St.Ives Uniting Church
Stations of Creation
"All Heaven shouted for Joy"
Job 38:7
November 27 and 28, 2009
Photo Gallery of Stations of Creation 2009
There are two major celebrations in the annual church calendar ... Christmas and Easter. These celebrations are shared with the wider culture and they address the mysteries that surround birth and death. We need a poetic language to address these mysteries. At St. Ives Uniting Church we have established two major arts programs and invited artists to address these mysteries on our behalf. 'All Heaven shouted for Joy': Stations of Creation, has invited 10 composers each to compose a special piece of music in relation to the commentary offered below. In 2009 the composers have been invited to compose for either soprano solo or mezzo soprano solo, and string quartet and vibraphone. These especially composed works were performed in concert at St. Ives Uniting Church on Friday November 27th and Saturday November 28th, 2009.
In the Stations of the Cross program at Easter we invite 15 leading artists each to respond to a commentary on the Franciscan Stations of the Cross for an exhibition in the church. The works for 2007, 2008 and 2009 can be viewed here.
Director of Music: Dan Walker
Composers
Andrew Batt-Rawden, Katy Abbott, Corin Bone,
Annie Hsieh, Dan Walker, Alex Pozniak, Steve Hodgson,
Ruth McCall, Anthony Lyons, Bryony Marks
Musicians
Belinda Jezek - 1st Violin
Anna Albert - 2nd Violin
Isidore Tillers - Viola
Patrick Murphy - Violoncello
Tim Brigden - Vibraphone
Jacob Abela - Piano
Singers
Halcyon
Alison Morgan - Soprano
Jenny Duck-Chong - Mezzo Soprano
Conductor
Geoff Gartner
Rev. Dr. Douglas Purnell
(with help from Rev. Elizabeth Raine and Margaret L. Hammer, Giving Birth, W/JKP Louisville 1994.)
In this commentary many of the Biblical stories are seen as having been written retrospectively, that is, looking backwards to address the mystery of being.
Station 1. The Creation
Composer: Andrew Batt-Rawden
Genesis Chapter 1. Psalm 104
A poetic story that speaks of the mystery of creation.
When we consider the mystery of our origin, metaphoric story enables a knowing beyond rational speech.
Often in the face of creation we sing.
What is creation?
What is the 'nothing' from which creation comes?
What in creation evokes the song?
What song is evoked by creation?
Composer's Comment: Ex Nihilo Omnia Fit - from nothing, comes everything.
The approach to a piece about The Creation cannot be done lightly. There have been many works inspired by it. However my research into The Creation did not lead me to listening to those renditions. I found out about James Ussher who, in the 17th century, published a chronology that said The Creation happened on the night preceding 23 October 4004 BC (unlike the 2nd October 400 BC as I said in a radio interview with 2MBS!). I looked at my newborn nephew in a new light, trying to glean any inspiration from him, as he, at the time, was the epitome of creation for me. I thought of the intrinsic meanings behind what I do as a composer.
Going further afield, I decided to find out the world's opinion on "creation". Twitter allows this, and although there was much nonsense to wade through, I finally distilled the following text:
In the Silence we discover true self.
Imagination is the Beginning of creation, the opposite of war.
I'm tracking the Creation.
Happily in this creation station
we sing music of an echo from the invisible world.
I look at the demons and angels of my essence.
No two wings of the same creation will fly the same way.
This is Your Monster.
The first stanza explores creation for what it is - from nothing comes everything - from silence comes self. The second stanza is about our engagement with creation. The third is an observation of the duality of being, how we are intrinsically created with both good and bad natures, the depth of which is, to me, incomprehensible and hence monstrous.
Station 2. The risk of birth and the fear of barrenness.
Composer: Katy Abbott
Job 38-39. Genesis 18:9 - 15
There is risk in childbirth, a risk in creation. There is always the risk of barrenness, the closed womb. There is the risk of life itself. Life in its beginning moments is fragile and vulnerable. There is the risk of imperfection, illness and death. The birthing mother is very vulnerable in childbirth.
To seek to conceive and give birth is to enter a vulnerable and risky place.
People fear barrenness. In Biblical times to give birth to a son was to provide economically and socially for the family. In the present, infertility raises deep questions about whether a woman is fully a woman, and whether a man is fully a man. These questions are not always addressed openly or publicly.
What is fear when associated with conception and birth?
What is fear for the life of the child?
And what is the fear of the mother for her own life?
What is the fear of barrenness that inhibits so many birth stories?
How do we acknowledge the pain of those, who for any reason, are unable to share in the birthing process?
Composer's Comment:
Text: Jacki Holland
Music: Katy Abbott
One Dark Sky is a movement from a song cycle titled No Ordinary Traveller which charts the observations or experiences of four women on board a ship travelling from England to Melbourne in 1850. In this movement, a mother loses her son on the journey.
