The Song Company at rehearsal, Cockatoo Island, Sydney Harbour |
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OCTOBER 2011
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Hello!
Spring is in the air at last and there is a spring in our step as we approach the last major project for the year, the sweetest, nicest, yet most intriguing undertaking for some time. A new collaboration always brings new excitement to the fore. Even a well established one such as our work with William Barton still manages to raise the temperature but Sweet Dreams, the new production with Stephen Mushin is possibly the most mysterious of all the creative ventures we have been involved with. Is it because dreams bring up the most elusive and often incomprehensible sequence of events? Is it because we work with the mere reflection of reality, shadows and objects projected through and onto screens, things that can no longer be grasped or touched? Or is it because we are simply trying to give shape and form to the far corners of our fantasy and imagination?
After much kitchen-style experimentation, we are now preparing the musical cornerstones of this new program and preparing ourselves for the inevitable appearing and disappearing acts. How else to describe the notion of manipulating objects and puppets whilst singing? My very first experience of the ‘performing arts’ was puppet theatre. It summoned up everything that my five-year old former self knew or didn’t know: images, dialogue, entertainment, fantasy and music. The laughter around me and the questioning within me still goes on and I hope that this new venture with someone as remarkable as Stephen Mushin will bring back some of your own memories of childhood, a time of magic and innocence.
In the meantime, we have all the details of our 2012 program at hand and have been heartened by the early response. After all, it is for you, our loyal audience, that we have assembled these programs and these extraordinary artists. Please spread the word or for those who have not encountered our work before, take the plunge with Sweet Dreams. It will no doubt be a great introduction to the company and demonstrate what a small group of dedicated artists is capable of. We also want to tell you about our incredible experience in Western Australia and Northern Territory with William Barton in July/August. More recently, the MODART performances on Cockatoo Island presented seven emerging composers to the public. The range of the work was quite breathtaking and audiences, young and old, were delighted.
Roland
Roland Peelman, Artistic Director
& Karen Baker, General Manager at MODART 2011,
Cockatoo Island, Sydney Harbour
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SONG COMPANY PERFORMANCES COMING SOON
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Sweet Dreams a sensory experience for the whole family
The Song Company is now in lockdown preparing for our magical Sweet Dreams concerts with puppeteer, Stephen Mushin. You will be treated to a story of dreams and the imagination as Stephen creates his particular magic using simple silhouette forms. This will be a visually spectacular theatre performance for all the family and a holiday treat.
Sweet Dreams includes songs, carols, lullabies and stories from composers around the world including Peter Warlock, Jack Body, Elena-Kats Chernin and Annie Lennox.
Single ticket purchasers may book though City Recital Hall Angel Place for all concerts online www.cityrecitalhall.com.au or by phone: 02 82562222 Check details on the Song Company website: http://www.songcompany.com.au/concerts/
Performances:
Brisbane Conservatorium Theatre – Friday 2 December, 7.30pm
Wollongong Town Hall – Monday 5 December, 7 pm
Newcastle Conservatorium Theatre – Thursday 8 December, 7pm
Canberra Street Theatre – Saturday 10 December, 6 pm
Sydney City Recital Hall – Sunday 11 December, 3 pm
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 Steven Mushin, shadow puppeteer |
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Going Deeper with the Song Company in 2012
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| We have been delighted with the response to date, following the release of our 2012 subscription season, Going Deeper.
The beautiful image taken from our subscription brochure is a foretaste of the deep water treasures in store. We are proud to share the stage with some of Australia’s leading musicians and will present four amazing concerts that we hope will take your breath away as you join for Going Deeper.
We will be performing in Brisbane, Canberra, Newcastle, Sydney and Wollongong as well as presenting our first ever subscription season in Melbourne.
Don’t delay to order your subscription and join us on these very diverse watery journeys in 2012. For tickets or more information on the Song Company’s 2012 season phone (02) 8272 9500 or visit www.songcompany.com.au Please contact us if you would like us to forward a subscription brochure to a friend.
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| Recent Projects
Global Delicacies
The Song Company’s Annual Fundraising Dinner 2011
What a wonderful occasion of fine food, fine wines, song and convivial conversation in elegant surrounds. The menu supplied by Bilson’s Restaurant was a treat to be savoured, enhanced by the array of wines courtesy of Mayfield Winery.
We were also privileged that our friend and collaborator William Barton opened this special dinner with a didgeridoo solo.
On offer were many and varied imaginative prizes sourced by Amy Curl, Marketing and Philanthropy Manager in support of the Song Company. Enthusiastic donors spoke about the lasting and unique benefits of commissioning a new work and our supporters had the rare opportunity to commission a handwritten score and a recording by Andrew Ford, one of Australia’s leading composers.
Supporters were introduced to Jehan Kanga from our Young Artist’s program. MODART 11 composer Ekram (Istanbul/ Sydney) spoke about the value of the mentoring opportunities offered by MODART, a critical development opportunity for young composers.
