Artist Internship: Assembly Operation
Session 1: June 7, 4-6pm
Session 2: June 9, 4-6pm
Speak Percussion Studio, Thornbury
The 2016 Sounds Unheard Artist Interns will work closely with Speak Percussion as the ensemble develops new works, gaining valuable insight into how artistic ideas are brought to life. The Artist Internships are perfect for Sounds Unheard Members interested in performance, composition, instrument design and the creative process.
The Assembly Operation Artist Internships will focus on an exploration of toys as instruments. Participants will have the chance to hear about the fascinating backstory to this new work, and to workshop ideas with Speak Percussion. Participants are encouraged to sign up for the Assembly Operation Backstage Pass, where they will have the opportunity to see Speak perform excerpts of this piece in a closed performance.
Please note that two sessions will be offered for the Assembly Operation Artist Internship. Participants are welcome to nominate their preferred session, or to attend both.
Artist Internship: Anicca
Session 1: March 30, 1-4pm
Session 2: June 29, 1-4pm
Session 3: September 21, 9:30-11:30am
Arts House, North Melbourne / Speak Percussion Studio, Thornbury
The 2016 Sounds Unheard Artist Interns will work closely with Speak Percussion as the ensemble develops new works, gaining valuable insight into how artistic ideas are brought to life. The Artist Internships are perfect for Sounds Unheard Members interested in performance, composition, instrument design and the creative process.
The Anicca Artist Internship will invite participants to follow the development of a new work for rotating percussion instrument, conceived by Speak Percussion’s Artistic Associate Matthias Schack-Arnott. Sounds Unheard Members will see how Anicca takes shape as Matthias discusses his instrument design, compositional process, and preparations for the November 2016 premiere.
Backstage Pass: Assembly Operation
June 17, 4-6pm
Speak Percussion Studio, Thornbury
Join Speak Percussion for the first showing of Assembly Operation. Part chamber music, foley, sound track and incidental music, this large-scale theatrical work explores mass produced objects through the eyes of children and Chinese culture. Set in alternate realities shaped by games and role play, this work combines intriguing hand-made Chinese animation, stylised children’s toys and a minimalistic set design to create an utterly unique performance. Treating the toys polyphonically, en masse, or employing specialised percussion and puppetry techniques, Assembly Operation will push the dexterity and skill of Speak’s percussionists to their limits.
School Holiday Intensive: Bell Curve
July 4-8 2016
10am-4pm
Darebin Arts & Entertainment Centre
Join Speak Percussion for the creative development and first showing of a new work by Speak’s Artistic Director Eugene Ughetti. Bell Curve is an architectural intervention using hundreds of tuned hand bells set in motion by roaming performers and pre-recorded sound. New wireless technology developed by Nick Roux will enable a mass of performers, using networked speakers and personalised in-ear-monitors to move and perform precisely across vast spaces in one complex spatial composition.
Bell Curve will premiere at Arts House on December 3, 2016 as part of the Sounds Unheard Artist Program. Participants wishing to take part in the Artist Program are strongly encouraged to attend the School Holiday Intensive.
The Federation Handbells are managed by Museum Victoria on behalf of Creative Victoria.
Sounds Unheard Reporters (Radio Internships)
September 2016
PBS 106.7 FM, Collingwood
The 2016 Sounds Unheard Reporters will be featured in a radio broadcast and an Online Masterclass, interviewing Peter Knight (Artistic Director of the Australian Art Orchestra), and Tamara Saulwick (performance-maker, actor and director) about their individual and collaborative creative practices. Over four weeks in September, the reporters will meet once a week for interview coaching and radio broadcast training with Owen McKern, Program Manager at PBS 106.7FM, in preparation for the recording. The final interview will be broadcast on PBS’ The Sound Barrier and shared on the Sounds Unheard website.
Backstage Pass: Fluorophone
Session 1: November 21, 4:30-6:30pm
Session 2: November 22, 4:30-6:30pm
The Substation, Newport
Fluorophone creates a kaleidoscopic sound world in which the central instruments radiate, flicker, glow and burn. Analogue and digital fluorescent lights, the naked flame, strobe lights and custom-built LED discs are combined with percussion to create a program in which the music and lighting design are one and the same. Fluorophone moves between noise, theatrical music and virtuosic instrumentalism, in a synesthetic display of light and sound. Join Speak Percussion as they rehearse for the Australian premiere of this project, featuring specially commissioned works by a prominent team of leading composers from Australia, Denmark and the UK.
Please note that two sessions will be offered for the Fluorophone Backstage Pass: the tech rehearsal (November 21) and the final dress rehearsal (November 22).
Backstage Pass: Anicca
November 1, 4:30-6:30pm
Arts House, North Melbourne
Come behind the scenes with Speak Percussion and be the first in town to see our next show. Sounds Unheard Members are invited to sit in on the dress rehearsal for Anicca, a new work exploring cycles and orbits through sound, conceived by Speak Percussion’s Artistic Associate Matthias Schack-Arnott. Featuring a custom-built circular, spinning percussion set-up, bell-like resonances, and a spatialised sound-design which will orbit sounds around the audience, this dynamic and virtuosic performance will showcase a unique musical vocabulary unlike anything you’ve heard before.
Artist Program: Bell Curve
November 29 – December 3 2
Arts House, North Melbourne
The Artist Program provides Sounds Unheard Members with the opportunity to experience professional music-making, explore contemporary and experimental music practice, and present a public performance. In 2016 Sounds Unheard participants are invited to take part in Bell Curve, an immersive and intimate performance work for twelve independent musicians playing the Federation Handbells. Through an exploration of complex networked temporal relationships, a massed sound event unfolds across the performance space, a world revealed between the attacks and beating patterns of tuned bell resonance.
Bell Curve will premiere at the Arts House Summertime Festival, a free festival celebrating art and community. The ensemble will give three performances of this new work by Eugene Ughetti, showcasing the Federation Handbells and new technology developed by sound artist Nick Roux specifically for this unique event.
The Federation Handbells are managed by Museum Victoria on behalf of Creative Victoria.
Online Masterclasses with the Sounds Unheard Experts
Released throughout 2016
www.soundsunheard.com/masterclasses/
Access international artists, professional experts and a wealth of musical knowledge on diverse topics tailored to you. These online sessions are made to be watched from home, school or practice room. Sounds Unheard Experts in 2016 include Speak Percussion Artists, Liza Lim (Professor of Composition, University of Huddersfield), Johannes Kreidler (Berlin-based composer and a leading figure in ‘conceptualism’), Gail Priest (sound artist, writer and curator), Peter Knight (Artistic Director of the Australian Art Orchestra), and Tamara Saulwick (performance-maker, actor and director).