It taps into my own fear of risk as a mother. Having experienced two miscarriages and watched many friends wrestle with the same, I feel fortunate to have ended up with three gorgeous boys. One Dark Sky is rather like observing the nightly news and watching some horror-story involving a young child (a pram and a train, a fast river - to name just this week's events). Every parent is secretly thankful that it is not his or her own story. There is risk in creation. There is fear involved in risk. But there is also joy.
Station 3. Conception
Composer: Corin Bone
Luke 1:26 - 45
The Song of conception, the hymn of joy; being at one with the forces of creation. Rejoicing in the ability to give life.
How great is the joy, the song that is sung in conception. At the same time we need to recognize that sometimes conception is unwelcome and that it foreshadows major disruption, sometimes socially disproved disruption.
What is the anxiety of, and, the joy, in conception and how do we acknowledge these feelings?
We can see conception as a miracle that links and gathers us into the mysterious and divine forces of creation.
At the same time can we acknowledge the disruption that conception may bring?
Composer's Comment:
"The line part of you" is a setting of a poem by Ron Padgett. "Reading Reverdy" (1969). Within its absurd and dense few lines this poem suggests something of the wonder of new life - the irreducible individual consciousness ("the line part of you goes out to infinity", "the wind that went through the head left it plural"), while also questioning the basis of the very words we use to describe it ("the half-erased words on the wall of bread", "I get up on top of an inhuman voice"). The boundedness of the human individual is something that we take for granted, but in the moment of conception, where an individual becomes "plural", we witness the moment when this becomes blurred.
I have attempted to convey something of the mixture of chaos and structure of Padgett's poem in the piece. It falls into two sections: in the first section, harmonics are used in the strings to echo the formants of the singer's vowels (formants are specific frequency bands that enable us to recognise vowels). Here the cello plays the fundamental, the viola the first formant, violin 2 the second formant, and violin1 the third and highest formant, to create a kind of giant bowed speech synthesiser, or an "inhuman voice". The second section owes much to the compositional method of Captain Beefheart (another famous American proponent of the absurd): I improvised (chaotically!) on the piano, transcribed it carefully, and then piled chunks of differing lengths from the transcriptions on top of each other, to create a dense and ever-shifting texture. Throughout this, the mezzo-soprano maintains a cantus firmus - one line threading through a storm.
Station 4. Muteness
Composer: Anne Hsieh
Luke 1:5-24, 57-80
Zechariah, the father becomes mute beside his wife's pregnancy.
Often the possibility of new birth takes away our capacity to speak, for the mystery is beyond words.
In what ways does pregnancy, imminent birth and birth itself take our words away?
Composer's Comment: I, in Cavity - for Soprano Voice and Cello
As the bearer of the child, she has become the dual provider of nourishments and accommodation, serving temporarily, or permanently, as the carrier of new hope. Her individuality, her freedom, is wrapped into the cocoon of maternal responsibilities. In this new state, she endlessly stretches herself to meet the demands of the young, bringing the dance of the free spirit to a standstill.
But a cry echoes within - was it from the precious inside her, or an extinguished voice that was once her own?
Station 5. The quickening
Composer: Dan Walker
Luke 1:39-45
The Quickening (consciousness of new life within) as the child grew and 'leaped' in the womb.
What is the mysterious miracle that enables a woman to conceive and grow in-utero a child?
What is the experience of the mother who feels her child growing as part of her?
What is the joy of feeling one's child move in the womb?
What song is shaped by that mysterious miracle?
Composer's Comment: Incepit Vita Nova
A new life is beginning
Behold a God more powerful than I
Who comes to rule over me
Your source of joy has now appeared
Behold your heart
It is time for false images
to be put aside.
Names are the consequence of things
Hosanna in the highest.
Things beautiful to me, I see
Beautiful things are being prepared.
(a life) which is for all times
blessed, blessed.
Dante's la Vita Nuova features these few phrases curiously set in Latin rather than Italian, perhaps emphasising in his mind the sacred mystery of birth. Regardless, it wonderfully encapsulates the realisation of new life, of another breathing human being growing within. Musically, it is bouts of fast string passages interspersed with transparent stillness, fervent joy and sudden sobriety. A foot or hand made out on an ultrasound image for the first time or a foetus' first kick can bring home this sobering reality, reminding oneself of the wonder of creation and all the consequences it brings.
Station 6. Gestation
Composer: Alex Pozniak
Psalm 22:9-10; Psalm 71
The patient waiting. The concern for the health of the growing child.
How do we come to terms with the tiredness and tediousness of waiting, the challenges of changing self image and the anticipation of creating a safe and healthy place for this new creature?
How do we address the anxiety or fear of birthing an imperfect child?
Composer's Comment:
This new work for Soprano, String Quartet and Percussion is a song themed on the gestation period before birth, written for Stations of Creation 2009. The text is from James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man: "I desire to press in my arms the loveliness which has not yet come into the world".