From top left: William Barton, MODART 11 Composer Ekram
with Andrew Coorey, Song Company singers with Roland Peelman
We all had a great evening but the best news is that our supporters raised $55,000for the Song Company! This is our BEST RESULT EVER! Thank you to everyone who came and gave generously.
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| On Tour with Kalkadunga Man WA/NT July 2011
by Lanneke Wallace-Wells
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| The Song Company for one third of the year becomes “the Touring Song Company”, and in July we were granted a wonderful opportunity to explore Western Australia and Northern Territory. We met our honorary Song Company member William Barton in Sydney and placed ourselves in the capable hands of our tour leader Tos Mahoney who is the Artistic Director of Tura New Music in Perth.
Along for the journey was Eamon Dimmitt as production assistant and film-maker extraordinaire, and Guy Smith who took care of our sound and lighting requirements. Our notorious percussion instruments came along too in glamorous shopping bags along with five didgeridoos, and countless kilos of production gear. Check-in at the airport became quite a spectacle, and light aircraft heaved under the weight of our baggage, making my normally over-stocked suitcase featherweight in comparison.
We first performed in the Perth Concert Hall where we met our prime sponsors Total E&P Australia along with other supporters. The acoustic and grand scale of the Concert Hall did great service to our program including Ross Edwards’ Southern Cross Chants and Dawn Mantras. We had a ball performing Kalkadunga Man which was devised by William and the Song Company with accompanying images of Mt Isa by Allan Chawner; it truly is a show that illustrates the beauty and diversity of the Australian landscape along with evocative and of course, challenging pieces for us to sing. After a lovely reception drinks followed by the obligatory late Chinese Meal after the show, the next three weeks saw us take in the WA sights of Geraldton, Carnarvon, Exmouth, and then on to NT – Darwin, the Kimberley, Batchelor and then back to WA again – Kununurra, the Dampier Peninsula, finishing in Broome. Each day we discovered beautiful sights, natural wonders and wonderfully receptive audiences. Sweeping sunsets over red-stained beaches, towering termite mounds, endless sand dunes, driving for hundreds of kilometres on unsealed red sandy roads and snorkelling with fragile sea-life amongst a beautiful reef were some of the fantastic experiences I will never forget. Swimming holes surrounded by thundering waterfalls saw our motley crew of ten splash and play like young children. We performed in all manner of venues – five star resorts such as Ningaloo Reef and Pinctada; Gwoonwardu Mia Aboriginal Cultural Centre, and small community concerts at Beagle Bay, One Arm Point and Lombardina in Dampier.
Singing and making music is an incredible privilege and I am continually reminded that music continually transcends all divides and links humanity in a way words and actions cannot. We are afforded the ability to present and discuss our music with people from all walks of life and instantly find a way to connect our seemingly disparate lives.
Lanneke Wallace-Wells
on tour with Kalkadunga Man
Whilst rehearsing outside our hut in Cape Levique on the Dampier Peninsula, we were “stumbled upon” by a solitary walker. She asked permission to listen to our music-making as it had drawn her to us, and then after a few minutes recognised Anna from Sydney. She was so grateful to us for bringing music to her day. In the Kimberley we performed alongside Velanga Khoza, a storyteller and musician from South Africa who had me singing the next day on a breakfast cruise teaching the rest of the boat a traditional call and response piece whilst playing his tiny thumb piano (kalimba). The primary school children at One Arm Point were fascinated by Williams’ demonstration of the Didgeridoo and rushed over to us after the show to talk, laugh and ask a thousand questions. The tour was organised by Tura New Music and Tos Mahoney was an incredible tour-guide. He managed our every need including meals and sightseeing opportunities and boy did we eat some amazing food! Helen Symon joined us mid-tour-an extremely hard-working executive and mother of two from Melbourne who came along just to experience our world and help us along the way. She was a delightful companion for us all and we appreciate her help and friendship very much.
Our last performance was set in the gardens of the opulent Pinctada Cable Beach Resort. Our production team had been setting up all day in the heat and we performed to hundreds of guests and locals. The guests in the rooms immediately around the garden had a great view and sat on their balconies with a drink and took in the spectacle. The sound of our voices and the Didgeridoo pervading the still, clear air was a strong experience for me that night, and we were rewarded by the warm response of the audience and so many smiling faces. We were left with many lovely memories and a sense of privilege to experience the beauty of our land and meet wonderful people along the way. A great life indeed!
Lanneke Wallace-Wells
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The Song Company’s Cockatoo Island Adventure
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MODART 2011, Saturday 1 & Sunday 2 October
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Audiences braved the rain and wind to attend two performances on
Cockatoo Island, presented by the Song Company and featuring short
vocal works by seven emerging composers, selected for MODART 11.
