BY CUTCOMMON
How’s your calendar looking this June?
If it’s looking empty, we have a few ideas to fill it up. And if it’s full, be prepared to double-book yourself: you’re probably going to want to attend some (all) of these events.
From a literal surround-sound percussion experience, through to a free workshop for composers, here’s what’s in store at the Melbourne Recital Centre this month.
1. Divisi Chamber Singers – The Turn
If you’d like to support an Australian arts organisation doing amazing things, head along to this concert. Divisi is a not-for-profit run by young people, which supports artists to forge their careers in the music industry. When you attend their concert, there’s a chance you’ll witness something remarkable – because their sold-out Compose Queer performance was such a hit with audiences, they received a private donation to record an album of the program. (It was called Spectrum – and they said it was “Australia’s first-ever complete album of queer classical music by local LGBTQIA+ composers”.)
Also recipients of an ABC Composer Commissioning Award, Divisi is big on commissioning and performing new music. That’s why the title of Divisi’s Melbourne Recital Centre event refers to Ben Rowarth’s composition The Turn, which will be premiered on the night.
“I think that audiences, grant bodies, and even mainstream institutions are ready to hear something different from the classical music industry,” Divisi co-artistic director Bailey Montgomerie has told us (you’ll hear Bailey sing at this concert, too). This time, the artists will make their Primrose Potter Salon debut to explore the “intrigue of madrigals, taking six narrators’ individual interpretations and coordinating them into a beautiful, cohesive story”. Expect from Weelkes, Strozzi, Bryars, Monteverdi, and Rowarth — four centuries of music for today’s audiences.
2. Kung Fu Cellist – extra/ordinary
Cellist Yelian He started studying music at 3 years old. He also studies martial arts, and on his website, he says “both these parts are equally vital to who I am”. That’s what makes his upcoming concert extraordinary – it’s a unique event showcasing his skills in music that are intertwined with his studies in Wing Chun. His nickname is “Kung Fu Cellist” and themes of skill, discipline, and focus will emerge through the notes of music he’ll perform with Joseph Lallo.
Joseph is a saxophonist and lecturer at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music; you might’ve rocked up to the Melbourne International Saxophone Festival, of which he is artistic director – or heard ensemble Collide (featuring Yelian alongside pianist Yasmin Rose).
Their program features works by Mozart and Rameau arranged for this unusual instrumental pairing, along with music from Australian art music composer Stuart Greenbaum, France’s Guillaume Connesson, and Swedish composer Svante Henryson whose Suite Off Pist explores “challenges faced when wandering away from the beaten path and having to carve your own path in the snow”.
3. Making Waves – New Music
Free workshop? We’ll take that! The Making Waves workshop is part of a four-part educational series. It’s designed to take VCE students behind the scenes into compositional techniques and styles – so if that sounds like you, it’s worth checking out. And if you’re not a VCE student, but you’re a burgeoning composer who would still like to gain some insight, then you’re free to head along to this 90-minute session, too.
In this particular workshop, Syzygy Ensemble members will venture into the Primrose Potter Salon to share their knowledge. The workshop is supported by the Department of Education, Victoria and the Hugh Williamson Foundation – and in partnership with Virtual School Victoria. If you’d like to catch up on your knowledge, you can also access a digital library of Making Waves workshops as shared by the Melbourne Recital Centre.
(And if you emerge from this workshop wanting more Syzygy, do not fear: the group will be performing later in the year in a “hedonistic romp” called Joy Ride, which asks: “Don’t we all just want to be happy?”)
4. Speak Percussion – Sonic Eclipse
A few weeks ago, we had a chat with percussionist Kaylie Melville who told us her upcoming concert will begin “before you even arrive in the main performance space”. With more than 60 percussionists and community wind players, it’s going to be as big as it sounds. Kaylie is part of Speak Percussion – Sonic Eclipse. “The performers will be roaming through the foyers,” she says.
“The Elisabeth Murdoch Hall is ideal for a project like Sonic Eclipse, which is about surrounding and immersing the audience in soundworlds that vary from the bombastic to the extremely fragile.”
You’ll hear an Aussie program including two never-performed works when you’re part of the audience for this literal surround-sound experience.
Visit the website for a full calendar of events at the Melbourne Recital Centre this June.
Images supplied.