The piece begins with only fragments of the text, broken up, and with pregnant silences marked by choreographed gestures among the string players - air glissing and air bowing, therefore entertaining my interest in the theatrical and gestural nature of performance (relating to the "arms" in the text). One string on each of the four string instruments is retuned to achieve a metaphorically "unknown" harmonic colour (based on the harmonic-spectrum of a C1 fundamental), which brings into relief a more warm-blooded musical image utilising the rich timbres of open strings, accompanied by bowed vibraphone keys.
Station 7. The birth
Composer: Steve Hodgson
Psalm 22:9-10; 71:6
Jesus is born in the working stable with all its mess and smells.
The birth moment, the birth experience of every mother needs to be valued, the story told and heard, the experience acknowledged.
What is it to give birth?
What is it to be birthed?
What is it to hear the first cry of the newborn?
What is it to cry the first time?
What is it to hold that newborn child?
What is to be held outside the womb for the first time?
What is it for a mother to suckle or feed her child at the breast?
What is to be fed or suckled the first time?
Composer's Comment:
This brief setting of New York poet Sharon Olds' The moment the two worlds meet is primarily textually driven: speech rhythms and inflections shape the melodic line, with the all-interval six-note chord made famous by Elliot Carter featuring as the basic underpinning sonority. The work is deliberately sparse and unornamented, in keeping with the raw, visceral nature of the text and the musical setting sees an alternation of rhythmically dense, disjointed phrases with simpler, less frenetic lines to create a sense of pulsing towards the climax of the piece.
The moment the two worlds meet - for solo unaccompanied mezzo-soprano
That's the moment I always think of - when the
slick, whole body comes out of me,
when they pull it out, not pull it but steady it
as it pushes forth, not catch it but keep their
hands under it as it pulses out,
they are the first to touch it,
and it shines, it glistens with the thick liquid on it.
That's the moment, while it's sliding, the arms
bent like a crab's rosy legs, the
thighs closely packed plums in heavy syrup, the
legs folded like the white wings of a chicken -
that is the centre of life, that moment when the
juiced bluish sphere of the baby is
sliding between the two worlds,
wet, like six, it it sex,
it is my life opening back and back
as you'd strip the reed from the bud, not strip it but
watch it thrust so it peels itself and the
flower is there, severely folded, and
then it begins to open and dry
but by then the moment is over,
they wipe off the grease and wrap the child in a blanket and
hand it to you entirely in this world.
Used with the kind permission of Sharon Olds.
Station 8. The mothers' song of joy; the angels sing.
Composer: Ruth McCall
Luke 1:46-56. Luke 2:13-14.
Mary's undiluted joy at conception and birth. Mary's song of joy.
The mystery and drama inherent in childbirth evokes awe. There is an ecstatic joy in birth. A song to be sung. The whole of creation joins to sing the joy of each new birth. The angels sing in the heavens.
What is birth?
What is/how do we acknowledge the joy of the new child who breathes and cries, and promises so much?
How do we contain the hope that this new, innocent, unshaped life promises for an as yet, unseen future?
What is the joy of being one with the mysterious life force that we sometimes name as God the creator?
What is breath - the first breath, the continuing breath?
What is the gentle fragile body that holds breath and life?
What is the innocence of this new life?
What is the song we sing when we see new birth?
Composer's Comment:
Unto was inspired by my experiences performing the work of American 20th century composer John Cage, in which the singer has freedom to choose sections and improvise around the written material provided. In my own work the mother's random thoughts are adaptions of and musings on several well-known carols. They reflect her experiences of birth and the particular hopes she places on her first-born son.
Wonder, joy and pain can come in mixed forms, and birth is a catalyst for new beginnings.
Station 9. The naming
Composer: Anthony Lyons
Luke 1:26-33 and 59-66
How does a child live into and become the name that is given? Jesus was given the name Emmanuel which would mean "God is with us and will save the people from their sins." A big order to put on any newborn!
What is it to give a name to such a child that the child lives into and becomes the name?
How do we name that which is born?
What name, what language, does this encounter with the beauty of birth call out in us?
Composer's Comment:
The text written for Beginnings derives from my own thoughts and ponderings on the naming. Some of the word imagery chosen also shows the influence of Sylvia Plath and songwriter Liz Flynn, both of whose work I was reading at the time. Naming can mean many different things to different people! I have been interested in exploring naming as a process that provides, (initially at least), a sense of identity, belonging and way of experiencing the world. Above all, Beginnings explores the process of naming a newborn as a unique gift that embodies hope and love.
Beginnings
(Anthony Lyons)
Stars flew,
I knew -
You were here ...
Naming you ...
Little sound signatures we choose,
A compass, a candle, a lens to the world,
Threads we cast to hold each other,
You sleep gently folded ...
Now stirring with the breeze at noon,
With moist retiring eye, skin soft as moon,
You release your newest notes,
Hear the clear vowels rising like balloons ...
A...E...I...O...U
I, you, me, us, too ...
Naming you ...
