SPECIAL PROJECTS / TOURING
Speak Percussion Hand to Earth At the Core Lior / “Compassion” Musicus Soloists
Younger Listeners: Gondwana Choirs
Speak Percussion
coming to Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival 2022
Speak Percussion has shaped the sound of 21st century Australian percussion music through the creation and presentation of ambitious arts projects. Internationally recognised as a leader in the fields of experimental and contemporary classical music, Speak is constantly seeking to redefine the potential of percussion.
Ranging from solo concerts to massed sound events, Speak Percussion’s “breathtakingly impressive” (The West Australian) work is presented throughout the world in concert halls, theatres, galleries and site-specific locations.
Speak Percussion has been responsible for over 130 commissions and premieres of new percussion works, contributing new 21st Century masterworks to the global percussion repertoire.
Speak Percussion has been responsible for over 130 commissions and premieres of new percussion works, contributing new 21st Century masterworks to the global percussion repertoire.
POLAR FORCE
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Imagine being on the Antarctic ice shelf, housed inside a temporary shelter where you are intimately observing sound research using the raw polar energies collected from outside.
Imagine being on the Antarctic ice shelf, housed inside a temporary shelter where you are intimately observing sound research using the raw polar energies collected from outside.
In an
investigation of extreme wind and ice, pristine Antarctic field recordings
combine with live industrial percussion to envelope the audience in a visceral
soundscape and performance environment.
New high fidelity field recordings including a 100 knot blizzard,sea ice and glaciers made in the Australian Antarctic Territory are augmented by custom built musical instruments made to manipulate pressurised air, water and ice.
New high fidelity field recordings including a 100 knot blizzard,sea ice and glaciers made in the Australian Antarctic Territory are augmented by custom built musical instruments made to manipulate pressurised air, water and ice.
Polar Force references climate change and global geopolitical tension including the exploration and exploitation of frontier territories. It is a sophisticated example of hyperrealism where recorded sound is choreographed with musical performance.
BEFORE NIGHTFALL
Before Nightfall is a series of new artistic encounters between Speak Percussion and invited guest artists. Each guest artist works with Speak artists intensively across one day, experimenting with a range of musical concepts. In the evening, these investigations culminate in an intimate live performance.
Before Nightfall is a series of new artistic encounters between Speak Percussion and invited guest artists. Each guest artist works with Speak artists intensively across one day, experimenting with a range of musical concepts. In the evening, these investigations culminate in an intimate live performance.
MARCH STATIC
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March Static
is a contemporary marching work for massed wind, drum and percussion players by
internationally acclaimed composer Thomas Meadowcroft (AU/DE), performed by an
ensemble of local student and volunteer players from across the community and
directed by new music luminaries Speak Percussion.
March Static
is a contemporary marching work for massed wind, drum and percussion players by
internationally acclaimed composer Thomas Meadowcroft (AU/DE), performed by an
ensemble of local student and volunteer players from across the community and
directed by new music luminaries Speak Percussion.
Ethereal
chords wash gently over the audience, interrupted by fragments of marching
percussion motifs.
The project reimagines the concept of a marching band, celebrating community and peace over representations of military might.
March Static is a site-specific work which can be performed indoors or outdoors, adapting to the unique architectural or environmental features of each performance location. Designed to activate a main street or site of community significance, March Static is a great festival work. Speak will work directly with the performers to create bespoke choreography, moving the performers around the audience or allowing the audience to move amongst the players to create unique listening experiences.
The project reimagines the concept of a marching band, celebrating community and peace over representations of military might.
March Static is a site-specific work which can be performed indoors or outdoors, adapting to the unique architectural or environmental features of each performance location. Designed to activate a main street or site of community significance, March Static is a great festival work. Speak will work directly with the performers to create bespoke choreography, moving the performers around the audience or allowing the audience to move amongst the players to create unique listening experiences.
Thomas Meadowcroft / Composer (Berlin)
Hand to Earth
Hand to Earth expresses something of the here and now in music, and represents contemporary Australia at its best: sophisticated, inclusive, diverse, and forward looking.
Hand
to Earth was developed during an Australia Art Orchestra residency in the
remote highlands of Tasmania.
