Resonate Magazine | Australian Music Centre

The big news this month is the inaugural Bendigo International Festival of Exploratory Music (BIFEM). The festival sees an impressive line-up of Australian new music specialist performers joined by a couple of high-profile internationals for a program full of challenging new music from around the world.

ABC Classic FM is broadcasting eight BIFEM concerts across the middle of the month in Evenings and New Music Up Late, including four with recent Australian works by Alex Pozniak, James Rushford, David Chisholm, Damien Ricketson, Matthew Shlomowitz, Samuel Dunscombe, Jeanette Little and Alexander Garsden. In preparation for the event, New Music Up Late is featuring some recent music from festival artistic director and composer David Chisholm on the first weekend of the month, including the broadcast premiere of his large-scale oratorio requiem KURSK.

And at the other end of the month New Music Up Late presents two distinctive studio records with substantial pieces by David Young, Matthias Schack-Arnott, and keyboard improvising duo Alister Spence and Myra Melford. And we wrap the month with the broadcast of a two-hour interview and musical retrospective (postponed from August) with Brenton Broadstock, one of the quiet achievers in the Australian classical music landscape with a body of impressive scores for orchestra, brass band, and diverse vocal and chamber line-ups. And Evenings and Afternoons also offer chances to hear performances of two recent works from that grand old man of Australian music, Peter Sculthorpe.

In the online-iverse, New Waves has passed the 270 mark with the latest series of podcasts from Synergy Percussion, with a new series about to begin. And we're busy preparing to add more recordings to Rewind: the Australian Music Collection.

Broadcast highlights schedule

Friday 6 September
10.30pm New Music Up Late: Golden Fur - Samuel Dunscombe, clarinet; Judith Hamann, cello; James Rushford, harmonium. Includes David Chisholm - Golden Fur

Saturday 7 September
8.00pm Evenings (LIVE): Sydney Symphony Orchestra/ Nigel Westlake; Lior, vocalist.
Lior (Attar) Leaving the Western Shadows; Nigel Westlake & Lior (Attar)- Compassion - Symphony of Songs
10.30pm New Music Up Late: David Chisholm: KURSK - An Oratorio Requiem (text by Anzhelina Polonskaya). Performed by Christopher Richardson bass-baritone; Jessica Aszodi, soprano; Tristram Williams flugelhorn/trumpet; Steven Hodgson, Jerzy Kozlowski, Irving Dekterev, Anthony Mackey, Timothy Reynolds, James Payne, Brenton Spiteri, Daniel Todd, male consort (directed by Timothy Phillips); Anzhelina Polonskaya, poetry recital (Russian); Greg Ulfan, poetry recital (English); Arcko Symphonic Project; Eric Dudley, conductor

Monday 16 September
9.00pm Evenings: BIFEM - Argonaut Ensemble.
Includes Alex Pozniak - Spiral Forth; James Rushford - Tussilage; David Chisholm - Seven Little Miracles

Tuesday 17 September
1.00pm: Afternoons: Tokyo String Quartet.
Includes Peter Sculthorpe - String Quartet No 16

Wednesday 18 September
9.00pm Evenings: BIFEM - Ensemble Offspring.
Includes Damien Ricketson - Fractured Again Suite; Some Shade of Blue; Matthew Shlomowitz - Slow Flipping Harmony; Letter Piece

Friday 20 September
10.30pm New Music Up Late: BIFEM - Samuel Dunscombe, clarinet/electronics.
Includes Samuel Dunscombe - Poetic Cartography

Saturday 21 September
10.30pm New Music Up Late: BIFEM - Elizabeth Welsh, violin; Alexander Garsden, electronics and guitar.
Includes Jeanette Little - new work; Alexander Garsden - Law II

Thursday 26 September
7.00pm Evenings (LIVE): Ilya Konovalov, violin; Kathryn Selby, piano.
Includes Peter Sculthorpe - Alone

Friday 27 September
10.30pm New Music Up Late: In Studio - Mark Cauvin, double bass & Matthias Schack-Arnott, percussion.
David Young - The Art of War; Matthias Schack-Arnott - Divisadero, plus improvisations by Alister Spence and Myra Melford

Saturday 28 September
10.30pm New Music Up Late: Brenton Broadstock - Off the Record. Julian day talks to composer Brenton Broadstock and plays the composer's own personal playlist of music from across his career.

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Saturdays at 7.00pm with Julian Day. Showcasing Australia's finest composers and performers - an hour of all-Australian music for you on Saturday evenings.