School of Communication Arts, University of Western Sydney presents Creative Explosion in the West: 2009 Creative Arts Festival Festival Information Creative Explosion Festival Team Coordinator: Bruce Crossman Advisory Committee: Michael Atherton, Hart Cohen, Diana Blom, John Encarnacao, Clare Maclean, Claire Edwardes and Damien Ricketson Technical Team: Ian Stevenson, Mitchell Hart, Petar Jovanov, Adrian Barr Administration: Jenny Purcell, Sandra Wantuch, Robyn Mercer, Helen Angelakis Creative Explosion Publicity: Danielle Roddick, Martin Francis, Frank Davey, Michael Macken Partners: Ensemble Offspring, Wirripang, University of Western Sydney Contents Creative Explosion Festival Overview.......................................................................................................................................2 About.............................................................................................................................................3 Featured Artists...........................................................................................................................4 Creative Explosion 1—New Minds.........................................................................................6 Creative Explosion 2—East & West Confluences..............................................................6 Creative Explosion 3—Intercultural & Performative Confluences....................................6 Full Program.................................................................................................................................7 Composers, Filmmakers, Performers, Poets & Presenters.............................................11 1 Creative Explosion Overview Creative Explosion in the West: Communication Arts Multi-Disciplinary Festival 14-23 October 2009 The School of Communication Arts (UWS) • 23 Oct: Intercultural & Performative presents ‘Creative Explosion in the West’, a multi- Confluences—6 Short films & My Tehran for disciplinary festival and forums for the General Sale Public, Staff, School-based Honours and Higher Degree Research (HDR) candidates as well as Contextual Concerts undergraduates. • 22 Oct: Clocked In (Poetry-Improvisation Jam) • 22 Oct: Intercultural Bassoon (Lecture-Concert) The events will be held on the 14, 15, 16, 21, 22 and 23 October 2009 on the Penrith • 22 Oct: Korean Samulnori & Improvisation Campus (The Playhouse, The Performance • 16 Oct: Music Project Performance 1 Space, Kingswood and Building BJ, Werrington • 23 Oct: Music Project Performance 2 South). It features leading new music group Ensemble Offspring interacting with the rich Workshops knowledge Diaspora and improvising traditions characteristic of Western Sydney, especially the • 14 Oct: Music Project Workshops 1 Korean, Philippine and Japanese traditions in • 21 Oct: Music Project Workshops 2 2009. Scholarship Creative Explosion in the West is partnering Performance Space (Kingswood) & BJ with the University of Western Sydney’s School (Werrington South): of Communication Arts in a composition and • 15 Oct: Reflective-Practice Forum 1 performing arts mentoring project for students • 22 Oct: Reflective-Practice Forum 2 and staff of UWS exploring intercultural interaction and improvising traditions within • 23 Oct: Vision-Sound Forum 1 contemporary classical music. • 23 Oct: Vision-Sound Forum 2 The following events will be featured at The The documentation will include a Wirripang Playhouse, Performance Space & Café-Bar: commercial compact disc release and television documentary by the School of Communication Arts. Creative Explosions • 15 Oct: New Minds Concert—Ensemble The festival features a professional concert Offspring by Ensemble Offspring with Claire Edwardes • 22 Oct: East & West Confluences Concert- and Dr Damien Ricketson participating in Panel—Ensemble Offspring associated events. 2 About Creative Explosion in the West The creative aesthetic behind this project is The festival will feature concerts by Ensemble to have a strong intercultural focus featuring Offspring with UWS staff and postgraduate Asia-Pacific traditions of Korean samul students with Workshops, Panels and nori drumming, Filipino kulintang percussion, Forums including two invited speakers, Claire Japanese shakuhachi ‘moment’ aesthetic and Edwardes and Dr. Damien Ricketson from East Asian string techniques (Korea, Japan, Ensemble Offspring. The performers will include China) interacting with contemporary music. pianist Zubin Kanga (London), percussionist The trajectory from modern violin through to Claire Edwardes, violinist James Cuddeford Chinese erhu and Korean kayageum techniques and clarinettist Jason Noble. The festival is a interacting within contemporary composition practice-based research project. Participation