Yolgnu songman, Daniel Wilfred, and Korean vocalist, Sunny Kim, formed an effortless rapport that spans continents and cultures and yet expresses a deeply human commonality. Their vocal approaches are melded into the electronic atmospheres created by trumpeter and composer, Peter Knight, who draws on the minimalism of Brian Eno and Jon Hassell to create a bed for these beautifully contrasting voices.
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“The Wilfred Brothers are unusual in bringing traditional Songline forms into contemporary classical and improv settings. The magnetic stage presence of the two Yolngu songmen makes for a revelatory performance.”
Yolgnu songman, Daniel Wilfred, and Korean vocalist, Sunny Kim, formed an effortless rapport that spans continents and cultures and yet expresses a deeply human commonality. Their vocal approaches are melded into the electronic atmospheres created by trumpeter and composer, Peter Knight, who draws on the minimalism of Brian Eno and Jon Hassell to create a bed for these beautifully contrasting voices.
“The Wilfred Brothers are unusual in bringing traditional Songline forms into contemporary classical and improv settings. The magnetic stage presence of the two Yolngu songmen makes for a revelatory performance.”
- The Wire, Feb 2023 (Huddersfeld Contemporary Music Festival performance)
Daniel
sings in traditional language, and is the keeper of ancient Yolgnu manikay (songs). His is the oldest
continuously practised music tradition in the world. Sunny sings in English and
Korean, and intones wordless gestures that invoke raw elemental forces.
Together they sing of the stars, of fire, and of the cooling rain, against the
sounds of Peter Knight’s trumpet and electronic crackles and Aviva Endean’s improvisations on her collection of clarinets and other resounding objects.
Hand to Earth is a call to open ears: eluding genre, traversing continents and fusing ancient and contemporary. At its heart are Yolŋu manikay (song cycles), a 40,000+ year-old oral tradition from South East Arnhem Land, northern Australia. These songs exist across vast time and space, to continuously make the continuous – known as raki, the spirit that pulls all together, all performers all listeners.
︎︎︎ ︎ excerpt
︎︎︎︎ trailer
Hand to Earth is a call to open ears: eluding genre, traversing continents and fusing ancient and contemporary. At its heart are Yolŋu manikay (song cycles), a 40,000+ year-old oral tradition from South East Arnhem Land, northern Australia. These songs exist across vast time and space, to continuously make the continuous – known as raki, the spirit that pulls all together, all performers all listeners.
︎︎︎ ︎ excerpt
︎︎︎︎ trailer
Musicus Soloists Hong Kong (MSHK)
Strategic Management // Musicus Fest
Directed and initiated by renowned cellist Trey Lee, Musicus Soloists Hong Kong (MSHK) is composed of some of the best of Hong Kong’s next-generation solo artists, who have been coming together regularly from all over the world. MSHK is set to become a leading chamber ensemble representing the city on the international scene.
Launched officially during the 10th anniversary edition of Musicus Fest in Hong Kong in November 2022, the establishment of MSHK aims to deepen and extend Musicus Society’s commitment to developing the long-term artistic growth of Hong Kong’s musical talent. Through performances and collaborations with preeminent international artists in Hong Kong and abroad, MSHK is unique in the region and a chamber ensemble to follow in the coming years.
Musicus Society was founded in 2010 from the vision of cellist Trey Lee to become an international music organisation with quality performances and world-class artists from Hong Kong. The Society’s mission is to promote cross-cultural collaboration of music internationally between top local and overseas artists by creating performance opportunities in a range of venues to expand the scene at home while nurturing the next generation of talent.
Each year, Musicus Society presents three major
programmes:
Musicus Fest, Musicus Heritage and Musicus Inspires! with extensive education activities and a series of commissioned new works.
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Musicus Fest, Musicus Heritage and Musicus Inspires! with extensive education activities and a series of commissioned new works.
