THE WELCOMING!
PRE-SHOW
songbirdsongs Piccolos & Percussion External Stairs
Roving Researchers HDR Students Conservatorium Foyer
Gabrieli Fanfare Brass Conservatorium Foyer
Gershwin Standards Jazz Quartet Conservatorium Theatre
ACT I
Acknowledgement of Country Uncle Glenn Barry Conservatorium Theatre
Director’s Welcome Prof. Bernard Lanskey Conservatorium Theatre
Paris is a Metaphor Acting Conservatorium Theatre
Connecting Through Gershwin Jazz Quartets Conservatorium Theatre
An American in Paris Con Symphony Orchestra Conservatorium Theatre
INTERVAL
Contemporary Choirs Jazz Conservatorium Foyer
Acting Scenes & Films Acting Ian Hanger Recital Hall
Roving Researchers HDR Students Conservatorium Foyer
ACT II
Pagliacci Excerpts Classical Voice Conservatorium Theatre
Schumann Piano Quartet Strings & Keyboard Conservatorium Theatre
Change Is Possible Acting Conservatorium Theatre
Late Night Society Popular Music Conservatorium Theatre
POST-SHOW
Quadraphonic Experience Creative Music Technology Conservatorium Theatre
Roving Researchers HDR Students Conservatorium Foyer Check
out Higher Degree Research Projects at QCGU
THE WELCOMING!
The Inspiration for Tonight
Over the past two years, the Conservatorium has spent time taking stock of where it is now and where it might sense that it needs to be heading. This has included a major strategic review in August last year, the consequences of which have been considered at university level. We acknowledge that our traditional focus on excellence, particularly in Classical Music Performance, is something that must continue, but we also recognise that, over the past few decades, QCGU has expanded in its reach to include a wider range of contemporary music as well as an increased focus on research, community connection, and life-long learning. Beyond music, the past decade also saw us embrace Performing Arts, including both Musical Theatre and Acting. With Griffith University’s announcement of the Queensland Academy of Excellence in Musical Theatre in August 2023 in partnership with QPAC, and with Acting moving to our main building, all fulltime activity is now co-located in South Bank. At the same time, we have consciously been increasing our state-wide focus, primarily through the Open Conservatorium, but also in partnership with key Queensland Arts partners. Building on our roots, we seek to be Queensland’s Conservatorium, with the ambition to become ever more welcoming to all music and performing arts, with increasing inclusion of all cultural backgrounds. Tonight we share who we are now and how we might begin to imagine us evolving so as to have even more persuasive contemporary resonance.
Welcome, everyone, to Queensland’s Conservatorium. Connecting Place, People, and Art.
In the Theatre
ACT I
Acknowledgement of Country and Director’s Welcome
Initial Acknowledgement of Country: Uncle Glenn Barry
Communal Sounding Scene: Glenn Barry and all composition students
Gerardo Dirié, Head of Composition
Glenn Barry, guiding host and yidaki
We are mindful and grateful to be sharing this evening on the unceded lands of the Turrbal and Yuggera peoples, and thank Uncle Glenn Barry for his support in the Conservatorium, both tonight and across the last several years. Over the past few weeks, he has been planning this evening with our Head of Composition, Dr. Gerardo Dirié, a first generation Australian, with focus on acknowledgment, reconciliation and education. The Acknowledgement and Communal Sounding will be followed by the Director’s Welcome, offering a sense of QCGU’s proposed future direction.
Connecting through Gershwin
A little under 100 years ago, George Gershwin visited Paris with a view to expanding his musical horizon. Just as for the 27-year-old composer, the trip acted as a stimulus for his creativity and evolving identity, so for us An American in Paris has offered a metaphor tonight for connection and inclusion, crossing geographic and genre borders to celebrate as truthfully as possible our current identity as we seek to become more open and inclusive. A second generation American of Russian-Jewish descent, Gershwin’s parents had arrived independently in New York, effectively as political refugees, shortly before he was born. Just as he was able to find his way forward in their new world, the influence of multiple cultures and genres was inspirational his distinctive emerging identity.
Tonight’s event opens our spaces for sharing the rich array of what happens here in S01 (our building) almost every day. My thanks as Director to all who have embraced the concept underpinning this event – and indeed to those others who had wished to be involved, if only there was more space and time.
