Login

Enter your username and password

Forgotten your username or password?

Your Shopping Cart

There are no items in your shopping cart.

15 June 2011

Speak Emerging Artists speak: Kaylie Melville


Kaylie Melville Image: Kaylie Melville  

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. For more blog articles by program participants, see the Resonate blog.

Throughout the second week of Speak Percussion's Emerging Artist program, there was an incredible feeling of excitement and positivity from everyone involved. There were certainly challenges involved in learning five new musical works in five days of rehearsal, but having the opportunity to work so intensively on these pieces meant that we became very aware of how the pieces began to take shape from one rehearsal to the next. This was a really rewarding process and I think we were all extremely proud of the final result!

I think this program has been an amazing chance for composers and percussionists to learn from one another. With the various instruments, sticks and playing techniques available to percussionists, we are capable of creating an enormous number of different sounds and colours. The composers really embraced these possibilities and even managed to create a few new sounds of their own.

In turn I think the percussionists learnt a lot from the composers about their creative process and appreciated the chance to see the pieces as continuously evolving works rather than completed products. I really loved the open-minded attitude everyone brought to the program. No rhythm was too hard, no sound was impossible - we just needed to find a new way to approach it!

I'd like to say a huge thank you to Eugene Ughetti, Leah Scholes, Thomas Meadowcroft and Laura Holian for organising this program and giving us this opportunity to immerse ourselves in the world of new music - your passion and knowledge have been inspirational. I'd also like to thank all of the participants - I've learnt something new from every one of you! I hope that the idea of composer/musician partnerships will be taken up by many more young artists in the future. For me, it was the experience of learning and creating together that made this such a special and joyful program to be a part of.

Further links

'Speak Percussion's emerging artists speak for themselves' - Resonate blog (22 December 2010)
Speak Emerging Artists Program (Speak Percussion website)


Kaylie Melville is a Melbourne-based percussionist, currently completing a Master of Music degree with Robert Cossom. Kaylie graduated from the University of Western Australia in 2010 with first class Honors in percussion performance, as well as majors in theatre studies and French. She was a founding member of the Quadraphonic percussion quartet, a casual player with the WASO and an active member of the Perth musical theatre scene, with credits including 'You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown', 'Oliver', 'Oklahoma', 'Peter Pan', 'The Wizard of Oz' and 'My Favourite Year'. In November 2010, Kaylie travelled to Indianapolis to perform David Pye’s 'Rebana Loops' quartet at the Percussive Arts Society’s International Convention (PASIC). Since relocating to Melbourne in 2011, Kaylie has performed as one of Speak Percussion’s Emerging Artists and pursued further orchestral training with the Australian Youth Orchestra and the Sydney Sinfonia.


Comments

Be the first to share add your thoughts and opinions in response to this article.

You must login to post a comment.