Sound signatures we share,
An embodiment of hopes, of dreams
Which you shall define,
Sending forth ripples,
Soundwaves to the stars,
You release your tiny notes,
Hear the clear vowels rising like balloons ...
A...E...I...O...U
I, you, me, us, too ...
Names flew,
I knew -
You were here ...
With the naming of this heart,
May you always sleep gently folded
And grow to know the sky ...
Station 10. The circle of creation
Composer: Bryony Marks
Colossians 1:15-20; John 1
Every birth, every life, is reflected upon and interpreted. It is more than itself, it becomes part of the whole of humanity. Creation somehow moves in a cycle, a circle. We who have been born give birth, and we watch those whom we have birthed give birth too. We die and the creation continues. These texts reflect the fullness of this circle and the desire of humans to put words on it.
How do we mark and celebrate the emergent life?
How do we acknowledge the first grasp, the first sound, the first look, the first smile?
How does birth shape human hope?
What part does the divine have in the birth process?
How do we acknowledge the divine in birth?
How do we celebrate the mystery and the miracle that is birth?
How do we name birth when we know about death?
Composer's Comment:
I was going to write a piece about the birth of my boys when my friends' son died and everything changed. This is for Benji.
The Composers
Katy Abbott
Katy Abbott's work has been widely performed, recorded, awarded and published with recent performances by ensembles such as Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, Halcyon and Collision Theory. The Kiev Philharmonic Orchestra has made a recording of her symphony, Souls of Fire. She holds a PhD from the University of Melbourne where she also lectures and supervises graduate composers. Katy says of her music, "In my music, I am trying to capture the little things that make us human or happen to us because we are human. I seek to unpack the human side of life: humour, foibles, quirky things we do and say, beauty, grief and friendship".
Up-to-date information regarding performances and news is available www.katyabbott.com.
Andrew Batt-Rawden
Andrew Batt-Rawden, born in 1984, grew up in Belrose, NSW. He took up the oboe from an early age but soon discovered an affection for composition. He graduated in 2006 with a Bachelor of Music (Honours) from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music where he studied with, amongst others, Nigel Butterley, Anne Boyd, Michael Smetanin, and Damien Ricketson. In 2004 Andrew was the recipient of the John Antill Scholarship. His compositional highlights include a solo piano commission for a London-based ensemble (which incidentally served as inspiration for Chronology), an electro-acoustic string quartet premiered in Cannes, and a piece for The Song Company as part of their ModArt07 program, a performance at the Why Note Festival in Dijon, a piece for Christian Bonnelykke and his string quartet, and a commission for the inaugural opening of Ryde Argyle Arts.
In 2008 he collaborated with Dan Walker for Stations of Creation and had Les Mots premiered by Roland Peelman and Melbourne Soprano Jessica Aszodi. Also that year, Chronology premiered his string quintet Quintessence which Andrew considers his most successful work yet. Currently, Andrew is busy writing an electro-acoustic flute work for Janet McKay and, working in collaboration with choreographer Andrew Koblar, a preview of which will be premiered at Chronology's upcoming 2010 season launch. Andrew has established a presence both locally and nationally as not only a talented artist but also a business entrepreneur. He has worked previously as Project and Marketing Manager for The Song Company and is currently Sales Manager for BT Publishing, while he completes his Masters in Management at UTS. Andrew is the Managing Director and co-founder of Chronology Arts.
Corin Bone
Corin Bone is a graduate of Sydney University Arts Music Unit and Sydney Conservatorium of Music, where he studied electro-acoustic composition, ethnomusicology and popular musicology. His Honours research analysed the compositional process of experimental rock musician Captain Beefheart, and he has appropriated some of these methods in the piece composed for Stations of Creation. Corin's compositions have explored dissonance and distortion, medieval structures, and ametrical rhythmic repetition. Corin is an experienced professional singer, having performed regularly with Cantillation, the Song Company, Pinchgut Opera, and as an oratorio soloist. He also has an interest in extended vocal techniques and improvisation, which he explored as singer with the a cappella free-impro group, Ihomorpheia, and the noise-rock band Melma Hydrogen. He is Musical Director of Sydney chamber choir Polyphony, for whom he has arranged music by Radiohead, Bjork, Panda Bear and Kraftwerk. Corin teaches music and directs the choral program at Queenwood School in Mosman.
Steven Hodgson
Steven Hodgson, born in 1981, completed an Honours degree in 2004 with a major in composition and minor sequences in voice and musicology. He is currently working towards a Masters degree in composition at the University of Melbourne. Since completing the ABC Young Composers' Course in affiliation with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra whilst still at secondary school, Steven has composed a large number of works, from unaccompanied solo pieces to full orchestral scores. He has been commissioned by a number of performing artists and groups within Melbourne, including a residency with early music organisation Past Echoes, St. Paul's Cathedral, St. Peters Eastern Hill, and the Hamilton Promenade of Sacred Music.
