23 June 2011
Speak Emerging Artists speak: Owen Salome
Image: Owen Salome The participants in Speak Percussion's Emerging Artists Program write about the intense period of rehearsals and the final performances in Melbourne in April 2011. For their thoughts after the earlier 'creative development week' in December, please see this article on Resonate blog.
The second portion of the program was amazing. As is often the case, in my experience so far, the first rehearsal of my piece was disheartening. This was no reflection on the performers, who dove right into my somewhat unconventional notation, but we had some issues with finding instruments that were exactly what I had envisaged and combined with the co-ordination issues that are always a part of a first rehearsal, I came away feeling a little down about the whole process.
Nobody should judge their piece on a first rehearsal! The second rehearsal reminded me of why this is; in the second rehearsal I began to catch glimpses of the piece I had envisaged. I was the first composer to have all three of my allotted rehearsals, and so I think I was a great deal calmer at the end of Wednesday than some of the other composers who had yet to have their final rehearsals.
My percussionist collaborator was Maddi Chwasta, and we had given a great deal of thought to how to best realise the concept that I had presented in the first week of the program. Having created a piece that was inspired by this concept, it was very beneficial to the rehearsal process to have a performer who was not only well informed on my intentions, but also a 'co-conceptualiser' in the developmental stages of the piece. The performance was excellent, and I intend to write more for percussion as this experience has given me a lot of percussion-flavoured food for thought.
Further links
'Speak
Percussion's emerging artists speak for themselves' -
Resonate blog (22 December 2010)
Speak Emerging Artists Program (Speak Percussion
website)
© Australian Music Centre (2011) — Permission must be obtained from the AMC if you wish to reproduce this article either online or in print.
Owen Salome is a composer and flautist based in Sydney. He is currently completing his Bachelor of Music(Honours) with a major in composition at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. His piece Anemone was performed as part of 'Fourcast: the New and Contemporary Classical Music Performance Grant Concert' at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music in June 2011. Owen was among the young composers commissioned by the Kammerklang Orchestra to compose a number of works for the 2010 season. In 2010, Owen was also musical director, composer and sole musician for the 'Semicolonbackslash Productions' show Landing, a theatre piece directed by Matthieu Cadart that toured to both the Sydney and Melbourne fringe festivals. As well as composing, Owen is also a founding member of a number of Sydney bands.
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