VISUALISING HARMONY by Ruth O’Brien Something I never tire of is talking about the creative process of artists. No matter if it’s a solo artist, duo, or group, I love hearing about the way people make creative choices around their art form. I especially geek out when discussing the cross-over between different art forms and how one can influence another. For this reason, among many others, I thoroughly enjoyed my recent interview with Bindi McFarlane - world-class violinist with the London Symphony Orchestra no less - who is the facilitator of the upcoming collaboration between Belconnen Arts Centre and the Canberra Symphony Orchestra (CSO) called Visualising Harmony. In the days leading up to the final performance, five artists with disability from the Belconnen Arts Centre’s IGNITE Program will work with Bindi in a series of workshops. They will create new original musical pieces inspired by the orchestral Viridian, by Australian composer Richard Meale. Viridian will be played live to the IGNITE artists by the CSO in a rehearsal of the piece in the week prior to the workshops with Bindi. This will provide the artists and the CSO musicians with the opportunity to talk about the work, their art, and the project overall. And then, once back working solely with Bindi, the IGNITE artists will take inspiration from colours used within their own visual artworks to create new works. Guided by the excellence of Bindi’s improvisational, compositional, and creative techniques, the project will culminate in a unique relaxed performance at the Belconnen Arts Centre. “The Canberra players (CSO) haven’t done any projects like this before,” Bindi explains. “So that’s why it’s professional development as well, because we won’t be using scores and pieces of music. “And writing music down will be improvised; improvising and creating music that is completely original. Musically, the ideas will come from the group working together as the workshops proceed, and I’ll facilitate all of that. “The music will all benew. And we may take themes from Richard’s piece, you know, little elements of his music, maybe a theme, maybe some chords, but it’s not recreating pieces. It’s using it as a sort of germ from which we can make our own music.” The levels of musical experience within the IGNITE group will PAGE 32 undoubtedly vary. But, as Bindi says, the project is about:
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