the events surrounding the playing and the studio post-production.
The performance was simultaneously an art and a music event: David Tolley was both a sound performer and a drawing model. David played three totally improvised pieces sequentially, as three independent movements.
The pieces were recorded on September 11, 2001, no less, though we were unaware of the tragic events happening simultaneously. The composition of all elements, both movement and sound was also totally improvised. The final studio post-production was a superimposition of the three separate pieces without alterations, including the length of each piece.
Have Faith!
An audio work for stereo cd, using field recordings of Australian and Persian birds, gregorian chant and Islamic chanting. This piece has been designed to compare and find common ground between the cultural and environmental contexts between Australia and Persia. This is based on the underlying assumption that things are not black and white, that no people or culture lives in isolation, and that there are commonalities between peoples. By Wendy Suiter
After majoring in instrumental and electronic music composition at La TrobeUniversity Wendy completed a Master of Creative Arts in electronic music composition at University of Wollongong. Wendy is a represented composer at the Australian Music Centre.
Her work has been performed in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and the Flinders Ranges in a wide variety of settings from art galleries, dedicated concert spaces, to cafes and outdoor performances. Her professional achievements to date include the soundscapes to accompany an art exhibition at 69 Smith Street, publication of a brass work Paul Keating by Redhouse Press, and the broadcast on ABC Classic FM of her piano trio Carlin. Her scores are published by Publications by Wirripang.
As a community musician, Wendy has been Musical Director of POW Circus, Melbourne, and Composer in Residence at the Jika Jika Community Centre, Melbourne, and regular workshop presenter at the Darebin Music Feast where participants have been playing her music for the Federation Bells.
Wendy is primarily concerned with using the timbral qualities of instruments to inform the ideas of the works. She has been influenced by the intellectual rigour of both counterpoint and serial techniques, but is searching for a way to include the passion of the Romantics through the use of â?~grand gestureâ?T and melodic motifs.
Tall Stories
Using elements of rock and jazz, Tall Stories provide you with their own musical styles and interpretation of works you thought you knew. Composer/arranger Bronwyn Cumbo has transformed works by Jimi Hendrix, Mike Nock and more by injecting them with evocative harmonies and rhythm. Enjoy the unique sounds of this quintet.
Where to Now: a photo documentary following 13 Melbourne girls over 5 years.
13 girls, 13 lives, 13 very different backgrounds. As part of a Masters by Project undertaken at RMIT, Carla Gottgens engaged 13 Melbourne female school leavers in 2002 to participate in a documentation of their transition from teenage to adulthood.
The images shown in Musicircus are the first images taken of the girls at the beginning of the project in 2002 when the cute fluffy cocoon of protective adolescence was still (for some) lingering. 2007 marks the end of the project when all images taken over the
last 5 years will be compiled and edited to create a story of the transition each girl underwent from the age of 18 to 23.