PERCUSSION FACULTY CONCERT
featuring Vanessa Tomlinson, Nozomi Omote and Rebecca Lloyd-Jones Cycles (2019)
Vanessa Tomlinson
As Far As The Eye Can See (2008)
Marta Gentilucci
To the Earth (1985)
Frederik Rzewski
To give you form and breath (2019) Ocean Orb (2021) Free Radicals – Finale (1997)
inti figgus-vizueta
Maya Eather
Michael Askill
Queensland Conservatorium Percussion Department have an enviable team of teachers. This year Michael Askill (formerly of Synergy Percussion and SSO) celebrates his 70th birthday and this performance is a small tribute to his incredible legacy as a composer and percussionist. Tom O’Kelly (formerly of MSO, TSO and Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa), turns 60, and brings a wealth of experience as an international acclaimed timpanist and CEO of Just Percussion. Vanessa Tomlinson, celebrating her 50th birthday this year is the Head of Percussion at QCGU and has been working alongside both Michael and Tom for decades. We cannot disclose the ages of Nozomi and Rebecca, but they represent two other decades, and two other perspectives on percussion in Australia. This concert will feature Vanessa, Nozomi and Rebecca, and we hope that for our next concert in second semester, Tom and Michael will join us on stage.
PROGRAM Vanessa Tomlinson – Cycles (2019) Cycles is typical of much of Vanessa’s compositional output – detailed, pre-determined material mixed in with performers “own choice”; independent rhythmic precision mixed in with silence and space. Inspired by individual sonic and rhythmic signatures including our pace of walking, or what we choose to pay attention to, Cycles explores collective individuality. The physical score seems half-finished, not-quite worked through, missing chunks of information. But it is in the process of adding in individual information that the piece begins to come to life as each performer cycles through particular materials. Cycles is composed for two or more keyboard instruments (piano, melodica, xylophone etc) plus foot sound, reception bell, whistle, shaker and own choice sound.
Marta Gentilucci – As Far As the Eye Can See for percussion and electronics (2008) The first idea of the piece began by collaborating with the Italian poet Elisa Biagini and by her long poem Gretel, o del perdersi [Gretel, getting lost]. Biagini’s poetic world has a strong relation with body parts and natural substances; it is made of everyday words, which lead to a powerful metaphorical universe: one single word provokes multi-dimensional connections with the whole. The four main elements of the poem (stone, wood, bone, leaf) that are evoked in the text, and the way they intersect the entire poem, suggest immediately a division of the percussion instruments in four different groups. Their disposition on stage refers clearly to that division, as well as the imaginary spiral movement of the percussionist by playing all the instruments. In that way, the piece has its compositional central point in the creation of a ‘Polyphonic Macro-Instrument’ and in its unfolding on the stage-space. The electronics take the role of an extension of the original sounds and it is mainly based on sound synthesis processes - Marta Gentilucci Inti Figgis-vizueta – To give you breathe and form (2019) Inspired Joy Harjo’s poetry, this piece centers the nature of creation stories in relation to indigenous identity. Much of native belief and collective knowledge stem from oral traditions and the lens their provide is core to our understanding of the world and the spirits that live with us. ‘To give you form and breath’ seeks to channel portions of that understanding through ‘ground’ objects and manipulations of rhythm as manipulations of time – Inti Figgisvizueta Maya Eather – Ocean Orb (2021) Ocean Orb (2021) began as a musique-concrete-inspired piece, composed with manipulated found sounds and reversed tracks of prepared vibraphone, to create a space-like, enigmatic soundscape. When the piece was commissioned to be performed by percussionist Nozomi Omote, melodic fragments, drones and sound effects from the original were extracted to create a backing track that would accompany the new solo part for vibraphone and low tom. A relationship between the soloist and backing track is formed in some of the original manipulated found sounds which function as cues for the performer and when occassionally the soloists melody is underlyingly accompanied by the reversed track of that same melody. Fredrick Rzewski – To the Earth (1985) “To the Earth” was written in 1985 at the request of the percussionist Jan Williams. Williams asked for a piece using small percussion instruments that could be easily transported. I decided to use four flower pots. Not only do they have a beautiful sound but they don’t have to be carried around at all: in every place where one plays the piece, they can be bought for a total cost of about one dollar. The text, recited by the percussionist, is that of the pseudohomeric hymn “To The Earth Mother of All,” probably written in the seventh century B.C. This simple poem is a prayer to Gaia—goddess of the Earth. The Earth is a myth, both ancient and modern. For us today as well, it appears increasingly as something fragile. Because of its humanly altered metabolism, it is rapidly becoming a symbol of the precarious human condition. In this piece the flower pots are intended to convey this sense of fragility. The writing of this piece was triggered by reading an article on newly discovered properties of clay, the substance of which pots and golems are made. Among these properties are its capacity to store energy for long periods of time and its complex molecular structure. This idea for clay as something half-alive, a kind of transitional medium between organic and inorganic materials, led me to look at flower pots. I found, in fact, that some pots are “alive” while others are “dead”: some emit a disappointing “thunk” when you tap them while others seem to burst into resonant song at the slightest touch. RZEWSKI Michael Askill – Free Radicals (1997) Free Radicals was conceived as an experimental fusion of dance and percussion. Choreographer Graeme Murphy and composer Michael Askill created the music and movement simultaneously in the studio. The result is a witty interplay that stretches the boundaries of dance and musical performance. Originated from the work Synergy with Synergy (1992), Free Radicals pushes rhythmic and sonic boundaries through complex variations of cyclic material.