will be used to engage audiences. The sound of in the festival is open to all and is an important Asia-Pacific gongs (Korea, China, Philippines) feature of research training offered by the School intersecting with modern percussion as an of Communication Arts. enlargement of the contemporary music tradition in performance and composition will be another Dr Bruce Crossman angle. Finally the use of the reed membrane Creative Explosion Coordinator/ and coloured breath from Western clarinet to Senior Lecturer, Music Japanese shakuhachi exploring the ‘single-note’ School of Communication Arts aesthetic of East Asia within contemporary composition and improvisation will form a focus. This will be contextualised by poetry readings and improvisation, a series of intercultural ethnographical films, and panel and forum presentations. 3 Featured Artists Individual Artists “... responsible for some Damien Ricketson of the most innovative and Artistic Director & Composer adventurous programs currently heard in Sydney” Damien Ricketson (Sydney Morning Herald) is a composer and the Artistic Director of Ensemble Offspring. Much of Damien’s music has been performed, and received critical acclaim through Ensemble Offspring as well as performances by many internationally renowned ensembles. Damien’s music is fragile and otherworldly Ensemble Offspring – characterised by unusual timbres, exotic pitches and intricate textures. Recent composition commissions have Ensemble Offspring represents a diverse included the prestigious Warsaw Autumn collection of Sydney’s most talented young Festival, the Transit Festival (Belgium), the musicians. All the musicians have individual Grainger Quartet and ABC Classic FM. careers, performing in a range of contexts as Damien completed a PhD at the Sydney international soloists, in the major orchestras Conservatorium where he also teaches. and in rock bands. When the musicians come together as Ensemble Offspring, they Website: www.curiousnoise.com are committed to trying out new ways of making music. The ensemble embraces a wide variety of progressive repertoire from wild improvisation to meticulous complexity and has a particular focus on experimental and interdisciplinary presentations. Ensemble Offspring is noted for its development of interdisciplinary projects. The ensemble has been featured twice as part of the Sydney Film Festival where they presented new music to accompany classic experimental films, while in programs such as ‘The Imaginary Opera Project’ and ‘Light is Calling’ the ensemble produced new works in collaboration with video artists. 4 Claire Edwardes Jason Noble Artistic Director & Clarinet Percussion Jason Noble is a Percussionist, Claire freelance clarinettist Edwardes, is a specialising in leading interpreter of contemporary contemporary classical repertoire. He music and the Associate has performed at Artistic Director of Ensemble Offspring. Recent prestigious festivals such as the Warsaw career highlights include concertos with the Autumn, Aldeburgh (UK), Sydney Spring Radio Chamber Orchestra (The Netherlands), Festival, and Sydney Film Festival. As both Melbourne Symphony and The Queensland a soloist and chamber musician Jason Orchestra as well as solo festival appearances has appeared with Ensemble Offspring, at the Huddersfield Festival of Contemporary Sonic Art Ensemble, Halcyon Ensemble, Music (UK) and the Australian Festival of Synergy, and Sydney Childrens Choir. He Chamber Music (Townsville). In 2007 she was also teaches in the Musicology faculty at the awarded an AMC/APRA award for outstanding Sydney Conservatorium of Music. contribution to Australian music, in 2005 she was the recipient of the MCA Freedman Fellowship and in 1999 she was named Zubin Kanga Australian Young Performer of the Year. Piano Website: www.claireedwardes.com Born in Sydney, Zubin Kanga was educated at Sydney Grammar James Cuddeford School, where he Violin first developed his love of performing, James Cuddeford composing and studying contemporary has performed music. He has premiered many new works throughout Europe, by young composers (including Daniel Asia and Australia Rojas, Cyrus Meurant and Alexander as both a soloist and Pozniak) as well as established composers chamber musician. He (including George Benjamin, Michael has performed concertos with orchestras Finnissy, Howard Skempton and Michael including the Camerata Lysy Switzerland, Smetanin). He performs with some of BBC Scottish National, Hong Kong Australia’s leading new music ensembles: Sinfonietta, Queensland, Adelaide and AARK, Halcyon, Sonic Art Ensemble and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras. As a Ensemble Offspring. He has also performed chamber musician he performed with the with the Conservatorium Modern