Term 1
Arts Centre Melbourne: Contemporary Improvisation Workshop
3 April 2024
The Channel, Arts Centre Melbourne
Cost: FREE
Join Speak Percussion’s Duré Dara and Kaylie Melville for a workshop in spontaneous composition and discovering the unique voice of any object or musical instrument. In this hands-on arts learning experience, students will:
- Work with Arts Centre Melbourne Creative Learning facilitators to explore what an identity as an artist and creative looks like, how it encompasses or enhances certain elements of personality, creativity and community.
- Explore Arts Centre Melbourne’s Collections of costumes, memorabilia, set designs and photographs – the Australian Music Vault and APAC Reveal, a new state of the art facility where participants can interact with the processes of maintaining and displaying the Collection. Students are encouraged to reflect on the Collection’s role in celebrating artist identities.
- Hear from Duré about her fascinating career as an improvising percussionist and trailblazing restauranter, including opening the first restaurant at Arts Centre Melbourne – EQ Cafe Bar. Duré and Speak’s Co-Artistic Director, Kaylie Melville will lead the group through a number of guided improvisations, providing opportunities for students to play and explore their creativity together in a supportive environment.
Improvisation Workshop: Duré Dara
4 April 2024, 2-4pm
Darebin Arts Centre, 401 Bell Street, Preston, VIC
Cost: FREE
Victorian secondary students of any instrument are invited to take part in an improvisation workshop inspired by the work of Speak Percussion’s Creative Director Duré Dara. This workshop will be run by Duré & Speak Percussion’s Co-Artistic Director and Sounds Unheard Co-ordinator, Kaylie Melville.
For more than 50 years, Duré Dara has been making spontaneous music and performance. She is well known for her work with the late David Tolley, in the Brian Brown Quintet and as an improvisational musician, collaborating on countless music projects with some of the most admired Australian musicians.
Duré has achieved great success as a business woman, in philanthropy and through her work with the Victorian Women’s Trust. She has consistently championed social inclusion and received an Order of Australia Medal for her services to women’s groups. She remains committed to working towards gender equality.
In this improvisation workshop, secondary students will hear from Duré about her fascinating career, her ‘Percussion, Degustation, Conversation’ project with Speak Percussion, and her advice for young artists. Dure and Kaylie will lead the group through a number of guided improvisations, providing opportunities for students to play and explore their creativity together in a supportive environment.
Instruments
Students will need to bring along an instrument for the improvisation exercises. All other materials will be provided.
Registration & Further Information
For further information, please download the Improvisation Workshop Flyer.
To apply please fill out the online form here.
Applications for the Improvisation Workshop must be received by 5pm, Monday 1 April 2024. For assistance with your application or to request further information, please contact Speak’s Special Projects Producer Biddy Connor (biddy@speakpercussion.com).
Term 2
Monash 2024 Day of Percussion: Improvisation Workshop
27 April 2024, 2-3pm
Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music and Performance, Monash University
Cost: FREE
Join Speak Percussion’s Duré Dara and Kaylie Melville for a Sounds Unheard Workshop, exploring creative ways to make music together.
The Day of Percussion runs from 12:30-5pm and includes three venues full of workshops, clinics, masterclasses and a concert. This is a free event, suitable for school and university students, emerging professionals, and percussion enthusiasts of all ages. You are warmly invited to participate and perform in the events throughout the day.
Further Information
For further information and to register, please visit the Day of Percussion website.
Bell Curve: Cardinia Cultural Centre
3-5 July 2024
Cardinia Cultural Centre, 40 Lakeside Boulevard, Pakenham VIC 3810
Cost: FREE
Winterfest Workshop: Bell Curve 3 Day Series
Wednesday 3 July – 9am-12pm
Thursday 4 July – 9am-12pm
Friday 5 July – 9am-12pm, performances at 12:10pm and 2:20pm
You are invited to take part in an immersive performance of Bell Curve at Cardinia Cultural Centre, showcasing Speak Percussion’s innovative use of percussion instruments, new technology and creative approaches to site-specific performance.
