August has been a hugely busy month for the Making Waves team!  In between team members travelling internationally, the Making Conversation podcast, attending and hosting a panel at the Women in the Creative Arts Conference at Australian National University, we had to take a break from the playlist at the beginning of the month.  Instead, we’re delighted to bring you a bonus guest-curated playlist in the lead-up to BIFEM, that’s Bendigo International Festival of Exploratory Music, taking place September 1-4, 2017.  We hand over the reins to Artistic Director David Chisholm, who’s handpicked some of the composers performed at the upcoming festival for this playlist.  You can find out more about David here.

“Making a choice of works by composers from within a festival in which you have already curated them, presents a peculiar curatorial challenge insofar as they are clearly integral to current crop of composers one finds oneself focussed on. Conveniently for me, the specific championing of Australian music that defines Making Waves, a geographical filter automatically knocked out a lot of 2017 BIFEM contenders. When I looked at what connects me to all these composers,I feel that they all share a habit for turning over rocks and looking under. Each of them has the sort of inquiry-led work that I find so enriching as a listener. Each is idiomatic in their musical life and that is really all i look for: a point of view, and more importantly, a point of difference in the music itself, not the discourse around it. Each of these composers understands the ritual nature of music, and knows how to plug in the listen to that sense of ritual. Each of them are stars in my eyes.”

About BIFEM: Bendigo International Festival of Exploratory Music strutted onto the international music scene in September 2013, winning critical praise from around the world and delivering festival and broadcast audiences a visceral experience. With an emphasis on premiere or rarely performed long form works, BIFEM platforms virtuosity in musicianship and innovation in composition. BIFEM’s resident ensemble Argonaut is drawn from a flexible roster of virtuosi from across Australia and from visiting international guests, playing together exclusively in Bendigo.

Bendigo is culturally alive, and its audiences are savvy and brave. While this great Central Victorian city is widely recognised for its visual and plastic arts culture, Bendigo is also a deeply musical city. The Bendigo Symphony Orchestra, City of Greater Bendigo Brass Band, Bendigo Chorale, Undue Noise, Bendigo Chamber Choir and many of the high school music streams all present dynamic annual programmes. In recent years, the Bendigo Blues & Roots Festival and Bendigo Writers Festival have flourished. BIFEM belongs in Bendigo.

SOUNDCLOUD

Hear something that catches your attention? To find out more about a musical work, click on the track name in the playlist and then again on ‘view track’. To find out more about a particular composer, click on their name in the ‘Details’ section below.

DETAILS

1. Samuel Smith, elsewhere; everywhere
   for seven antiphonal violas. Violas: Alexina Hawkins, Cameron Campbell, Phoebe Green, Anthony Chataway, Ceridwen Davies, Rachel Grimwood, Michael Webb. Conductor: Evan Lawson. Recording engineer: Declan Kelly
2. Kevan Atkins, Gaze
   for flute and guitar. Performed by Gisbert Watty: Guitar, Luciano Tristano: Flute.
3. Erkki Veltheim, Glossolalia
   for string quartet. Performed at 2016 BIFEM, Bendigo Town Hall, by Erkki Veltheim & Elizabeth Welsh: violins, Graeme Jennings: viola, Judith Hamann: cello. Recorded and mixed by Jem Savage.
4. Caterina Turnbull, Synesthesia
   for water installation.
5. Liam Flenady, braneworlds (excerpt)
   for Kupka’s Piano.

YOUTUBE

James Rushford, The Fallberry Floor
for electric harmonium.

We’d love to hear about your listening experience! Share your thoughts or send messages of support to our featured composers and performers in the comment box below. We also encourage you to click through to Soundcloud or YouTube to like, comment and subscribe to Making Waves as well as the composers, performers, and presenters featured.

The BIFEM Waves playlist will be featured until 1 September 2017. All previous playlists from 2015 to present are available in our blog archives for the life of the project, so please do explore the website for previously featured sounds.