He has had premieres and workshops of his works in Australia, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Poland and Denmark, by performers such as the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, harpsichordist Elizabeth Anderson, the Eucordos string quartet, pipe-organists Rhys Boak and Douglas Lawrence, the Choir of Ormond College, the Newman College Choir, the Australian Contemporary Chorale, the Choir of St. Paul's Cathedral (Melbourne), and e21. Steven also performs regularly as a vocalist with a number of Melbourne-based groups including the vocal ensemble e21, Astra Chamber Music Society (as bass/baritone soloist), Gloriana, and the Australian Chamber Choir. He has appeared as a bass soloist for the Bach Cantata project at St. John's, Southgate on a number of occasions. Steven currently works on music publications and written examinations as a Project Officer at the Australian Music Examinations Board. In addition, he holds the position of Music Tutor at International House at the University of Melbourne, where he is responsible for overseeing the music programme as well as tutoring students in a variety of undergraduate subjects.
Annie Hsieh
Originally from Taiwan, Annie Hsieh has spent a major part of her life in Auckland, New Zealand, before moving to Australia to being her music studies at the University of Melbourne. She spent half of her Bachelor Degree course majoring in piano with Igor Machlak, and later in 2005 was accepted into the composition course under the directions of Professor Brenton Broadstock and Dr. Stuart Greenbaum. She has a BMus with First Class Honours and has recently completed her Masters Degree in composition under the supervision of Dr. Greenbaum. Annie's works can be found on a couple of University releases including the CD Time Capsule which features her electro-acoustic work, Imagine a World without Music; a contribution to the Faculty of Music (University of Melbourne) Ern Malley Project with work for tenor and piano, Colloquy with John Keats (Lyrebird Publication); and her piano tri Murmurs which has been included in the faculty's Lunch Time Concert Series CD.
In 2008 she was the winner of The Yarra Trio Composition Award, and one of the four participants selected for the compositions programme in the 2009 Australian Youth Orchestra National Music Camp. She was accepted into the Symphony Australia Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra Composers' School in Hobart (2009) where her symphonic work Dust, Sand & Storms was performed, and next year's Melbourne Symphony Orchestra's 21st Century Cybec Composers' Programme in which she will develop a new work to be premiered by the MSO in February 2010.
Anthony Lyons
Anthony Lyons graduated from the University of Queensland, Box Hill College of Music, Victorian College of the Arts, and the University of Melbourne with Bachelor of Arts (Honours), Advanced Diploma of Music, Bachelor of Music - Composition (Honours) and Master of Music - Composition (First Class Honours). Regular performances of his new works have been performed in Australia: in 2008 at the Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, the Melba Hall, the Iwaki Auditorium, the Loop Bar, and the Forum Theatre. He composed a suite of works for the 2008 Melbourne Film Festival; composed and edited music for the Australian Synchronised Swimming Team (Beijing Olympics); was contributor/reviewer for the music journal Resonate; was composer/collaborator/performer with the act Vela at the Electrunda Audio-Visual Festival 2007; composed the orchestral work The Surge, The Sounds, The Pull for the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra; released the original electro-acoustic compositions on the Leaf CD in 2007; and composed the music for the SBS Television's World Tales Art Project for the animated short film Ming in 2006.
Earlier composition and project experience include The Sound House, When the Magpies Raised the Sun, the Beeware Project, Interstices, music for the Forest Canopy at the Melbourne Museum, and an original composition for the Nobel Laureate Jose Ramos Horta. He was awarded the Keith and Elizabeth Travelling Fellowship for Music (2005/2006), the Frank Bosch Magpie Research Commission (2004), the Alan C. Rose Memorial Project Grant (2004), First Prize in Australia's Fellowship for Music (2005/2006), First Prize in Australia's Darebin Music Festival Songwriting Competition (2002), and First Prize in the VCA/University of Melbourne Quip Quip Competition (2001, 2002 and 2004). Anthony has been a casual staff member at the Victorian College of the Arts School of Music (VCA) since 2006.
Bryony Marks
Bryony Marks composes score for film, television and theatre productions as well as concert works. In 1996 she completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Music Composition for Film and Television with First Class Honours from the University of Melbourne's Conservatorium of Music. In 2001 she attended the inaugural Australian National Academy of Music Composers' Programme, taking classes with Professor Simon Bainbridge, Head of Composition at the Royal Academy of Music in London, and Karen Tanaka formerly of IRCAM, Paris. In addition to several scores for theatre, Bryony has composed music for some 20 student and short films. She has also received commissions for 15 works for chamber orchestra, including three string quartets, a quintet and a sextet, an opera excerpt, and a one-hour chamber opera.
In 2004 she was invited to participate in the Song Company and the Australian Music Centre's MODART05. In 2005 she composed the music for Chris Lilley's award-winning series for ABC TV, We Can Be Heroes. In 2007 she worked with him again on Summer Heights High (ABC TV). She also composed the music for the television feature, The King (based on the life of Graham Kennedy), and Matthew Saville's debut feature film Noise. Most recently, Bryony collaborated with Roger Mason on the music for SBS's new brand identity, delivering more than 200 individual pieces for on-air, radio, and internet.