The evening in the theatre will begin (pre-concert) with a selection of Gershwin’s standards which prepare us for a first half inspired by the composer.
Gershwin Standards (pre-show)
Chloe Forbes – Alto Saxophone
Ethan Coleman – Piano
Aaron Ma – Bass
Oscar Langton - Drums
Claire Christian: Paris is a Metaphor
Second year actors ponder how we create safe places to create and growthe past informing the present.
After the Acknowledgement of Country, a quartet of second year actors reflect briefly on the complexities of sharing music, inspired by An American in Paris, now shared in Queensland one hundred years later (script by Bachelor of Acting Lecturer Claire Christian (premier)).
Rory Fegan
Jordana Wenke
Angela Lal Paulose
Lachlan Brayshaw
Director: Jacqui Somerville
The jazz ensemble, now joined by two singers for Nice Work if You Can Get It (1937) and Our Love is Here to Stay (1938), prepare for the orchestra’s performance of An American in Paris (1928).
Nice Work If You Can Get It
Toby Thelander - Voice
Ethan Coleman - Piano
Aaron Ma - Bass
Oscar Langton - Drums
Concertmaster
Yuro Lee*
Violin 1
Luke Hammer
Ingram Fan
Amira Ryan
Lydia Hwang
Dylan Weder
Sophia Di Lucchio
Lauren Mellor
Jonathan Kositsin
Mirage Hunter
Demecs
Sophie Shih
Imogen Revill
Violin 2
Jonah Spriggs*
Noah Coyne
Madeleine Crosby
Alisha Dunstan
Melissa Buddle
Alan Leslie
Teresa Kao
Ava Gilbert
Guy Tomlinson
Chinsia Burns
* Principal player
Our Love is Here to Stay
Shelby Johnson - Voice
Peyo Pappadopoulos - Piano
Aaron Ma - Bass
Oscar Langton – Drums
(arranged by Dr Steve Newcomb Head of Jazz)
Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra
Peter Luff, conductor
Printed March 22, 2024
Viola
Ella Beard*
Olivia Spyrou
Rose-Ann Breedt
Caitlin Annesley
Felix Hughes Chivers
Sebastien Masel
Jasmine Smith
Harriet Dykes
Eben Yeh
Violoncello
Kate Hwang*
William Bland
Caleb Christian
Matthew StuartStreet
Milo Duval
Laura Boon
Contrabass
Alyssa Deacon*
Sophia Buchanan
Jessica Clarke
Rylan Baird
Piccolo
Bonnie Gibson*
Flute
Braden Simm*
Aaryn Wong
Bonnie Gibson
Oboe
Shana Hoshino*
Ethan Seto
Cor Anglais
Liam Robinson*
Clarinet
Catherine Edwards*
Hinata Nishimura
Bass Clarinet
Hamish Cassidy*
Bassoon
Hayden Mears*
Mairin Thompson
Alto Saxophone
Isaac Reed*
Tenor Saxophone
Emily Booij*
Baritone Saxophone
Nina Lane*
French Horn
Arabella Davie*
Hannah Waterfall
Jessica Piva
Matilda Monaghan
Trumpet
Isabella Geeves*
Megan Barber
Melissa Davies
Trombone
Jay Ghodke*
Jonah Nakagawa
Bass Trombone
Ethan Parfoot*
Tuba
Jack Gawith*
Timpani
Connor Dinneen*
Percussion
Matthew Conway*
Dara Williams
Jaymee Homeming
Caitlin Hermann
Celesta
Artemii Safonov*
Gershwin himself considered An American in Paris “a rhapsodic ballet”, seeking to capture “the impressions of an American visitor in Paris as he strolls about the city, listens to the various street noises, and absorbs the French atmosphere”. To this end, he even included in the orchestration four Parisian taxi-horns he brought back from France! Since its original New York premiere in 1928 in Carnegie Hall, the work has been re-cast and re-orchestrated in multiple contexts, building out of the original 20-minute jazzinspired orchestral poem (as heard tonight) into a ballet-inspired movie, a musical, and so much more. Based on Gershwin’s own writing, the influence of Paris was profound, as he sought to follow Maurice Ravel’s reputed advice, perhaps an inspiration for us all in Queensland now: “Why be a second-rate Ravel, when you can be a first-rate Gershwin!”
