The names of the five South Australian composers who will receive INVISIBILITY commissions from Chamber Music Adelaide have been announced. They are Luke Altmann, Jesse Budel, Georgina Bowden, Belinda Gehlert and Hilary Kleinig.
Luke Altmann, Hilary Kleinig, Georgina Bowden and Belinda Gehlert, four of five composers to receive INVISIBILITY commissions. Photo courtesy of Chamber Music Adelaide
Orders are offered by Chamber Music Adelaide in conjunction with MOD. (Adelaide Discovery Museum), with funding from ArtsSA through the 2022 COVID Recovery Fund.
The composers will each write a new chamber work in response to the MOD’s award-winning 2022 exhibition. INVISIBILITYwhich focuses on revealing the invisible and observing the unseen.
The new works will have their world premiere by South Australian musicians at an event held among the MOD exhibits. at the University of South Australia in October. A second performance will take place as part of the Chamber Music of Adelaide On the Terrace Mini Chamber Music Festival in November.
Applicants were asked to prepare a submission outlining the concept of a work that would express through music ideas of invisibility as depicted in the exhibition, and to tell stories of individual experiences of invisibility. The five composers were chosen by a jury from 18 submissions.
Janet Carey, director of Chamber Music Adelaide, said the jury for selecting the winners was “particularly impressed with the connection to the theme of invisibility displayed in the five chosen works, and the way each composer came up with a using innovative and creative compositional techniques to engage the listener with the material.Using the subject matter to address their own experiences of invisibility was also applauded, elevating these five submissions in the eyes of the panel.
Luke Altmann will compose a work in three parts for violin, cello and double bass with harmonicas entitled Parlando Spectral. The texts of each part will be chosen to illuminate inaudibility being to sound what invisibility is to sight.
Jesse Budel will draw on his background and expertise in acoustic ecology, soundscape composition and ecological sound art to write a work for string quartet exploring the invisibility of South Australia’s endangered species.
Georgina Bowden will compose a quartet for two flutes and two double basses, which will explore the beautiful and complex microstructures linked to the immensity of deep time inspired by ‘Underground’ (microscopic minerals revealing slow geological processes).
Belinda Gehlert will compose a string quartet inspired by a poem generated for her by the Nina Rajics Mirror Ritual exhibition at the MOD. and Mary Oliver’s poem Have you ever tried to enter the long black branches?
Hilary Kleinig will compose a trio for guitar, clarinet and cello entitled Karrawirra Parri / The river flows throughwho considers what it means to “be present in the shadow of absence, silence and invisibility”.
Composer Becky Llewellyn, who was a member of the panel, said: “There is such a wealth of talent represented in these composers. [and significantly] the response to the open call reached a 50/50 split of male and female ID composers. It’s the gold standard.
“We are delighted with the level of interest this project has generated,” said Carey, “and it has highlighted for us the need for continued opportunities for what is a diverse and very talented pool of composers here in Africa. from South.”
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