Ensemble Offspring showcases the sheer virtuosity of its musicians in an evening of works inspired by the uncompromising power and aural intensity of a true revolutionary.

The music of architect, mathematician and composer Iannis Xenakis, has been described as ‘joyously elemental music which turns collections of pitches and rhythms into a force of nature’ (Tom Service). It’s also fiendishly difficult.

Claire Edwardes (percussion), Véronique Serret (violin) and Zubin Kanga (piano) each present seminal works by Xenakis – Rebonds A/B, Mikka, Mikka S and Evryali – alongside Elizabeth Younan’s Electors of Middlemarch, written especially for Claire, and newly commissioned solos by Berlin-based Australian, Cathy Milliken, and Sydney composer, Michael Smetanin.

PERFORMANCES

December 4, 7pm , Track 8, Carriageworks
$35 + booking fee
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PROGRAM

Iannis Xenakis – Rebonds (1989) for percussion 13’
Iannis Xenakis – Mikka/Mikka S (1971/76) for violin 4’
Iannis Xenakis – Evryali (1973) for piano 9’5
Elizabeth Younan – Electors of Middlemarch (2018) for drum set up & voice solo 8’
Cathy Milliken – Crie (2018) for violin solo (World Premiere) 8’
Michael Smetanin – Four Angels (2018) for piano solo (World Premiere) 8’

PERFORMERS

Véronique Serret (violin)
Claire Edwardes (percussion)
Zubin Kanga (piano)

Tickets £12 (£9 concession / online)

Zubin Kanga piano
Nicholas Moroz electronics

Alexander Schubert WIKI-PIANO.NET
Scott McLaughlin In the unknown there is already a script for transcendence World Premiere
Claudia Molitor You touched the twinkle on the helix of my ear
Nicole Lizée Scorsese Etudes World Premiere
Christopher Fox Five characters in search of a form World Premiere

Australian-born pianist Zubin Kanga is a seasoned interpreter of iconic works by contemporary music’s leading composers. In this fascinating concert, he will perform premieres by established and emerging artists alike, supplementing his piano with a series of disruptive makeshift instruments. Scored for magnetic resonators, cameras, body microphones and live editing from the public, these pieces hinge on discrepancy and contingency, offering a probing and political concert exploring composing as a radical action of confrontation.

Produced by hcmf//

Please note: this concert includes images from films featuring stylised violence.

Alexander Schubert WIKI-PIANO.NET
Zubin Kanga Dead Leaves
Tristan Coelho Rhythm City (World Premiere)
Claudia Molitor You Touched the Twinkle on the Helix of my Ear 
Adam de la Cour Transplant the Movie 2!: Operation ‘Re-Rise’ Dark Return 

Pianist Zubin Kanga performs innovative works by composers extending the piano with multimedia.

Leading German composer, Alexander Schubert’s new work features a website that allows the public to compose the score, just like a Wikipedia article, creating a constantly evolving work that explores internet culture.  Get involved at wiki-piano.net   Tristan Coelho combines everyday sounds and visuals from the city with video game-style control in the world premiere of this theatrical, funky work. Claudia Molitor uses film of her own hands, as well as film of Venice and pebbles from Brighton Beach to explore the composer’s role as puppet master. Zubin Kanga uses paper and electronics to create cascades of sound and Adam de la Cour builds on the success of his horror-inspired work Transplant the Movie! with this sequel, riffing off genre tropes of 1980s action and spy movies.

In a performance featuring selected pieces from their new NMC Recordings album, In the Theatre of Air, the Marsyas Trio celebrate the works of living women composers in concert, conversation and film.

Featured will be Judith Weir, the first ever female to be appointed Master of the Queen’s Music, Welsh composer Hilary Tann, whose music is inspired by nature and infused with elements of traditional Japanese music, and the thoughtful prose of Scottish-born Thea Musgrave, who celebrates her 90th birthday in 2018 and recently received the Queens medal for music. Rising stars who represent the future of musical innovation are Georgia Rodgers and Laura Bowler, whose unique language aims to inspire today’s audiences.

The concert finishes with an unforgettable cross-arts performance of music with live shadow puppetry by the amazing Smoking Apples company. Join us after for a drinks reception with the performers and composers.

Shards of sound and jagged rhythms envelop your ears and tickle your feet as Ensemble Offspring brings to life the wild and uncompromising squiggles of local composers Alex Pozniak, Tristan Coelho and Holly Harrison.