From Top Left: Roland Peelman, Susanna Lawergren & Anna Fraser, At rehearsal, MODART 11 Composers Timothy Tate, Annie Hsieh & Ekram
If you missed the concert and would like to hear a special musical bonus click on the Song Company Facebook You can read more about “Didn’t It Rain?”, a six-part gospel setting by MODART composer Alex van den Broek, below.
MODART FAQs
What is MODART and who was involved this year?
The Song Company in partnership with the Australian Music Centre held the fifth biannual presentation of MODART, the Song Company’s Young Composer forum. The program has grown since its inception in 2003 to be a critical project in Australia for the professional development of the next generation of composers. Through our partnership with the ABC, MODART composers were interviewed about their works and plans for the future by Stephen Adams, Producer, Australian Music Unit, ABC Classic FM. These young composers also had the critical opportunity of their works recorded in a studio for later broadcast.
Roland Peelman tells us more about the composers, selected from a nationwide search and farther afield, as part of MODART11. Composers were: Leah Barclay (Brisbane); Tristan Coelho (Sydney); Demian Galindo, (Guadalajara, Mexico); Annie Hsieh (Melbourne); Ekrem Mülayim (NSW/Turkey); Timothy Tate (Brisbane); Alex van den Broek (Christchurch, New Zealand).
All composers first gathered with the group in late February 2011 for the first stage of development and all but one (Galindo from Mexico) returned for the second stage in late September, leading up to the two performances on Cockatoo Island on October 1 and 2 followed by a studio recording in Eugene Goosens Studio, ABC on 5 October.
As before, the project drew varied responses from the different composers, which resulted in an engaging performance program. As in 2009, a competitive selection process (only five from Australia and two overseas composers) and the full 2-stage process with continued close communication in between, also guaranteed a high level of proficiency.
Each of these composers (all under 30) already has a remarkable story to tell and has arrived at his/her craft from a different perspective. Leah Barclay abandoned traditional score composition for electro-acoustic work. Her work became a impressive soundscape of pre-recorded hydrophonic sounds with vocal improvisation and extensive use of Kolokol, speech-rhythms from the South Indian carnatic tradition. Alex van den Broek’s background is jazz. He complied with a restrained contrapuntal setting of a poem by a fellow Dutch New Zealand artist.
Ekrem Mülayim is equally at home in theatre and music. Ekram created a new language (‘nun’) as the focus of his work. Tate, Galindo, Hsieh and Coelho develop their craft through more traditional notation. Galindo’s setting of a Huichol text used a variety of sounds and unusual vocal effects. Annie Hsieh‘s work “ (/iu/ “ and Tristan Coelho’s work “The Writer’s Hand” showed assurance.
What’s next?
MODART composers discussed their plans for the future as part of the concert presentation. All are engaged in interesting projects. For Leah Barclay (Brisbane) this involves a trip to the Amazon to make field recordings for a future work. For Ekram Mülayim (Istanbul/Sydney) his future project will centre on a performance on the Island of Fogo (off the coast of Newfoundland, near the Arctic Circle).
Alex van den Broek MODART 11 Composer
Postscript from MODART 11 composer Alex van den Broek (Christchurch)
“I would like to say how much I enjoyed the entire experience. It was great getting the opportunity to work with such exceptional singers, interacting and being inspired by other emerging composers and the education and mentoring I received from Roland and the singers in the process. You were all such a pleasure to work with and get to know.
I also feel like I have grown so much as a composer during this experience. Not least of which is how much I learned about vocal writing in the process. Being a composer is often a frustrating and solitary occupation and MODART11 was the exception to this rule.”
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| OTHER PERFORMANCE NEWS
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| American Journeys
Sydney Philharmonia Choirs - American Journeys
Join Sydney Philharmonia Choirs as they journey around Sydney and rural NSW. Hear the Chamber Singers perform sublime music from America’s vibrant choral repertoire including Samuel Barber’s Agnus Dei – vocal arrangement for Adagio for Strings. This concert will surprise you in its beauty and variety so grab your musical passport and come on an a cappella tour of the US of A!
Dates and Venues:
REGIONAL: Saturday October 29, 7.30pm, Bathurst Memorial Entertainment Centre, Bathurst
Sunday October 30, 3pm, Orange Regional Conservatorium, Orange
Saturday November 5, 2pm; St Simon and St Jude’s Anglican Church, Bowral
SYDNEY Sunday 6 November, 3pm, Verbrugghen Hall Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Sydney
Saturday 12 November, 7.30pm, Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre, Penrith
Tickets: From $42* (booking fees apply) Bookings: 02 9251 3115 or sydneyphilharmonia.com.au
*prices vary depending on venue
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GIVEAWAY!
Sydney
Philharmonia Choirs has generously offered one Song Company E-Newsletter reader
a double pass to American Dreams on Sunday
6 November 2011, 3pm at Verbrugghen
Hall, Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Please email enquiries@sydneyphilharmonia.com.au with AMERICAN JOURNEYS in the subject line. Only the winner will be contacted.
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