Twelve young musicians will take over Cardinia Cultural Centre’s foyer spaces, performing on the beautiful Victorian Federation Handbells. A massed sound event unfolds across the performance space, a world revealed between the attacks and beating patterns of tuned bell resonance.
Over the course of three days, the participants will work closely with Speak Artists Kaylie Melville (percussion) and Tilman Robinson (sound design) to learn this captivating new work and prepare for two public performances.
Speak Percussion takes percussive art to its physical and conceptual extremes, shaping the sounds of 21st century Australian percussion music through the creation and presentation of ambitious arts projects.
Suitable for children 12 – 17 years.
Registration & Further Information
For further information and to register, please visit Cardinia Cultural Centre’s website here.
For assistance with your application or to request further information, please contact Speak’s Special Projects Producer Biddy Connor (biddy@speakpercussion.com).
Bell Curve: Burrinja Cultural Centre
10-13 July 2024
Burrinja Cultural Centre, 351 Glenfern Rd, Upwey VIC 3158
Cost: FREE
Bell Curve: Winter Wellness Sunset Session Performance
Wednesday 10 July – 1-4pm
Thursday 11 July – 1-4pm
Friday 12 July – 1-4pm
Saturday 13 July – 3pm dress rehearsal, 6pm performance
Are you an experienced musician or a music enthusiast? Are you between the ages of 12 and 25? Keen to try your hand at bell ringing? We want to hear from you!
Be a part of a local, high quality art music event, presenting contemporary music composed by an award winning composer.
Bell Curve is a contemporary spatial performance work for twelve independent bell ringers composed by Eugene Ughetti and performed with the Federation Bells.
Bell Curve is a site-specific work that will be unique to Burrinja. The presentation will occur in unconventional locations in venue (foyer, gallery, etc.) or even multiple locations. The presentation of Bell Curve will be part of our Sunset Session program alongside other programmed events such as exhibition openings, artist talks, children’s activities, gallery tours, workshops, etc.
Suitable for participants 12-25 years.
Registration & Further Information
For further information and to register, please visit Burrinja Cultural Centre’s website here.
For assistance with your application or to request further information, please contact Speak’s Special Projects Producer Biddy Connor (biddy@speakpercussion.com).
Term 3
You’re An Instrument! Regional Tour
Various locations
25 June – 3 September 2024
Supported by Regional Arts Victoria
Two scientists take kids on a wild magical ride where movement becomes music, turning anything & everything into musical instruments. Yes, new technology can turn the actions of a human body, a pot-plant, or even a shampoo bottle, into any sound known to humanity. So move it!
The Travelling AirSticks Laboratory present a funny interactive all-ages family show exploring the history of sound & music, including the thoughts and feelings behind any toot, ding, dong or symphony, featuring the incredibly exciting technology of Airsticks.
Belvoir Special School – 25 June
Creative Arts Numurkah & District – 9 July
Birregurra Community Arts Group – 11 July
Creswick Theatre Company – 12 July
Avoca Primary School – 29 July
Pyramid Hill College – 30 July
Kyabram P-12 College – 31 July
Upper Murray Performing Arts Inc – 1 August
King Valley Arts – 2 August
Wonthaggi North Primary School – 6 August
Fish Creek and District Primary School – 7 August
Bruthen Arts and Events Council – 8 August
Ashwood School – 9 August
Merino Consolidated School – 13 August
Casterton Town Hall – 14 August
Penshurst Primary School – 15 August
Caledonian Primary School – 16 August
Hamlyn Views School – 19 August
Bethanga Primary School – 3 September
Bespoke: AXON Weekend
Darebin Arts Centre
21 September 2024, 3-5pm
AXON is a weekend of sonic experiments and music conceived and presented by Speak Percussion’s Bespoke Artists: 12 of Melbourne’s most exciting emerging and early-career musicians, exploring their artistic voice or new areas of their practice.
From synthesisers to erhu, experimental chamber orchestra to audio-visual performance-installation, these inventive music makers will share their newest ideas and fascinations at Darebin Arts Centre.
Speak are offering students free tickets to the 3pm show on Saturday 21 September, featuring the
world premiere of two new works for percussion and electronics and a Q&A with the artists.