With sound worlds so distinctive, we needed to coin a new name for their music. We’re calling it “Spectral Tech”. The virtuosic musicians of Ensemble Offspring get down and dirty with these three premieres alongside an ensemble favourite, Thirteen Colours of the Setting Sun, by French spectralist, Tristan Murail. Roland Peelman conducts for this immersive sound sensation at the Sydney Conservatorium.

PERFORMANCES

September 29, 7pm, Music Workshop, Sydney Conservatorium

Spectral Tech Program

Listen to the ABC broadcast here.

PROGRAM

Tristan Coelho – A line is a dot that went for a walk for vibraphone (World Premiere) 10’
Holly Harrison – Bend/Boogie/Break for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, percussion, piano (World Premiere) 10’
Alex Pozniak – En Masse for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, percussion, piano (World Premiere) 20’
Tristan Murail – Thirteen Colours of the Setting Sun (1978) for flute, clarinet, piano, violin, cello 13’

PERFORMERS

Roland Peelman (conductor)
Véronique Serret (violin)
Rowena Macneish (cello)
Claire Edwardes (percussion)
Zubin Kanga (piano)
Jason Noble (clarinet)
Lamorna Nightingale (flute)

CRITICAL ACCLAIM

“When it comes to championing new music, Ensemble Offspring walks the walk.”

“In a music industry that can often feel impenetrable — most of all for marginalised voices — its mission is not just honourable, but essential. In other words, it is not just doing the right thing, it is doing what’s necessary for the survival of new music in Australia.”

“…But there was more than an ounce of individual brilliance in there, too. All backed by a different, static light display, and impeccably presented by the ensemble, the compositional nuances in each work were really allowed to shine.”

[On Alex Pozniak’s En Masse]: “The players were completely concentrated on those interplays from start to finish. From Jason Noble’s expressive interjections on the clarinet to Edwardes’ exacting work on percussion, En Masse was a taut, energising experience…The creation of work untranslatable into genre confines is essential to maintaining the spirit of innovation intrinsic to new music – the same spirit that Ensemble Offspring embraces and does so very much with.”

Mark Bosch, Cut Common

ROOMS OF ELSINORE

PROGRAM

Timothy Florence Death and the Child for solo viola with offstage piano
Elliott Gyger New Work for viola and piano (World Premiere)
Lisa Illean Terrain Vague for viola and piano (World Premiere)
Zubin Kanga New Work for piano, electronics with viola solo (World Premiere)
Brett Dean Rooms of Elsinore for viola and piano (Australian premiere)

ARTISTS

Brett Dean viola
Zubin Kanga piano

VENUE

Level 1

TIME

7.30pm-8.30pm

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In this recital, two of Australia’s leading musicians, Brett Dean and Zubin Kanga, return from Europe to perform together for the first time in a virtuosic all-Australian program.

All the works explore how memories and spaces become intricately connected. The centrepiece is Brett Dean’s Rooms of Elsinore. This seven-movement major work uses material from his recent opera based on Shakespeare’s Hamlet and “pursues a loose dramaturgy about the spaces where the action takes place, a bit like a guided tour of the venue.” The recital also features innovative and exquisite new works by Elliott Gyger, Lisa Illean and Zubin Kanga as well as a classic work by Timothy Florence. Sure to be an electrifying performance by two of Australia’s most exciting composer-performers.

As part of Sydney’s first ever 12 hour micro-festival (in the style of Bang on a Can’s legendary New York marathons) Ensemble Offspring performs the music of Steve Reich in the stunning acoustic of City Recital Hall.

In this special performance Ensemble Offspring expands to include some of Australia’s most well known exponents of new music including Ashley Smith (Perth), Sonya Lifschitz(Sydney), Daryl Pratt (Sydney) and Jenny Khafagi (Melbourne) alongside our regular members.

From noon to midnight on August 25, Extended Play features a dynamic line-up of 20 local and international artists who will transform City Recital Hall into a rich hub of sonic exploration and musical landscapes. Headlining the main stage is New York ensemble Bang on a Can All-Stars, who play “a central role in fostering a new kind of audience that doesn’t concern itself with boundaries” (The New York Times). They are recognised worldwide for their ultra-dynamic live performances, freely crossing the boundaries between classical, jazz, rock, world and experimental music to forge a distinct category-defying identity. Also appearing on the main stage alongside Ensemble Offspring are Topology, ELISION Ensemble, and Alon Ilsar.