Australian born percussionist REBECCA LLOYD-JONES is a multiform musician, passionate about performance, research, and education. Having performed professionally across Asia, Europe, North American and Oceania, Rebecca has presented at several focus days for the Percussive Arts Society International Convention and attended the Roots and Rhizomes program at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Canada. Passionate about women’s performance practice and the percussion works of composer Lucia Dlugoszewski, Rebecca has presented at the Transplanted Roots Research Symposium and was a guest artist at the VI Semana Internacional de Improvisación and guest tutor at the Festival de Música Nueva 2019, Ensenada, Baja California. Rebecca graduated from the Victorian College of Arts with the Desma Woolcock award for academic excellence, received a Master of Music Research from the Griffith University Queensland Conservatorium, and is currently a Doctoral candidate at the University of California San Diego with Distinguished Professor Steven Schick and ensemble red fish blue fish. Japanese born percussionist NOZOMI OMOTE is a classical trained performer who plays various style of music. She has worked with Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Camerata Queensland’s Chamber Orchestra, QLD Pops Orchestra, Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa, Clocked Out, Speak Percussion, Early Warning System, Southern Cross Soloists and Ensemble Trivium. Shugorei is her current passionate project with a composer and electronic performer Thomas Green. Shugorei creates a huge range of genres and sounds with acoustic percussion and electronics. https://shugorei.net Nozomi has performed at focus days for the Percussive Arts Society International Convention in Texas as a member of percussion group Early Warning System in 2015. She has actively attended several percussion research symposiums including the Roots and Rhizomes at UCSD in 2007, the Australian Percussion Gathering in 2010 and 2016, and Transplanted Roots in 2017. Nozomi decided to move to Australia to seek further musical study after encountering her mentor Thomas O’Kelly in Japan. She has been under the tutelage of Prof. Vanessa Tomlinson and Thomas O’Kelly. She also has been mentored by Evelyn Glennie, Robert van Sice, Bogdan Bacanu, Fritz Hauzer, David Hewitt, David Jones and Mutsuko Taneya. VANESSA TOMLINSON is a percussive artist dedicated to exploring how sound shapes our lives, awakening our ears to new sounds, in new spaces Trained as a percussionist in Australia, Germany and the USA, Vanessa relies on the sonic investigation of objects to build compositions, create contexts for improvisation, interpret the voices of other composers and collaborate across art-forms and disciplines. She has toured the world for 25 years, premiering over 100 works by significant national and international composers, presenting work at major international festivals. Key projects include The Piano Mill (a purpose built structure in the Australian bush), Sounding the Condamine (examining the history of the Condamine Bell in outback Queensland), Water Pushes Sand (examining intersections between Sichuan Opera and improvisational practices with Australian Art Orchestra), Sonic Dreams (a series of compositions about extinct and imaginary sounds) and Here and Now (her first book, examining approaches to music making in an Australian context). She has been Artist-in-Residence at the Smithsonian Institute (2018-19), Civitella Raineri (2012), Orpheus Institute (2013-14), Harrigans Lane (2016 – present) and Queensland Conservatorium (with Clocked Out 2007 – 2020). She has received APRA/AMC Awards in Experimental Music, Excellence as an Individual, and Excellence by an Organisation (Clocked Out), Green Room Awards (Dada Cabaret), and an Aria nomination (Water Pushes Sand). Vanessa in currently Professor of Music, Head of Percussion and Deputy Director of Queensland Conservatorium Research Centre at Griffith University, on the international editorial team for Transplanted Roots, and is a Zildjian artist.