Program:
Alexander Meagher – A Brilliant Seagull
Jesse Vivante – Omni-Omni
To reserve your place, please book your free ticket at www.soundsunheard.com/axon.
Project Z: Call out for Student Composer/ Sound Designer
Application deadline: 5pm Thursday 26 September 2024
ABOUT THE PROJECT:
PROJECT Z is a youth-led screen dance project: a new dance film created by 17 movement based artists aged 15-25. The project creates a forum for discussing issues that affect young people and how they relate to the world, empowering them to voice their ideas and perspectives.
PROJECT Z is seeking a young composer to create the soundtrack and/or sound design for the 5-10 minute film that was created in July. The film is currently being edited by Erin O’Rourke (Telstra/Australian Ballet Emerging Choreographer of the Year, 2022) in consultation with the young people involved.
The young composer selected will be mentored by Speak Percussion as they create their composition. The film will premiere at Dancehouse in late November and will be submitted to Screen Dance Festivals nationally and internationally in 2025.
PROJECT Z is facilitated by Youth Dance Makers Initiatives Artistic Director Chelsea Byrne, Screen Dance Artist Cobie Orger, and Choreographer Erin O’Rourke.
SELECTION CRITERIA:
- Victorian secondary student in year 9 – 12
- Access to and experience using a DAW that works with movies
(ie. Logic Pro, Cubase, Reaper, Digital Performer)
WHAT IS INVOLVED:
- Creating and producing a composition & sound design for a 5-10 minute dance film (no dialogue)
- 3 x 1.5 hour sessions with a Speak Percussion staff member to set up your project and give feedback on your composition
- A film credit as a composer
FURTHER INFORMATION & APPLICATIONS:
For more information on this project, please see the flyer here or contact Speak Percussion’s Special Projects Producer Biddy Connor (biddy@speakpercussion.com).
To apply, please click here to access the application form.
Applications must be received before 5pm Thursday 26 September 2024.
Term 4
Ask the Artist: Digital Echoes
Arts House
18 October 2024, 7:30-9pm
A concert for viola, percussion and electronics exploring the transformation of sound, messages and meanings displaced by time and space.
In Digital Echoes, melodic fragments of a viola are sent via internet connection to five different locations around Australia. The captured sound is then sent back to the performance space where it resonates percussion instruments, blending into the live soundscape. As the viola echoes, bouncing around the country, in and out of the live performance, its journeys create unpredictable timings, mapping the unseeable landscapes of our information highways.
Digital Echoes explores translation and what is lost and gained through coding and decoding. Inviting reflection about the history and future of internet and interstellar communication, this new work from Aaron Wyatt and Speak Percussion combines remarkable technology, contemporary classical music and percussive art to create an enthralling and otherworldly score.
Speak Percussion are offering students and their guardians an exclusive ticket discount to the performance and artist talk on Friday October 18.
For the 2-for-$20 promo code, please contact Sounds Unheard coordinator Zela Papageorgiou at soundsunheard@speakpercussion.com.
Digital Echoes (Darren Gill)
Studio Talks
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 presenters for 2024 will include:
www.soundsunheard.com/studiotalks/
Specialist Schools Program
Amplify is a term-long suite of musical activities designed for Victorian specialist schools, focusing on student engagement and learning through participatory events embedded in the school environment. Responding to strong demand from the specialist school community for new and innovative learning activities, Amplify creates opportunities to build trust, tailor activities to the needs of individual students and supporting students to express their own creative ideas. The program also features opportunities for students to publicly share their creations, fostering stronger social inclusion and opportunities to celebrate their achievements. The 2024 pilot program at Nepean School will be developed in consultation with teachers, occupational therapists and artist/disability advocate Dr Melinda Smith, providing direct insight into students’ needs and lived experience perspectives. The 2024 project will feature the Federation Handbells, a set of instruments unique to Victoria, and will be delivered by Speak Artists including Biddy Connor, Kaylie Melville, Ciaran Frame and Zela Papageorgiou. Specialist schools interested in bringing the Amplify program to their school in 2025 and beyond are encouraged to contact Speak’s Special Projects Producer Biddy Connor (biddy@speakpercussion.com) for further information.