Explore improvised celestial soundscapes, daredevil piano antics, twinkling electronica, uplifting melodic improvisations and so much more. Come for the music, but not just to listen. See, feel, explore and play.

PERFORMANCES

4pm Saturday 25 August, City Recital Hall

PROGRAM

Steve Reich – Double Sextet for vibraphones, clarinets, flutes, violins, cellos and pianos 22′
Steve Reich – Radio Rewrite for vibraphones, flute, clarinet, pianos, violins, viola, cello and electric bass 19′
Steve Reich (arr. Claire Edwardes) – Vermont Counterpoint for vibraphone, xylophone and pre-recorded track 10′

PERFORMERS

Claire Edwardes (percussion/Artistic Director)
Daryl Pratt (conductor/percussion)
Joshua Hill (percussion)
Véronique Serret (violin)
Jenny Khafagi (violin)
James Wannan (viola)
Blair Harris (cello)
Rowena Macneish (cello)
Lamorna Nightingale (flute)
Lisa Osmialowski (flute)
Jason Noble (clarinet)
Ashley Smith (clarinet)
Zubin Kanga (piano)
Sonya Lifschitz (piano)
Jacques Emery (electric bass) 

CRITICAL ACCLAIM

“Sydney’s own Ensemble Offspring hit the auditorium later in the afternoon for a hypnotic all-Reich set – Radio Rewrite and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Double Sextet bookended a glimmering solo performance by Claire Edwardes of Vermont Counterpoint on vibraphone and xylophone.”

Angus McPherson, Limelight

“Ensemble Offspring dedicated its contribution to the music of Steve Reich starting with Radio Rewrite, a reworking of two songs by Radiohead using Reich’s rhythmic phasing techniques.
They concluded with a taut, concentrated performance of Reich’s major work Double Sextet, with an arrangement by Claire Edwardes for xylophone and vibraphone (with pre-recorded tracks) of the same composer’s Vermont Counterpoint.”

Peter McCallum, Sydney Morning Herald

“Ensemble Offspring enthralled its auditorium audience.”

“…Edwardes’ bravura account [of Vermont Counterpoint] conjures a ringing, crystalline world of escalating accumulations and magical gear-shifts, realising a memorable real/virtual dialogue.”

“Again there were oscillations, quite rapid, between fast and slow passages with a melodically plangent slow movement dominating the central third of the work, before the pounding ride home, interlocking percussion and pianos driving hard, fractionally slowing and pushing ahead — all credit to Edwardes on vibes and Zubin Kanga and Sonya Lifschitz on pianos, and superb ensemble playing all round.”

Keith Gallasch, Real Time

“Earlier in the day Ensemble Offspring celebrated the music of Steve Reich. The players’ tight-knit performances of Radio Rewriteand Double Sextetcaptured their propulsive energy.”
“Percussionist Claire Edwardes’ scintillating account of Vermont Counterpoint illuminated its contrapuntal intricacies”
“Exciting, invigorating and good fun, Extended Play was the best new classical music initiative Sydney has seen in years.”

Murray Black, The Australian

SOUND-LIGHT GEOMETRIES explores the combination of music and light, architecture and the movement of instruments and bodies on stage. Frankenstein keyboards control light as well as sound, a pianist controls a video-game avatar version of himself, a violinist combines choreography with new sounds from her instrument as well as wine glasses, and analogue synths create retro colours and textures. With performers Zubin Kanga (keyboards), Anna McMichael (violin) and Ben Carey (synths and electronics) it features new works by Damian Barbeler, Amanda Cole, Ciaran Frame, Stefan Prins and Ben Carey/Zubin Kanga.
 

Comprised of six works by a selection of classic and contemporary minimalist and post-minimalist composers, including Julia Wolfe, Terry Riley, John Cage, David Lang, John Luther Adams and John Adams, Zubin Kanga’s ‘Rhythmic Kaleidoscopes’ offers a diverse and nuanced intersection of genre-defining works spanning the genres’ beginnings in the downtown art scene of New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco during the 1950s—to now.

Known for his masterful execution of contemporary repertoire and his multimedia-focused approach, Kanga has performed at international festivals, including the BBC Proms (UK), London Contemporary Music Festival (UK) and Borealis Festival (Norway), and has appeared as a soloist with the London Sinfonietta and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. He has worked with many of the world’s leading composers, including Thomas Adès, Michael Finnissy and Steve Reich, and his recent recording ‘Piano Inside Out’ was nominated for Best Classical Album at the Australian Independent Music Awards.