ACT II
Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci and Molière's Tartuffe: The challenges of otherness
Tonight’s brief reference to two of the Theatre’s most iconic works serves as a reminder of the challenges that sometimes accompany first performances of work, particularly when their plots challenge political norms or societal conventions. Both characters are highly complex in relation to social norms, with the immediate circumstances of plot bringing that complexity to the fore. Tonight we have the character Tartuffe persuading us to leave the theatre for the interval performances outside. The full production of Tartuffe, presented by the 3rd Year Acting cohort, begins on Saturday 23rd March at BMAC at Kangaroo Point, with tonight’s event function as the prelude to Acting’s first event of the season. Similarly, the excerpt from Pagliacci links to a performance later in the season as part of the Val Machin Opera Scenes running from Friday 3rd May to Saturday 4th May in the Conservatorium Theatre.
Tonight features two excerpts, the Prologue and the Bell Chorus, with the following note from Jillianne Stoll, Lecturer in Opera:
Before the opera begins, the clown Tonio slips out in front of the house curtain and sings the Prologue which tells the audience that what they will see is not just play-acting but that the actors, like us, are real people with genuine emotions and real passions.
The Bell Chorus takes place after the troupe of actors arrive. The bagpipers are heard approaching, and the musicians, followed by the people of their village, arrive to join in the festival. The church bells ring and the villagers head off to Vespers singing “Ding, dong”.
Prologue from I Pagliacci – Leoncavallo
Jake Lyle – Tonio
Jillianne Stoll - Pianist
Bell Chorus from I Pagliacci – Leoncavallo
Kevin Gomez – Canio
The Opera Chorus
Jillianne Stoll – Pianist
Conducted by Peter Luff
The Opera Chorus
Conducted by Peter Luff
SOPRANOS
Zoe Catchpoole
Johanna Collins
Isabelle Dunstan
Rebecca Goobanko
Monique Grima
Philomena Hoger
Stephanie Horsfall
Sienna Jak
Bridgette Kelsey
Claire McCann
Olivia Munro
Erin Power
Amelia Price
Louise Whittaker
MEZZO SOPRANOS
Xanthe Allen
Georgia Butland
Emily Davies
Jasmine Kaye
Monica Ruggiero
Aylish Ryan
Lauren Towns
Caitlin Wans
TENORS
Elliott Beauchamp
Ryan Lawrence
Nicholas Russell
Liam Waldock
BASSES
Vikram Goonawardena
Harrison Hammett
Nicholas Massouras
Gabriel Shaw
David Upcher
The Keyboard at the Centre:
Schumann Piano Quartet, Op. 47 mvt iii Andante Cantabile, Actor’s Scene 2, and Late Night Society
The keyboard has been at the centre of a range of small ensemble combinations which now span four centuries. Already in the baroque period, the trio sonata was effectively a quartet combo, with the continuo keyboard part’s bass line doubled by a fourth player, the basso continuo. Mozart’s two piano quartets of the 1780s established the combination (the keyboard moving from harpsichord to fortepiano), influencing Schumann quite overtly in his first juvenile work in the form. The Eb Quartet, Opus 47, from which tonight we hear the deeply romantic and reflective Andante Cantabile, is Schumann’s only mature foray in the form, inspired by his wife Clara who was involved in the first performance. The movement’s songlike ternary form ends with a celestial coda which will be used to morph tonight into the final contemporary set.
Hanuelle Lovell - Violin
Ella Pysden - Viola
Caleb Christian - Cello
Reuben Tsang - Piano
Claire Christian: Change Is Possible
Second year actors ponder on our role as artists and humans to look forward and make change
Angela Lal Paulose
Lachlan Brayshaw
Director: Jacqui Somerville
The link to Late Night Society will include our second acting scene of the night, again scripted by Claire Christian, offering further reflection of where we are now, and of the momentary and timeless. The transition will also involve the soundscape moving from acoustic to amplified, including a nord keyboard and with the theatre transforming its acoustic to accommodate. We are fortunate to have inherited such an amazing space to perform, and to have the people amongst us now who help make it resonate so persuasively.