Ruth McCall
Ruth McCall studied music at the Elder Conservatorium in Adelaide, where she also performed with the Adelaide Girls Choir and the Adelaide Chamber Singers. She holds an Associate Diploma in piano performance, and has always been interested in chamber and ensemble music. Ruth joined the Song Company in 1996, where she currently sings soprano, leading her to perform in concert venues across Australia as well as international music festivals, specialising in the fields of early and contemporary music. Most recently, in September this year she performed with the Song Company in the Flanders Music Festival in Ghent, Belgium. Ruth also serves as a volunteer in community projects in association with St Barnabas Anglican Church on Broadway, Sydney. She has recently begun deriving great pleasure in writing arrangements and original compositions for voices.
Alex Pozniak
Alex Pozniak (born 1982) has recently completed a Masters in Musical Composition at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, under the guidance of Matthew Hindson. Working with composers Anne Boyd, Nicholas Routley, and Ian Shanahan during his undergraduate years at the University of Sydney (beginning in 2000), Alex went on to obtain First Class Honours and the University Medal in 2005. Alongside his music studies, he completed a BA in which he studied philosophy, psychology, and art history and theory, whilst majoring in English literature. He has had works performed by the Ku-ring-gai Philharmonic Orchestra, the Bourbaki Ensemble, the Sydney Symphony Fellows, the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Kammer, the Song Company and in workshop by the Arditti Quartet. He co-founded Chronology Arts with Andrew Batt-Rawden, of which he is Artistic Director, and is also a committee member of the Fellowship of Australian Composers and the New Music Network. He is Associate Lecturer at the Arts Music Unit at the University of Sydney, teaching Composition and 20th Century Music Techniques.
Dan Walker
Composer, arranger and performer, Dan Walker is quickly building a reputation as one of Australia's most promising young artists. He has had works commissioned and performed by such groups as the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the Song Company, Gondwana Voices, Queensland Youth Choir, the Murrumbidgee Symphony Orchestra, and the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs. In 2003 Dan was the Sydney Children's Choir Composer-in-Residence and in that year also created new choral arrangements of the National Anthems for the Rugby World Cup. Dan has written several works incorporating digital media that received performances at the La Boite theatre, Brisbane and the Queensland Conservatorium of Music.
In 2008 Dan composed the Aftermath, a major work for the World Shakuhachi Festival Gala Concert, and was commissioned to write new music for the World Youth Day papal welcome, broadcast worldwide. Other recent work includes: The Silurian, commissioned by Jane Sheldon and Peter Godfrey-Smith, and premiered by the Boston-based Firebird Ensemble as part of The Origin cycle; Hopes and Dreams, written as part of the Australian National Day celebrations at the 2005 World Expo in Nagoya Japan; as well as various orchestral and choral arrangements for ABC Classics. Dan has been Composer-in-Residence at the 2006-08 Moorambilla festivals, held in Coonamble. He is the current Assistant Conductor for Sydney Children's Choir and Gondwana Voices, touring with both groups regularly. As a performer, Dan is a regular member of Cantillation, Pinchgut Opera, and a guest member of the Song Company and the Opera Australia Chorus.
The Musicians
Belinda Jezek - 1st Violin
After her early studies in violin with Gillian McIntyre in Canberra, Belinda went on to complete her Bachelor of Music degree studying with Vincent Edwards at the Canberra School of Music. Graduate studies followed with Alice Waten at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, culminating in a Graduate Diploma of Music and the Zelma Oakley Dineley Scholarship for an outstanding post-graduate student. Continuing her studies with Alice Waten, she completed her Master of Arts (Performance) degree at the Australian Institute of Music. Belinder performs regularly with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Australian Chamber Orchestra, The Queensland Orchestra and the West Australian Symphony Orchestra.
Belinda's love for chamber music led her to form the Tohzah Piano Trio which provided a platform for varied performance and study opportunities throughout Australia and overseas. The ensemble were recipients of a Queens Trust Award and an Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust Scholarship. They studied and performed at the Banff Centre for the Arts, Canada and at the renowned International Musicians Seminar Prussia Cove in England. They participated in numerous chamber music programs Australia-wide through the Australian National Academy of Music, and recorded for ABC FM Young Australia. This piano trio was included in the Musica Viva Countrywide roster and they launched the Musica Viva Australia Menage Series of chamber music concerts in both Melbourne and Sydney. The ensemble competed in the Inaugural and second Melbourne National Chamber Music competitions, with their performances broadcast live for ABC-FM where they won the ABC-FM Listeners' Choice Award. Tohzah also appeared as guest artists at the International Canberra Chamber Music Festival and were guest soloists in Beethoven's Triple Concerto with the Willoughby Symphony Orchestra. Belinda is active as a teacher and mentor. She has taught chamber music at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music High School and has held a part-time teaching position at the Australian Institute of Music. Belinda continues to teach at her own private violin studio. In January of each year, she is the co-ordinator and conductor for the Nelson Cooke Orchestra at the Riverina Summer School for Strings.