Limited to an audience of 150, audience and artist are seated on the stage together for an intimate performance that is not to be missed.

Program:

Julia Wolfe – Earring
Terry Riley – Piano Study No. 1
John Cage – In a Landscape  
David Lang – Cage
John Luther Adams – Nunataks
John Adams – Phrygian Gates

Alexander Schubert and Zubin Kanga co-present WIKIPIANO at the Darmstadt Summer Courses. 

MARSYAS TRIO:

Helen Vidovich FLUTE

Val Welbanks CELLO

Zubin Kanga PIANO

WITH

Patrick Dawkins VIOLIN

Heather Roche CLARINET

Programme

George Crumb – Sonata for solo cello

George Crumb – Makrokosmos, Volume I for amplified piano

George Crumb – Eleven Echoes of Autumn (Echoes I) for violin, alto flute, clarinet, and piano

George Crumb – Vox Balaenae (Voice of the Whale) for electric flute, electric cello, and amplified piano

The London-based Marsyas Trio, formed in 2009 by graduates of the Royal Academy of Music, is dedicated to music for flute, cello & piano from the Classical era onwards. Aiming to inspire a generation of new works for this genre, they are uncovering lesser-known repertoire and are proactive in commissioning new music.

The Trio has toured abroad in Europe and China, and performed most recently at the Vale of Glamorgan and Three Choirs Festivals, Holywell Music Room (Oxford Chamber Music Society), and in Switzerland at the Société de Musique Contemporaine Lausanne. This latest concert was broadcast on the Swiss Radio station RTS Espace 2. They have appeared live on BBC Radio 3 “In Tune”, Classic FM Bulgaria, and Bulgarian National Television. Their CD, A Triple Portrait (Meridian Records 2015) received airtime on European radio and reviews internationally, including Cambridge Music Journal Tempo, The Strad, and Australia’s Limelight magazine. The trio performs in rural Wales as part of the Arts Council of Wales’ Night Out scheme. The ensemble was joined by pianist Zubin Kanga in January 2017. The Marsyas Trio has generously been funded by PRSF, RVW Trust, Ambache Charitable Trust, Hinrichsen Foundation, Fidelio Charitable Trust, Britten-Pears Foundation and Arts Council England.

Marsyas Trio takes its name from Greek mythology – inspired by the bold, spirited passion of Marsyas, the celebrated pipe-playing satyr who dared challenge Apollo in a musical contest. In victory, Marsyas lost his life to the envious wrath of the god, saving his last breaths for the instrument he immortalized.

Wikipiano

The piece 2018, composed in 2016, is for piano and electronics, including a narrative that tells about the future and about pianists. Schubert’s Wikipiano is a piece where the score is a website, namely wiki-piano.net. The pianist performs all the content of this website, both text and sheets, and because it is an open website where everyone can in principle change things, there is a certain probability that the piece will never be the same.

OPEN KLANG

This year KLANG opens the doors to a mini festival within the festival where the music is presented in short formats. The music of the composers Alexander Schubert, Johannes Kreidler, Neil Luck, Marcela Lucatelli & Mads Emil Dreyer. All three mini-concerts take place in Frederiksberg Sognehus and Church.

KLANG i CINEMATEKET

For a whole day, KLANG festival interacts with live images for a series of concerts at the Cinematheque. In different ways, picture media and music reflect each other, including brand new pieces written for a specific film sequence in the Talkshow concert and with a movie made for an orchestral piece, and a movie about the same orchestral piece and its composer. By experiencing the entire KLANG i CINEMATEKET, you will be able to dive into the interaction between newly composed music and live images in many different ways.

ZUBIN KANGA I

An old man in his home is the image side, sounds from the film and the pianist who plays is the soundtrack in Michael Van der Aas Transit from 2009. The third element that connects sound and image is piano recordings that have been edited and become part of the film sound universe. In addition to Van der Aas's piece, Zubin Kanga world premieres two pieces by Claudia Molitor and Mads Emil Dreyer, who both interact with live images.