Late Night Society is a 4-piece contemporary fusion band, based in Brisbane, Queensland. This group of innovative, like-minded musicians, thrive on breaking conventional musical ideas, through their unique artistic flair. Bouncing from genres like Japanese Funk-Fusion, Progressive Metal, Reggae and more, this group always has something fresh and new to bring to the table. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the wave of musicality to follow. On keyboard/grand piano, Sam Salvador, guitar, Nathan Cho, bass guitar, Gerry Jaimes, drums, Hayden White, and Matt Mallardi on Yidaki (didgeridoo) #easymusicforbabies
Celebrating the Fringes
(Foyer, Recital Hall and Beyond)
Pre-Show
John Luther-Adams
songbirdsongs (1974 – 1980) for piccolos and percussion
“No one has yet explained why the free songs of birds are so simply beautiful. And what do they say? What are their meanings? We may never know. But beyond the realm of ideas and emotions, language and sense, we just may hear something of their essence.”
John Luther Adams
Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer John Luther Adams has lived for 50 years in the wilds of Alaska, Mexico and New Mexico. His works are inextricably linked with the natural world, giving voice to nature’s beauty, danger and fragility.
In these fragments from songbirdsongs, piccolo players and percussionists surround you, playing choruses of dawn and dusk, transforming any venue into a musical forest. “These small songs”, says Adams, “are echoes of rare moments and places where the voices of birds have been clear and I have been quiet enough to hear.”
Piccolos: Jenna Choi, Bonnie Gibson, Keisha Neale, Neve Randall, Braden Simm, Laura Skorzewski, Nathan Smith
Percussion: Jessica Postle, Sana Rane, Samuel Scully, William Smith, Joshua Spurr
Giovanni Gabrieli – QCGU Brass Ensemble
Canzon duodecimi toni (1597)
Canzon septimi toni No. 2 (1597)
Giovanni Gabrieli's Sacre Symphoniae of 1597 were written for the acoustic of St Marks in Venice. Standing a small distance apart in two balconies the musicians (playing any combination of wind, brass and string instruments) created a fabric of interweaving ideas delicately expressed on the rather quiet instruments of the time. As we cross the borders in time and distance to the orchestral brass of the late 20th century and the resonant acoustic of the Queensland Conservatorium foyer, we can reimagine a music that was never limited by instrumentation, articulation, dynamic or even bar lines. As has become the tradition in brass ensembles world-wide the once subtle sighing of small phrases has become the respected ground for showcasing the added brilliance and power of modern brass.
Benjamin Marks – Conductor, QCGU Brass Ensemble
Interval
Global Vocal Ensemble
Lua Soberana – Ivan Lins (Portuguese)
Ah Ndiya – Oumou Sangare (Bambara)
Discover densely layered grooves, abstract vocal timbres and dialects from around the world, with repertoire hailing from Africa, India, South America, East Timor, Bulgaria and more. Global Vocal Ensemble will sing in languages other than English and incorporate cultivating knowledge and respect for the cultures from which these songs are derived.
Nu Jazz Vocal Ensemble
Wrong Way – Georgia Anne Muldrow
The Mystery of a Burning Fire – KNOWER
Taking inspiration from contemporary artists fusing jazz-derived melodic and harmonic motifs with electronica and funk, such as Flying Lotus, DOMi & JD Beck, KNOWER, Cornelius, Georgia Anne Muldrow and MonoNeon, Nu-Jazz Vocal Ensemble will sing vocally and musically challenging repertoire with a futuristic lilt.
Hannah Macklin – Conductor, Jazz Vocal Ensembles
Acting Company of 2024
Live Extract from Common Ground by Kate Wild
With 3rd year actors Sebastien Skubala and Sophia Marzano
Recorded Films
Written & Directed by Stephen Lance. Produced in the GFS Virtual Production Studio by Daisy Quoding, James Bressow, Sam Bertling and Natalie Ferris.
Tokyo with Michael Probets and Alexander James
The Goodbye with Isabella Kirkwood and Jade Jose
Brothers with Harrison Everingham and Logan So
The Romance with Sebastien Skubala and Sophia Marzano
In this brief presentation in the Ian Hanger Recital Hall, collaborations with the Griffith Film School are shared alongside a live scene with our Bachelor of Acting students.