Anna Albert - 2nd Violin
Anna Albert was born in Sydney, Australia. She began violin studies at the age of 5, which she continued in Sydney until the completion of her BMus in Violin Performance at the University of Sydney. She then furthered her study in Montreal at McGill University where she completed a Licenciate in Music. Since returning to Australia in 2004 Anna has worked as a freelance violinist. She performs regularly with the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra and has also performed with the Sydney Symphony and Sydney Philharmonia Orchestras.
Isidore Tillers - Viola
Isidore Tillers graduated with First Class Honours from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music in 2008. As a soloist she has performed in master classes for Nobuko Imai, Laurent Verney and Roger Benedict and as part of a string quartet for members of ensembles such as the Elias, Goldner, Jerusalem, Juliard, Grainger and Australian String Quartets, and the Eggner Trio. She is a member of the Australian Youth Orchestra, the Orchestra of Antipodes, Sydney Sinfonia, and Sydney Camberata, and has also performed with the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs ensembles, Sydney Chamber Choir, and the Pacific Opera Company.
Patrick Murphy - Violoncello
Patrick Murphy is the cellist of Nexus-2MBS Virtuosi and the Whiteley Trio, and performs regularly with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. He was formerly the cellist of the Grainger Quartet and the Tankstream Quartet (now Australian String Quartet), with whom he was the winner of the 2001 National Chamber Music Competition and the 2002 Osaka International Chamber Music Competition, as well as performing at the Royal Wedding in Denmark in 2004. Patrick is heavily involved in education, teaching in the Rising Stars programme at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and tutoring for the Sydney Youth Orchestra. He was also a tutor at the Australian Youth Orchestra's National Music Camp in 2009.
Tim Brigden - Vibraphone
Percussionist Tim Brigden is a recent graduate of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Having completed the Bachelor course in 2006, Tim returned to the Conservatorium to pursue further study in the field of orchestral performance, studying with the Principal Timpanist of the Sydney Symphony, Richard Miller and the Chair of Percussion Daryl Pratt. In addition to his involvement with the Conservatorium's ensembles, he has participated in the SSO training scheme Sinfonia, and has been a member of the Australian Youth Orchestra. This orchestra's Fiftieth Anniversary Tour to Europe was a highlight for Tim, performing in such prestigious venues as the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and Berlin Konzerthaus. He has performed with the Eminence Orchestra, Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra, the Sydney Symphony and the Auckland Philharmonic in New Zealand. Tim's musical interests go beyond the orchestra, being an avid Jazz fan and also a closet Classical guitarist. Indeed another musical highlight was to tour with James Morrison and the Onfire Big Band. He is a member of the Jazzgroove Association and also of the Sydney Classical Guitar Society. Contemporary chamber music performance is another of Tim's musical endeavours, including collaborations with ensembles as diverse as the Nexus saxophone quartet, and Shakuhatchi player Lindsay Dugan with a string trio, piano and percussion. A highlight for Tim during his time as a student was the Australian premiere of Steve Reich's Daniel Variations in collaboration with the Halcyon ensemble. Tim was also thrilled to have the opportunity to perform as soloist with the Conservatorium Orchestra as winner of the Percussion Concerto Competition in 2007.
Jacob Abela - Piano
Jacob Abela is in his first year and is a scholarship recipient at the Sydney Conservatorium, studying with Stephanie McCallum. A keen advocate for contemporary music, he has performed in such events as Kammerklang in May 2009, the Stockhausen Licht Festival in June, the world premiere of the chamber ensemble version of Mr Tambourine Man by Academy Award winning composer John Corigliano in September, and Volta, a concert of chamber works by upcoming composers. Future performance engagements include Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring with Sue Powell in January 2010, and as repetiteur and orchestral pianist in Sydney University Opera Company's 2010 production of Britten's Turn of the Screw. Jacob has also been involved in the Australian Youth Orchestra's National Music Camp 2009, performing Stravinsky's Petrushka, and will also attend the National Music Camp and Chamber Music Camp in 2010. In demand as an accompanist and chamber musician, Jacob recently performed the Sextet for Piano and Winds by Poulenc at the Elder Hall, Adelaide. Interested in non-standard keyboard instruments, Jacob has commissioned works for toy piano and prepared piano.
Geoffrey Gartner - Conductor
Geoffrey Gartner has performed all over the world in places as diverse as the Gobi Desert, on ships at sea and hundreds of feet underground in caves. He is a versatile performer, comfortable appearing on stage as a cellist, conductor and performance artist. Heis also active as a freelance writer, and regularly works as a concert reviewer for the Australian Music Centre's magazine Resonate. As a musicologist, Geoffrey specialises in the American experimental scene with a particular emphasis on Fluxus and Intermedia. He also has a titanium disc in his neck. A committed advocate of the avant-garde, Geoffrey has premiered countless pieces, and enjoyed working relationships with many leading composers. He regularly performs with many of Australia's elite contemporary music ensembles, including Halcyon, Libra Ensemble, Aphids and Elision and was a founding member of Ensemble Offspring. Most recently he has taken up the position of Conductor of Chronology Arts. Geoffrey recently returned to live in Sydney after completing his Doctorate, majoring in contemporary music performance, at the University of California, San Diego.