Programme

Michael Van der Aa: Transit
Claudia Molitor: You touched the twinkle on the helix of my ear
Mads Emil Dreyer: *Lys 5  UROPFØRELSE

* The piece is supported by the Danish Arts Foundation

Innovative pianist Zubin Kanga returns to City with a programme of new works for piano and multimedia, exploring a range of screen cultures, from film to video art and a new piece composed by the internet.

Programme

Alexander Schubert – WIKI-PIANO.NET (UK premiere)

Claudia Molitor – You Touched the Twinkle on the Helix of my Ear (world premiere)

Michel van der Aa – Transit

Adam de la Cour – Transplant the Movie 2!: Assignment ‘Re-Rise’ Dark Return (world premiere)

Location: Performance Space,

Date/Time: 8 May, 7pm.

Price: Free

Leading young German composer, Alexander Schubert’s major new work, Wikipiano, receives its UK premiere. It features a website that allows anyone on the internet to edit the score and multimedia parts, like a musical version of a Wikipedia article, creating a constantly evolving work exploring internet culture and crowdsourced composition.

Anyone can get involved by visiting WIKI-PIANO.NET

The concert also features a new work by British composer, Claudia Molitor, who uses film of her own hands to explore the composer’s role as puppet master with a constantly evolving relationship between the performer and the notation handwritten on screen. Dutch composer, Michel van der Aa’s Transit combines film and music to explore the loneliness and paranoia of an elderly man trapped in his own home. And Adam de la Cour builds on the success of his horror-inspired work Transplant the Movie! with this sequel, riffing off genre tropes of 1980s action and spy movies, featuring an assassin using a cover as a cocktail pianist to infiltrate the evil Steinway Clan.

Rhythmic Kaleidoscopes

In Rhythmic Kaleidoscopes, pianist Zubin Kanga performs a wide variety of American minimalist and post-minimalist works, featuring rhythmic drive and vibrant colours. It features the hypnotic Keyboard Study No. 1 by Terry Riley, the mysterious landscapes of John Luther Adams’ Nunataks, John Cage's undulating In a Landscape, and Frederic Rzewski's virtuosic Piano Piece No. 4. The centrepiece is John Adams’ epic masterpiece, Phrygian Gates. Bookings and info at:https://www.sjss.org.uk/events/zubin-kanga-0

Programme:

John Luther Adams – Nunataks
Julia Wolfe – Earring
John Cage – In a Landscape
David Lang – Cage
Frederic Rzewski – Piano Piece No. 4
Terry Riley – Keyboard Study No. 1
John Adams – Phrygian Gates

Zubin Kanga, solo piano

Patrick Nunn: The Music of the Spheres
Maja Palser: new work (BMF commission and WP)
School Pupils: new work (WP)
Claire Victoria Roberts: new work (BMF commission and WP)
Zubin Kanga: new work (WP)
George Crumb: Makrokosmos (selection)

As one of the leading exponent of contemporary music, the Australian born pianist Zubin Kanga will present a wide range of music that has been inspired by space and astronomy. The concert will begin with the highly evocative Music of the Spheres by Patrick Nunn, where each of the six movements have been inspired by a specific object in space, from planets such as Neptune, Saturn and Earth to moons and natural satellites. The programme concludes with an excerpt of George Crumb’s iconic Makrokosmos for amplified piano, where a selection of the Zodiac signs is represented within an exploration of colours and textures on the piano. The remaining programme consists of newly composed pieces, two of which by Palser and Roberts have been commissioned especially for the festival, in addition to Zubin Kanga’s own new work and a group composition by local school pupils.

Performance of Climb! by Maria Kallionpää, created in partnership with the Mixed Reality Lab at the University of Nottingham. The work features the pianist duetting with a disklavier, using particular codes to choose pathways up the 'mountain', as well as live video, interactive animation, live electronics and an interactive mobile app, showing the player's position on the mountain. 

Performed at the All Your Bass Video Game Music Festival in Nottingham. 

SOCIÉTÉ DE MUSIQUE CONTEMPORAINE LAUSANNE

• Monday, January 15, 2018
• 7:00 PM  8:00 PM

• Haute Ecole de Musique de Lausanne2 Rue de la GrotteLausanne, VD, 1003Switzerland (map)

Kaija Saariaho - Cendres (1998)
Michael Finnissy - Alternative readings (2002)
George Crumb - Vox Balaenae (1971)
Laura Bowler - Salutem (2014)*

* Commissioned by the Marsyas Trio thanks to the generous support of the Britten-Pears Foundation.