Australian Music Centre | Breaking sound barriers

Event Details

Illuminating the shape-shifting power of the human voice, Resonant Bodies is an international festival of new vocal music founded in New York in 2013 and described as “indispensable” and “essential” by the New York Times.

5pm: Deborah Kayser - voice; Nick Tsiavos - double bass; KAYSER & TSIAVOS One Hundred Months, Third of East

Deborah Kayser has for several decades, been a guiding voice for new, innovative vocal music in Australia. Her set for Resonant Bodies is the next chapter in her long-standing project, One Hundred Months, Third of East. Composed by (and performed with) contrabass player Nick Tsiavos, One Hundred Months… journeys through a kind of modernist Byzantium of the imagination, forming an architecture into which both voice and bass project.

8pm: JACK SYMONDS The Shape of the Earth (2017- 2018), world premiere, text by Pierce Wilcox

Star of ten of SCO’s most imaginative shows, Mitchell Riley’s return to Sydney is marked by the premiere of a new staged song cycle by Jack Symonds and Pierce Wilcox, which takes as its inspiration Patrick White’s iconic novel 'Voss' and reimagines it completely.

Symonds and Wilcox are concerned not to emulate the epic, heroic tone of the original (already a Grand Opera by Richard Meale), but rather interrogate its ideas in 21 quizzical miniature songs, reflecting shards of a complex, broken persona. This Voss is an idealist thrown into a world he longs to understand- yet which remains always out of reach. The five parts of this work trace a journey from comic disbelief to flayed loneliness, with White’s indelible creation hovering just in the background.

To make this kind of work in Australia in 2018 requires a loving scepticism of the idea of Romantic, European ambition and an unflinching desire to try to understand how it became a dominant force in 19th and 20th century culture. A tailor-made work which will push Mitchell’s voice and body into new and extreme territory, featuring brilliant London-based pianist Zubin Kanga with electronics performed by composer and technologist Benjamin Carey.

Featured non-Australian music: Saariaho, Jaeger, Jutterstrom, Romaniero, Shabara

Further information for this event is available online at the event's website or by email to contact@sydneychamberopera.com

Featured Australian Works

	One Hundred Months, Third of East (female voice with accompaniment) ['iteration 2'] by Nick Tsiavos — performed by Nick Tsiavos and Deborah Kayser
	The Shape of the Earth : for voice, piano and electronics (2018) by Jack Symonds and Pierce Wilcox — World premiere — performed by Mitchell Riley, Benjamin Carey and Zubin Kanga

Featured artists

• Performer Mitchell Riley
• Performer Zubin Kanga
• Performer Deborah Kayser
• Performer Nick Tsiavos
• Performer Benjamin Carey