The Singers
Halcyon
Founded in 1998 by singers Alison Morgan and Jenny Duck-Chong, Halcyon is the only Australian Ensemble dedicated to the performance of new and recent music for voice and instruments. Halcyon draws together some of Australia's most esteemed chamber soloists, conductors and singers, in diverse programmes of chamber music from across the globe. Adventurous and sophisticated programming makes every Halcyon performance a dynamic musical experience and an opportunity to hear a wide range of music by living composers, with a special commitment to performing Australian works. Halcyon has developed a core group of singers and instrumentalists but is flexible in its personnel, utilising a varied collective of players for each project. 2007, Halcyon was instrumental in mounting one of the most exciting and well attended new music performances on the Sydney event calendar, when it joined with Synergy and Ensemble Offspring to present Tehillim alongside works by Ligeti, Vivier and a new commission by Australian Damien Ricketson. Projects for 2008 included performances at the Four Winds Festival (Bermagui) and the Aurora Festival (Western Sydney), a celebratory performance to mark the ensemble's 10th Birthday and a CD release, Cool Black, featuring the music of award winning composer Rosalind Page. In 2009, Halcyon has performed Reich's Tehillim at the Melbourne Recital Centre, appeared at the Canberra International Chamber Music Festival and for Musica Viva and in the House Music series at Government House Sydney. In their own 2009 series, Halcyon premiered new commissions by Australian composers Nicholas Vines and Andrew Ford.
Alison Morgan
Soprano Alison Morgan is one of Australia's foremost interpreters of contemporary vocal music. As well as co-directing and performing with Halcyon, she has performed as a soloist with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, The Australian Ballet, Pinchgut Opera, The Song Company, Ensemble Offspring, and Cantillation with whom she has featured in numerous recording projects for ABC Classics. As co-artistic director of Halcyon, Alison has been instrumental in commissioning and performing a wealth of new Australian chamber music, most recently premiering the works of Australian composers Rosalind Page, Katy Abbott, Kevin March, Nigel Butterley, Graham Hair and Dan Walker. She gave the first performance of the song cycle Sonetos del amor oscuro by Sydney composer Rosalind Page in 2004, which went on to win the Paul Low in Song Cycle Prize, and features on Halcyon's CD, Cool Black. Solo performances of new music in 2008 included George Crumb's Ancient Voices of Children for Halcyon's 10th Birthday Concert in 2008, Gavin Bryars' Adnan Songbook and Damien Ricketson's A Line has Two with Ensemble Offspring at the Canberra International Chamber Music Festival. This year Alison makes appearances with Halcyon at the Melbourne Recital Centre in Steve Reich's Tehillim at the Canberra Chamber Music Festival and in concert in Sydney with new commissions by Nick Vines, Raf Marcellino and Andrew Ford.
Jenny Duck-Chong
Mezzo soprano Jenny Duck-Chong has established herself as a versatile musician and is sought after by Sydney's finest vocal ensembles. She has performed extensively with Opera Australia, Pinchgut Opera, The Song Company and Cantillation. Renowned for her dramatic portrayals of tragic heroines, such as Purcell's Dido, Monteverdi's Arianna and Britten's Phaedra, as well as her formidable performances of contemporary works such as Ligeti's Sippal, Dobbal, Nahigeduvel, Macmillan's Raising Sparks, Benjamin's Upon Silence and Berio's Folksongs, she has been a featured soloist with ensembles as varied as the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, Sydney Baroque, Ensemble Offspring, the Renaissance Players and the Kevin Hunt Jazz Trio. Performance highlights have included Bach's Christmas Oratorio with Jane Glover and the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs and Orchestra, Gubaidulina's Now Always Snow with Reinbert de Leeuw, the Sydney Symphony and Cantillation, and Berio's Sinfonia with Kevin Field, the Song Company and the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra in Malaysia. Active in the field of new music, Jenny is the Secretary of the New Music Network and the co-founder of acclaimed new music ensemble Halcyon, premiering numerous Australian and international works by both acclaimed and emerging composers including Anne Boyd, Nigel Butterley, Ross Edwards, Graham Hair, Elliott Gyger, Rosalind Page, Gillien Whitehead, Kaija Saariaho, Michael Berkeley, Michael Finnissy, Gabriel Erkoreka, Sally Beamish, Melissa Hui and Kerry Andrew. She has featured as a soloist for ABC Classics and Walsingham as well as in several film and TV scores and numerous other recordings with Cantillation, The Song Company, and Halcyon's own recordings.