Julius Eastman: Femenine
Friday 25 August: Ian Hanger Recital Hall
Rebecca Lloyd-Jones Max Fowler-Roy
Erik Griswold
Graeme Jennings
Martin Kay
Tim Munro
Skylar Sansome
Chris Stover
After several decades of silence, Julius Eastman’s 1974 composition Femenine has seen a remarkable resurgence in recent years, with performances across the world, multiple recordings, and write-ups in such prestigious organs as The New Yorker and The Los Angeles Times. Like all of Eastman’s music that we have any sort of access to, Femenine is a deeply personal expression, not only of the composer’s voice (Eastman, a thoroughly iconoclast Black gay composer and a stunningly virtuoso and fiercely individual performer, embodied all at once a confrontational activism, tender introspection, and wily humour) but also of his musical interlocutors, the members of his ensemble that he empowered to contribute in creative ways to the shaping of a given performance. A question, then, that haunts any performance of Eastman’s music is how to even do so without the composer himself present. As one commentator has recently written:
“To revive a piece like Femenine, in which oral transmission will remain much more important than any score, can be seen as a sort of violation of the spirit of his music. But the only alternative would have been silence and oblivion.”
Eastman’s music was subject to silence and, possibly, oblivion for two decades following his untimely death in 1990. But it is clear that this music needs to be heard, and needs to be heard live, with all the manifold contingencies that only live performance can afford. The music— which, to be sure, demands as much of listeners as it does of performers—grows organically from the simplest of source material, a many-times repeated vibraphone gesture that begins with urgency, moves through a playful syncopated oscillation, and settles into an atemporal transcendence. This sets the scene, from which emerges all number of temporal shifts, motivic developments and superimpositions, and intensely expressive redirections of musical ideas, invoking a complex world where meaning refuses to be fixed, where contradictions abound, and where no interpretation is impossible. As another Black gay activist musician once wrote,
Reality has touched against myth
Humanity can move to achieve the impossible
Because when you achieved one impossible the others
Come together to be with their brother…
(Sun Ra, “Reality Has Touched Against Myth,” 1969)
Dr Chris StoverMAX FOWLER-ROY is a bassist, event-curator and composer whose work, with a dizzying multitude of projects, ranges from “straight” jazz, “free” jazz, fragile Onkyo-esque sound explorations to noisy electronic music, extreme noise rock and Persian classical. Currently, Max is a co-organiser of experimental music events at the Cave Inn, developing an album for double bass duo Anyikythera Mechanism, performing on electric bass with Eggvein, Dairy Queen and Guardia Civil.
ERIK GRISWOLD is a composer and pianist working in contemporary classical, improvised, and experimental forms. Particular interests include prepared piano, percussion, environmental music, and music of Sichuan province. Originally from San Diego, and now residing in Brisbane, he composes for adventurous musicians, performs as a soloist and in Clocked Out, and collaborates with musicians, artists, dancers, and poets.
Australian violinist, violist, conductor, improviser, educator, GRAEME JENNINGS, is a former member of the legendary Arditti String Quartet (1994-2005). He has toured widely throughout the world, made more than 80 CDs, given over 300 premieres and received numerous accolades including the prestigious Siemens Prize (1999) and two Gramophone awards. Active as a soloist, chamber musician, ensemble leader and conductor, his repertoire ranges from Bach to Boulez and beyond. He has worked with and been complimented on his interpretations by many of the leading composers of our time. Graeme is a member of Australia’s internationally acclaimed new music ensemble ELISION and the Kurilpa String Quartet. He has performed as Guest Concertmaster of the Adelaide, Melbourne and West Australian Symphony Orchestras and Guest Associate Concertmaster with the Sydney Symphony. In 2011 he was a founding member of the Australian World Orchestra. He has also appeared as guest artist with the Australian String Quartet, the Kreutzer Quartet, the New Zealand String Quartet and the del Sol Quartet. Having previously served on the faculties of Mills College, UC Berkeley and Stanford University, he was appointed Senior Lecturer in violin and viola at the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University in 2009.
Dr Martin Kay is a saxophonist and composer with a particular interest in the nexus of improvisation and notation. He currently co-leads Ensemble Sooon, an indy-classical ensemble who have recently released their first album 'Tacet Chronicles.' Dr Kay teaches classical saxophone at the Queensland Conservatorium. For further information visit martinkaysound.com
Rebecca Lloyd-Jones is a Meanjin-based musician, educator, and researcher specializing in contemporary performance practices, improvisation, and critical gender studies. She graduated from the Victorian College of Arts, received a Master of Music Research from Griffith University Queensland Conservatorium, and is a Doctoral candidate at the University of California San Diego with Steven Schick.
Rebecca currently holds the position of Lecturer and Coordinator of Percussion at Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University.
Tim Munro is a Brisbane-based, triple-Grammy-winning musician. As flautist, writer, broadcaster, and teacher, he treats audiences as equals, welcoming them into musical worlds with passion, intelligence and humour. He is Associate Professor of Music at the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University, in Brisbane, Australia.
Skylar Sansome is a freelance percussionist, improviser and educator based in Meanjin (Brisbane). She is a frequent performer at the Cave Inn experimental music nights, among the Annerley Drains and with collaborators and friends. She has recorded with Naarm-based band Sex on Toast and played with ensembles including Matt Hsu’s Obscure Orchestra, The Boxties, Brisbane Symphony Orchestra, Deep Blue Orchestra with Michael Askill and Ensemble Q. Skylar holds a Bachelor of Music in Classical Percussion, learning from Prof. Vanessa Tomlinson, Dr. Michael Askill, Tom O’Kelly, Rebecca Lloyd-Jones, and Nozomi Omote. Focussed on sound exploration and movement, Skylar is committed to guiding students towards their musical aspirations. She is available to teach percussion and beginner drum-kit students. All ages, gender identities and backgrounds are welcome.
Chris Stover is a trombonist, composer, and Senior Lecturer of Music Studies and Research at Queensland Conservatorium. His music criss-crosses many genre boundaries, from jazz to experimental new music to African, Brazilian, and Cuban expressions and beyond, and his research draws upon feminist, queer, and postcolonial theory to reconsider how we hear, think about, and make music.