Australian Music Centre | Breaking sound barriers

Event Details

For four years, Deborah Szapiro and second year Bachelor of Design, Animation students at UTS have collaborated with the Australia Piano Quartet (UTS Quartet in Residence) and an Australian composer on a yearly concert that combines animation and performance with the debut of a newly commissioned piece of Australian modern classical music. The collaboration has produced a significant body of work.

This year they have collaborated with the irrepressibly talented composer Alice Chance, who has produced an innovative and evocative score, Dilate. The score blends Alice’s respect for traditional composition structure with her love of the possibilities that new technologies bring. 

The overarching theme for this year’s collaboration is 'What is not Visible... is not Invisible'. It looks to the human tendency to define the world by what is visible to the eye.  Whilst the human eye is a remarkable piece of precision engineering, it is also limited. We can see extraordinary detail, but the eye of a needle held at arm's length is pretty much at the limit of our vision. However, we live in an age where technology, research and science open up the wonder of worlds outside our visual perception. The Bachelor of Animation students have responded to this theme and to Alice’s composition with an animated journey through the hidden wonders and forces of our world. 

Dilate pays homage to the Renaissance structure of the prolation canon, one of the most difficult canons to write. In keeping with our theme, Alice   Chance has zoomed in microscopically to record a section of the score that will be played at 1000th of the speed under the live performance. 

Program details

Elena Kats-Chernin: Winter*

Alice Chance: Dilate (2017 UTS commission)

Peteris Vasks: Piano Quartet (2001)*

*Animated by Damian Gascoigne

Featured Australian Works

Featured artists

• Music of Elena Kats-Chernin
• Performer Australia Piano Quartet