Performance Program: Letter Piece Premieres
March 2021
Sounds Unheard Website

In March 2021, Sounds Unheard released a series of music videos featuring works composed and performed by the 2020 Performance Program participants.

These students took part in online sessions with London-based Australian composer Matthew Shlomowitz to learn about his ‘Letter Pieces’ – an ongoing series of short performance pieces combining physical actions and sound. Over the course of one week the students worked in pairs under the guidance of Matthew and Speak Percussion artists to compose, workshop and rehearse their own letter pieces before filming their new works with a professional videographer.

Toolbox perform Letter Piece No.5 (Matthew Shlomowitz)


School Holiday Intensive: Counterpuntal Cartographies
April 11-16
Online –  Sunday April 11 (6:30-7:30pm)
Base! Creative Space, Coburg North – Tuesday April 13 – Friday April 16 (10am-1pm)

In 2021 Sounds Unheard’s School Holiday Intensive returns for its seventh year, with a week of new composition and performance activities to inspire secondary music students. This April students will meet composer Jessie Marino (US/Germany): a composer, performer, and media artist whose pieces score out sound, video, gesture, lighting, and staging, treating each of these elements as possible musical material.

Students will learn about Jessie’s “Counterpuntal Cartographies” series of works, invented as a new way of engaging with historical pieces of music. If we treat an existing piece of sheet music as a map of information and begin to substitute new materials, forms and ideas – what happens?

If we decided middle C was no longer middle C, what could the score be asking us to do instead? What sound, gesture or other idea could we substitute for that note? If we swap half of the notes for gestures, can we still recognise the original piece of music? What new discoveries might performers and audiences make as we re-map these pieces?

Students will work in small teams to create their own “Counterpuntal Cartographies”, reimagining pieces of music selected by Jessie to create their own unique reinterpretations. Under the guidance of Jessie and Speak Percussion, the students will compose, workshop and rehearse before recording their creations on the final day of the program.

For further information and the full schedule, please download the April School Holiday Intensive Flyer. To apply please fill out the online form here.

Applications for the April School Holiday Intensive must be received by 5pm Wednesday 7 April. Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis and applying early is encouraged to avoid disappointment.

Jessie Marino (Image by Marc Perlish)


September School Holiday Intensive
September 27 – October 1 (11am-12pm)
Online

This September, the Sounds Unheard online School Holiday Intensive returns! Our annual program, focused on creativity, composition, improvisation and more, will see students composing new musical works in response to prompts from some of the world’s most innovative artists in the fields of new and experimental music.

Students will create, record and film their musical responses in their own homes. This program is ideal for students interested in innovation, imagination and thinking outside the box.

Participants will be guided through every part of the creative process and will work both individually and in small groups to brainstorm, experiment, record and share their unique creations. All sessions will be held over Zoom, allowing students from across metropolitan and regional Victoria to participate.

For further information and the full schedule, please download the September School Holiday Intensive Flyer. To apply please fill out the online form here.

Applications for the September School Holiday Intensive must be received by 5pm Thursday 23 September. Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis and applying early is encouraged to avoid disappointment.

Image by Denise Jans


Artist Internship: Sampling 101
November 10-27
Online

For modern musicians, using samples to create new works is an exciting new way to compose and create music that opens up thrilling new possibilities in sound.

This November, Speak Percussion and internationally renowned composer American composer Steven Takasugi (USA) will take students behind the scenes of a major sampling intensive, feeding into three very different and wildly ambitious projects – the Living Instruments virtual instrument collection, a live performance with bespoke electronic instruments, and the composition of a major performance work for electronics and live musicians.

Students will be introduced to a variety of innovative approaches to working with samples, and will be guided on beginning their own sample collections. Participants in this program will also be given priority access to our April 2022 Composition Intensive, where they’ll compose new works from their sample collections and workshop their creations with Speak Percussion.

For further information and the full schedule, please download the Sampling 101 Flyer. To apply please fill out the online form here.

Applications for the Sampling 101 Program must be received by 5pm Wednesday 10 November.

Image by Kommunitas Salihara


Studio Talks


Studio Talks
www.soundsunheard.com/studiotalks/

Access international artists, professional experts and a wealth of musical knowledge from your home, school or practice room. These online sessions are presented by some of the world’s most exciting musicians, on topics including performance preparation, approaches to composition, extended techniques and more.

Our Studio Talk presenter for 2021 was sound artist Philip Samartzis.


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