Looking Forward to 2019

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A huge thanks from Tura to all of our supporters, contributors and artists.

2018 has been one of our biggest year’s yet, Tura undertook two national tours, three Artist in Residencies in the remote communities of Warmun (East Kimberley) and Fitzroy Crossing (Kimberley), produced two major regional and remote tours, travelling to eight remote communities and six regional centres throughout the Kimberley and Pilbara, as well as our annual program of concerts, installations and events.

Highlights of 2018 include The Summers Night Project, with three young women composers who were mentored by acclaimed composers to create three new works that were toured to Perth, Melbourne and Adelaide, the week-long Residency with Ensemble Offspring with concerts in Perth and Albany and a workshop with young and emerging composers, and the sold-out Kimberley Echoes Tour, that delivered concerts and schools workshops in Darwin, the Kimberley and the Pilbara.

With critically acclaimed projects across WA and Australia, this year has offered a diverse and broad program of innovative and ear-opening experiences.

2018 saw the start of the Kimberley Indonesia Project with Indonesian artist Ubiet Raseuki travelling to Broome and the peninsula to collaborate with local Indigenous artists. The iMprov Program developed further with artist workshops, inviting local, national and international artists to work alongside young and emerging Perth composers in an open and experimental space.

We were proud to be the recipient of the APRA AMCOS | AMC Art Music Award for Excellence by an Organisation for our 30 year contribution to Australian sound art. And we were pleased to welcome our new Patron of the Tura Regional Program, Wayne Martin AC QC.

Tura looks forward to presenting the world premiere of Cat Hope’s new experimental opera, Speechless, at the 2019 Perth Festival, paying homage to those rendered speechless through political means. Speechless has been designed specifically for the new Sunset Heritage Arts Precinct – BOOK NOW.

The Tura office will be closed from 21 December to 2 January, but we look forward to seeing you in the new year at one of our events soon.

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Review: In SITU 2018

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Nina Levy reviews In SITU, a season of site-specific works from local independent choreographers and composers.

Described as “an intriguing and appealing walk into the unknown”, this season of In SITU was based in and around the East Perth Girls School and former home of the WA Police. Audiences were led through the dark corners, corridors and unseen areas of this historic building.

In SITU was presented by dance makers Kynan Hughes and Emma Fishwick in association with Tura, STRUT Dance and Artrage.

Read the full review here

New Music Network Closure

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Tura is sad to hear that the New Music Network has announced its closing at the end of 2018, after 23 years of activity championing new and experimental living music in Australia. A statement was released earlier in November by the NMN Committee about the decision to close the Network.

Fortunately, the New Music Network’s annual Peggy Glanville-Hicks Address will continue on, presented now by the Australian Music Centre.

The New Music Network’s statement can be found on their website.

Peggy Glanville-Hicks Address Transcript

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Missed out on the Peggy Glanville-Hicks Address or want to revisit it? Cat Hope’s full transcript can be found here.

The Peggy Glanville-Hicks Address is the single more important national forum for contemporary music discourse, which honours one of Australia’s great international composers and provides a platform to discuss important issues facing contemporary music today.

In the 2018 Address, Cat Hope (head of the Sir Zelman Cowan School of Music, Monash University) examines the current situation for music creators in Australia by bringing together some current debates and proposing appropriate actions to improve inclusion and opportunity for all people.

In SITU Composers Announced

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Tura New Music are pleased to announce the composers and sound designers for In SITU 2018, an annual performance platform that showcases new short dance works by a range of emerging and experienced independent WA choreographers and composers. Rebecca Riggs-Bennett, Ryan Burge, Steve Paraskos and Dane Yates will work with In SITU dance makers Kynan Hughes and Emma Fishwick and chosen choreographers to create new sound works for original site-specific dance works.

Composers were chosen based on a variety of selection criteria, including artistic merit, consideration of space, program balance, and performance practicality.

IN SITU

The season is from the 29th of November until the 1st of December, and will take place in the surrounds of the East Perth Girls School. In SITU will have the opportunity to occupy many of the internal and external spaces in and around the building.

In SITU is presented by dance makers Kynan Hughes and Emma Fishwick in association with Tura, STRUT Dance and ArtRAGE.

Stay tuned for more information about performance times and tickets.

Ryan Burge, Rebecca Riggs-Bennett, Dane Yates & Steve Paraskos

Upcoming Tura Programs

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Tura’s upcoming program is awash with sonic opportunities with leading audio-visual and multi-disciplinary artists, a program inspired by mechanical machines, and a player-activated multi-touch table-top console with computer generated virtual critters.

Robin Fox | Inland Concert Series – Erkki Veltheim • Rohan Drape • Alex Garsden • Aviva Endean • Breaking Waves | DuckworthHullickDuo | GreyWing

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A Small Prometheus
Robin Fox + Guests
7:30pm, Tues 2 Oct
The Sewing Room, Perth
Tickets

One of Australia’s most highly regarded audio-visual artists Robin Fox returns to Perth for a one-off live performance. “Robin has single-handedly instituted the uncontrollable urge to whoop and cheer into the forum of experimental music in Australia” -Resonate Magazine

Inland Concert Series
Erkki Veltheim (Violin), Rohan Drape (electronics), Alex Garsden (Guitar)
Aviva Endean (Clarinet and Electronics)
Breaking Waves (Full Ensemble)
4pm, Sun 21 Oct
St Paul’s Catholic Church, Menora
Tickets

The Inland Concert Series surveys multiple approaches and disciplines, creating concerts of exploratory and experimental music. For the first time in Perth this series featuring artists whose work spans notated, improvised, electroacoustic, popular and interdisciplinary practices.

