Thursday, 17 October 2019: Cathy Milliken Jane Sheldon Lamorna Nightingale

with Fiona Hill live electronics; Lewis Mosley + Sam Weller and Charlie Sundborn

Radio Signals

We don’t often take a retrospective look at music here at Backstage, but we’re pleased to be celebrating the music of Karlheinz Stockhausen and Luciano Berio alongside new works by Cathy Milliken and Fiona Hill in this program. Stockhausen and Berio were pioneers of electronic music and electro acoustic music in the 1960s and 70s. Australian oboist and composer, Cathy Milliken worked with both composers during her time as a member of Ensemble Modern and this concert provides an opportunity to hear music from first hand experience of these composers at work. Both Berio and Stockhausen were known for combining the human voice with electronics and pre-recorded material and Fiona Hill’s piece Imago, takes the technology further, using Max patch technology to integrate electronic, pre-recorded, computer generated and live acoustic sounds.

Program

Altra Voce for voice, flute and live electronics - Berio

Spiral Remix for oboe and electronics - Stockhausen

Urge me Not for solo voice - Milliken

Imago for flute, voice and electronics - Fiona Hill

Improvisation for trio

Born in Brisbane, Australia Cathy Milliken (oboe) was a founding member of the renowned group for contemporary music, Ensemble Modern Germany, where she worked with leading composers and conductors of this century including Pierre Boulez, Peter Eötvös, Frank Zappa, György Ligeti and Karlheinz Stockhausen (who produced her performance of “Spiral” on CD - Stockhausen Verlag Nr. 45). Cathy was director of the Education Program of the Berliner Philharmoniker from 2005-2012 and is internationally recognised as a leading creative director and composer. She performs regularly with voice and oboe and is a member of Ensemble Extrakte, a Berlin based group noted for its diverse musical cultural practice. She was recently honoured by being appointed Associate Composer for the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra from 2018-2020

Lamorna Nightingale is a freelance flautist, concert presenter, educator and publisher who is passionate about the future of art music in Australia. She is a core member of the new music group - Ensemble Offspring and has been performing with them since 2007. Lamorna has many years of experience working in the orchestral sectors performing regularly with many of Australia’s finest ensembles. In January 2016 she performed with early music ensemble Brugge Anima Eterna at the Sydney Festival and then the Lincoln Centre in New York. Since 2017 Lamorna has curated and produced a new concert series dedicated to new music in Sydney ‘BackStage Music’. Lamorna has created several recordings of new Australian flute music with repertoire selected to suit flute players with less experience with new music. This music is now widely performed by students and professionals Australia wide and internationally, transforming for many flute players their experience of new Australian music. She has recently created an album of new Australian music for flute and electronics ‘Other Voices’ with an associated education kit designed to introduce school students to electroacoustic music. Lamorna has also created several pedagogical volumes of repertoire for young flute players through her publishing company, ‘Fluteworthy’.

Jane Sheldon is an Australian-American soprano who specializes in the creation and performance of exploratory chamber music. Praised by the New York Times for singing “sublimely”, the Sydney Morning Herald for “a brilliant tour de force”, and The Washington Post for "a stunning performance", she has appeared with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Pinchgut Opera (AUS), Sound Icon (USA), Ekmeles (USA), Talea Ensemble (USA), Wet Ink (USA), the Australian String Quartet, and Sydney Chamber Opera (AUS), where she is an Artistic Associate. She has worked extensively with composers as they create new works for voice, most frequently with John Zorn, whose music Jane has performed across the globe. Jane has performed at international arts festivals such as the Sydney Festival, Jerusalem Sacred Music Festival, Lincoln Center Festival, the Bendigo International Festival of Exploratory Music, Jacob's Pillow, Prototype Festival, and the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. Jane is the director of Symbioses, an Australian chamber music series focused on new duos and trios, and is the co-director of the Resonant Bodies Festival's activities in Australia, with Jessica Aszodi.

Early Career Artist - Lewis Mosley + saxophonists Charlie Sundborn and Sam Weller

Drawing influence from contemporary classical music, garage rock, and the avant-garde, Lewis’s work for Sam Weller and Charlie Sundborn, explores human interaction with and within a unique closed system. Throughout the work, the performers move within and around a set of amplifiers and the space, exploring the differing sonic possibilities offered by both. Through a consistent dialogue between the performers, the work pushes the boundaries of these amplified systems, eventually reaching a breaking point of both system and performer.

Lewis Mosley (Early Career Artist) is a composer working on Cadigal land. Currently studying with composer Damian Barbaler, Lewis often operates somewhere in-between composition and installation art, incorporating movement and performance alongside striking visual forms. Lewis also plays in multiple bands around the local area, all of which help to inform his compositional practice.

Charlie Sundborn is an improvising Saxophonist who works on Cammeraygal and Cadigal land. Charlie is a practitioner of Jazz and freely improvised music in Sydney’s music scene. He has studied and played alongside some of the world’s most outstanding improvising musicians, such as Jim Denley, Peter Farrar, Laura Altman, Barney McCall, Clayton Thomas, Cor Fuhler, Cameron Undy, Chris Hale and others. He is currently recording an album, which will be released on cassette and digitally at the end of the year.

Sam Weller is a young up-and-coming saxophonist and conductor focussed on sharing his passion for classical and art music with the wider world. Sam has performed as a saxophonist around Australia and Italy as a member of the Luxum Saxophone Quartet. Sam performs regularly in various large ensembles from symphonic bands to symphony orchestras. In his spare time Sam plays sax in a Rock and Roll band.