PO Box 806 Crows Nest NSW 1585 Sydney, Australia

MEDIA RELEASE _ September 2014

"Lyle Chan's string quartet is a very ambitious work born out of a seemingly endless plague. Its composer has taken his experiences of living through the enormous tragedy of AIDS and from them has molded a serious and deeply felt work of art.” – John Corigliano (renowned Oscar, Grammy and Pulitzer-winning composer)

Unique memoir in music revealed by AIDS activist A string quartet lasting one-and-a-half hours, written by one of Australia’s leading AIDS activists during the peak of the epidemic, received its long-awaited premiere in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane in July, and is now available on CD.

String Quartet: An AIDS Activist’s Memoir was sketched in the crisis years 1991-1996, but only completed some 20 years later.

Lyle Chan – today an acclaimed composer whose works have been performed by soprano Taryn Fiebig, pianist Simon Tedeschi, Sydney Philharmonia Choir, the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and even the Hon. Bob Carr – interrupted his life as a musician in order to be an AIDS activist. Between 1991-1996, he and fellow activists couriered AIDS treatments from the US that were unavailable here, fiercely lobbied federal government to approve experimental treatments more quickly, and collaborated with drug companies to design clinical trials of promising new treatments.

The composer says, “I saw AIDS transformed from a frightening, near-universally fatal illness to what it is today, a chronic manageable condition. This transformation took place within a mere two decades of identifying HIV. In the history of medicine, there had never been progress made at such speed.”

“This progress came out of an unprecedented cooperation between three groups normally wary of each other: the patient community, the medical and pharmaceutical researchers, and the government regulators.”

“During those years, I’d given up music to be an activist. But a composer is always a composer. I still sketched a lot of music. The music were my diaries, a way of writing down feelings. As a composer I think of music as the sound that feelings make.”

The 90-minute work is a tour-de-force of emotionally powerful music, sometimes agitated, sometimes tender, but always moving. It contains portraits of famous activist friends now dead, and unusual effects to recall street demonstrations by ACT UP, the direct action protest group of which Chan was a core member.

www.cinqueartistmanagement.com ABN 79 826 076 450

Chan’s String Quartet is part of an unintentional movement to document the ‘plague years’. Recently, many artistic and documentary have been made of the epidemic, including two major film documentaries about ACT UP in New York, and the major Hollywood movie Dallas Buyers Club about ‘drug runners’ for unapproved AIDS drugs.

PERFORMANCES Brisbane: 5 July 2014, Music by the Sea, Sandgate Town Hall Sydney: 18 July 2014, Eugene Goossens Hall, ABC Ultimo (broadcast live on ABC Classic FM) Melbourne: 23 July 2014 (excerpts) Ian Potter Centre, National Gallery of Victoria, introduced by the Hon. Michael Kirby Melbourne: 23 July 2014 (excerpts) International AIDS Conference 2014, Melbourne Convention Centre Melbourne: 24 July 2014, Melbourne Recital Centre (Salon)

REVIEWS In The Age: “a triumph… Sometimes words cannot adequately describe what one witnesses” In Limelight Magazine: “The Acacia Quartet have a wonderful sound.. Chan’s narration was tinged with hindsight, revision, contemplation… from the perspective of a man who knows our existence for the frail object it is and sees the delicate beauty in that. Chan’s music comes from a much rawer place. The injustices feel fresh and the moments of delicate reflection are limited by experience, save for the bittersweet opener In September The Light Changes – an undeniable highlight of the suite” In ClassikOn: “four extraordinary musicians gave it everything they had... It was playing of the highest order”

LINKS Listen to live recording of ‘ In September the light changes’ on The Music Show, ABC Radio National www.lylechan.com www.acaciaquartet.com www.vexations840.com

Double CD available - in various formats - at www.acaciaquartet.com/75/recordings/

For all media and performance enquiries please contact: Jacqueline Thomas-Piccardi cinque artist management T: (+612) 9929 2978 | E: [email protected]

Lyle Chan, composer Lyle Chan's compositions have been performed by a diverse range of musicians, including the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, soprano Taryn Fiebig, the choir Cantillation, Sydney Philharmonia Choir, the New Sydney Wind Quintet, Acacia Quartet, flautist Jane Rutter, pianist Simon Tedeschi, saxophonist Michael Duke and conductor Shalev Ad-El, amongst others. His most well-known work is Rendezvous With Destiny for narrator and chamber ensemble, commissioned by the Art Gallery Society of NSW for performance by the Hon. Bob Carr, former NSW Premier and Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs.

Lyle Chan holds a Bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin, Madison where he studied under Conrad Pope, J.Peter Burkholder and the Pro Arte String Quartet. He spent over a decade at ABC Classics as Artists, Repertoire and Marketing Manager. During the AIDS epidemic, he was a core member of ACT UP, and ran the 'buyers club' for underground drugs at the AIDS Council.

In addition to being a composer, he is a fully-qualified neurolinguistic coach and hypnotist (Master Practitioner and Trainer) and passionately pursues personal growth for himself and others. His 'adventures' in personal growth frequently form the basis for his musical compositions.

www.cinqueartistmanagement.com ABN 79 826 076 450

Acacia Quartet Founded in 2010 by violinists Lisa Stewart and Myee Clohessy, violist Stefan Duwe and cellist Anna Martin- Scrase, Acacia Quartet has quickly won great respect for their versatile and inventive programs which often couple established repertoire with the unorthodox. In 2013, Acacia was nominated for both an ARIA Award and an APRA-AMCOS Art Music Award. Their performances feature regularly on ABC Classic FM, Fine Music 102.5 and Qantas In-flight Entertainment.

In just four years Acacia has released as many albums, including their ARIA-nominated recording of songs with soprano Jane Sheldon, North + South, and the complete string quartets of Elena Kats-Chernin, Blue Silence (Vexations840), selected as 'Editor's Choice' in Limelight Magazine and 'CD of the Week' on ABC Classic FM and nominated for a 2013 APRA-AMCOS Art Music Award.

In addition to their special relationship with composers Elena Kats- Chernin and Lyle Chan, Acacia has collaborated with composers Eric Whitacre, Gordon Kerry, Joe Chindamo, Joe Twist, Moya Henderson and Jeremy Rose. Acacia's collaborations with performers to date also include singer-songwriter Katie Noonan, vocal ensemble Halcyon, saxophonists Michael Duke and Nick Russoniello, flautist Jane Rutter, and ARIA Award-winning pianist and composer, Sally Whitwell.

In 2013 and 2014, Acacia's engagements have included at Melbourne Recital Centre, The Concourse in Sydney, the National Gallery of Victoria, Woodend Winter Arts Festival, Peninsula Summer Music Festival, Bellingen Music Festival, and for Music by the Sea and Four Winds, along with live broadcasts on ABC Classic FM and Fine Music 102.5FM.

“Sometimes words can fail to adequately describe what one witnesses... the Acacia Quartet illustrated each movement with an incredible depth of understanding” - The Age / Sydney Morning Herald, 2014 (Lyle Chan String Quartet)

“Lyle Chan's string quartet Mark and Adrian are her sons derived its subject matter from the personal circumstances of one of the composer's adversaries during his years of AIDS activism. Drawn from a longer work, the sections played here moved from a shimmering radiant texture to a section of gentle raunch, closing with a melodic violin duo blending intense radiance and serenity as though modelled on moments from Beethoven's late slow movements. The Acacia Quartet played not only with polished balance, but drew listeners in. This is a young group… on the ascendancy.” - Sydney Morning Herald, 2013

www.cinqueartistmanagement.com ABN 79 826 076 450