Disruptive Critters: Alive
James Hullick & Jonathan Duckworth
In residence: Mon 29 Oct – Wed 31 Oct
Activation: 7:30pm, Wed 31 October
PS Art Space, Fremantle
Tickets

Disruptive Critters embraces visual and sonic programming in the conceptualisation of a technological creation myth with the artists as three omnipotent figures in a lonesome universe. This sonically abstract and texturally rich project features a massive projection and a multi-touch table-top console by the DuckworthHullickDuo.

Ex Machina
GreyWing
7:30pm, Wed 14 Nov
Old Customs House, Fremantle
Tickets

West Australian ensemble GreyWing present seven works where the machine is front and centre. Ex Machina explores music made from, and inspired by, machines and the mechanical.

These events are presented by Tura, within SymbioticA’s Unhallowed Arts.

Unhallowed Arts: 100 Keyboards by Asuna

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Japanese sound artist and musician Asuna works in and around notions of play, authenticity and noise-as-music through his steadfast DIY ethic, whether it be delicate improvised solo works or indie-rock & punk through to expansive environment-based sound scapes.

In 100 Keyboards, Asuna assembles a machine-orchestra comprised of one hundred humble toy keyboards, coercing them to harmonise, cross-talk and beat in conversation with the performance space’s acoustics. No two performances can be the same.

This is a truly one-of-a-kind performance in The Art Gallery of WA Concourse.

6:45pm, Tues 23 October
The Art Gallery of WA
$30+BF Tickets from Eventbrite

About Asuna

Creating experimental music and installation work from a very young age during the late 90’s, Asuna has gone on to become a pioneer within the experimental ambient/drone/improvisation scene in Tokyo, influencing and collaborating with many other Japanese electronic musicians. He has also released a number of albums for European, American and Japanese labels.

This will be Asuna’s debut performance in Perth and is presented by The SUBSTATION, Performance Space, Asialink, hellosQuare & SymbioticA, in association with Tura, as part of Unhallowed Arts.

Kimberley Echoes 2018

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The Narlis (Narl-ees) celebrated 5 years of collaborations across the Kimberley with a program inspired by, and reflective of, the power of country and community – travelling from Darwin to Karratha for a series of public concerts as the Kimberley Echoes Tour. Stephen Pigram, Mark Atkins, Stephen Magnusson, Erkki Veltheim, Tristen Parr and Tos Mahoney performed the program of original works at places like The Lighthouse for Darwin Festival, Waringarri Aboriginal Arts Centre in Kununurra, Sun Pictures in Broome and the new Red Earth Arts Precinct in Karratha.

Image by Frances Andrijich

With special additions including the Waringarri Dancers in Kununurra, Gabriel Nodea in Broome and Naomi Pigram in Karratha, Echoes flew to new heights of performance and collaboration. Enthusiastic audiences lapped up not only the performances but the on-tour available CD of the same name (soon for general release).

The energy of the tour itself, and yet another gathering of this eclectic and adventurous group of artists, has been a solid forerunner to the planned east coast tour of Kimberley Echoes through 2019 and 2020.

Our huge thanks to all of the Tour funders, sponsors and donors including the State Government through the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries, Lotterywest and the Royalties for Regions program and the Australia Council’s Contemporary Music Touring Fund, Healthway promoting the Act-Belong-Commit message, The Ian Potter Foundation, The Rowley Foundation, APRA AMCOS, Airnorth, GWN7 and the West Australian Regional Newspapers.

Image by Frances Andrijich

Ensemble Offspring Returns to WA

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Ensemble Offspring are one of Australia’s leading new music ensembles and Tura is delighted to welcome them back to WA for a week-long Residency. The artists of Ensemble Offspring are internationally esteemed as an ensemble, and in their own right.

Ensemble Offspring has performed together for over 20 years (the current touring group has worked together for 10 years), and is led by acclaimed percussionist and founder Claire Edwardes. In 2013 Claire was granted a prestigious Australia Council Music Fellowship, she is the first person to take home the AMC & APRA AMCOS Art Music Award for Excellence by an Individual three times and is the most recent percussionist to win the Symphony Australia Young Performers Award. Claire has been instrumental in leading, developing, and stimulating the art music scene in Australia.

“To say Claire Edwardes is virtuosic is redundant; she’s more, transforming the works into sonorous, shimmering aural opulence.” – Australian Stage

In their upcoming concerts in Perth and Albany, audiences will witness Zubin Kanga’s ‘truly elegant and impeccable’ pianism (The Australian) in the first-time performance of Composer-in-Residence for the Chicago Symphony, Missy Mazolli’s, piano solo Orizzonte. The London and Sydney-based pianist and composer has worked with many of the world’s leading composers and has premiered more than 80 works. His projects are focussed around expanding the possibilities of the piano through interactive multimedia.

Speaking of multimedia, the concerts will also present Felicity Wilcox’s composers cut of Jean Luc Goddard’s 1962 film Vivre sa Vie. Alongside industrial sounding percussion, the bass flute and bass clarinet will ‘talk’ with the characters on-screen. Flautist Lamorna Nightingale has performed regularly as a casual member of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the Australian Chamber Orchestra and the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra, while Jason Noble is widely considered as one of Australia’s most versatile clarinettists, and has experimented with all members of the clarinet family and dabbled on saxillo, clarinis, keyboards and bagpipe.

The ensemble champions new music of our time, offering an approachable experience within contemporary music, and celebrating some of the finest composers in Australia.

CONCERTS

Perth | 7:30pm Tuesday 11 Sept | Subiaco Arts Centre | Tickets

Albany | 5pm Saturday 15 Sept | Albany Entertainment Centre | Tickets