Trey Lee // Cellist and Artistic Director
Hailed “a marvelous protagonist...superb cellist” by the late Lorin Maazel, a “Miracle”by Gramophone and an “excellent cellist… with enveloping richness and lyrical sensitivity”by the New York Times, Trey has worked with esteemed conductors, composers and orchestras worldwide, such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Leonard Slatkin, Mikko Franck, Vassily Sinaisky, and Yuri Bashmet; the Chamber Orchestras of Stuttgart, Munich, London and Romanian Radio; Moscow and Trondheim Soloists ensembles; Philharmonia Orchestra, Philharmonic Orchestra Radio France, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, Netherlands Philharmonic, and Tapiola Sinfonietta among others.
Hailed “a marvelous protagonist...superb cellist” by the late Lorin Maazel, a “Miracle”by Gramophone and an “excellent cellist… with enveloping richness and lyrical sensitivity”by the New York Times, Trey has worked with esteemed conductors, composers and orchestras worldwide, such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Leonard Slatkin, Mikko Franck, Vassily Sinaisky, and Yuri Bashmet; the Chamber Orchestras of Stuttgart, Munich, London and Romanian Radio; Moscow and Trondheim Soloists ensembles; Philharmonia Orchestra, Philharmonic Orchestra Radio France, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, Netherlands Philharmonic, and Tapiola Sinfonietta among others.
Trey appears often at major venues and festivals
around the world, including the Carnegie Hall, Teatro dal Verme
Milan, Beijing National Centre for Performing Arts, Lincoln Center, and the Concertgebouw Amsterdam. On stage, Trey partners with many of
today's most sought-after stars such as Julia Fischer, Vilde Frang, Pekka
Kuusisto, Alexander Sitkovetsky, and most recently joined Canada’s
leading piano quartet, Ensemble Made in Canada.
A laureate of major international competitions, Trey’s albums released with EMI topped the classical charts. He plays on the 1703 "Comte de Gabriac" cello by Venetian master maker Matteo Goffriller.
Since 2012, Trey has been an Ambassador of UNICEF Hong Kong.
A laureate of major international competitions, Trey’s albums released with EMI topped the classical charts. He plays on the 1703 "Comte de Gabriac" cello by Venetian master maker Matteo Goffriller.
Since 2012, Trey has been an Ambassador of UNICEF Hong Kong.
At the Core
Arditti Quartet & Kenta Kojiri
To be performed on a chamber music stage, the programme features Japanese dancer / choregrapher Kenta Kojiri and the works he created for two quartet pieces by
Wolfgang Rihm:
Geste zu Vedova (11‘)
String Quartet No.3 Im Innersten (30‘) (‘At the Core’)
Ideally, these pieces with dance form the second half of a chamber concert, which can be paired with works by the Japanese composers Nishimura and Hosokawa.
Creation note:
The shock of hearing this music, String Quartet No.3 Im Innersten for the first time and the title of "At the Core" captured the curiosity in the back corner of my mind. In our daily lives, we prioritize controlling our emotions in order to maintain order rather than exposing them to the world. If those unreleased emotions exist in our hearts... I want to tell people that it is beautiful to see human beings exposing their emotions through dance (music and their bodies), because in today's society, emotionless media such as social networking sites have become commonplace. In Geste zu Vedova, [Gesture to Vedova] composed in 2015, I teamed up with a programmer to conceive a choreographic idea by creating notations in a modern way, creating a material body itself, in contrast to Im Innersten.
- Kenta Kojiri
The shock of hearing this music, String Quartet No.3 Im Innersten for the first time and the title of "At the Core" captured the curiosity in the back corner of my mind. In our daily lives, we prioritize controlling our emotions in order to maintain order rather than exposing them to the world. If those unreleased emotions exist in our hearts... I want to tell people that it is beautiful to see human beings exposing their emotions through dance (music and their bodies), because in today's society, emotionless media such as social networking sites have become commonplace. In Geste zu Vedova, [Gesture to Vedova] composed in 2015, I teamed up with a programmer to conceive a choreographic idea by creating notations in a modern way, creating a material body itself, in contrast to Im Innersten.
- Kenta Kojiri
︎︎︎︎ Excerpt from the premiere in Japan 2019
Upcoming European premiere performances in Paris:
presented by the Maison de la culture du Japon à Paris and Centre National de la Danse
Wed 21.06. and Tues 22.06.23 20H
︎ Satoshi Aoyagi