Feb
11
2:00 PM14:00
Aug
1
6:00 PM18:00
Ossicle Duo - Unshrouded Metals
What is seen? What is covered? What is hidden? What is heard?
Experimental adventurers Ossicle Duo explore both physical and metaphorical shrouding. When something is covered, or obscured, how does that change the way we hear it? Or see it? Or understand its meaning?
Jul
15
3:30 PM15:30
Forest Collective: Diapsalmata
Trailblazing performing arts company Forest Collective joins forces with local Geelong composer and pianist Kym Alexandra Dillon and baritone Stephen Marsh, for an afternoon of inspiring and beautiful new music.
Jun
15
8:00 PM20:00
Speak Percussion - Sonic Eclipse
Speak Percussion presents Sonic Eclipse, an immersive percussive event that interweaves four new Australian compositions into a seamless exhalation of spatialized sound. Featuring 50+ mobilised drummers and wind players and an ensemble of 12 leading percussionists, this performance bleeds across three floors and into the magnificent acoustics of the Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, reimagining the venue’s conventional acoustics and redefining the sonic boundaries of its traditional concert hall.
Apr
28
7:00 PM19:00
A Decade of Rhythm! A Republic of Sound
Tin is the traditional metal marking a 10-year anniversary. So, too, is it the flashy and proud symbol of a decade of percussion at ANAM. When the percussion program launched in 2013, we achieved our goal of offering training on every orchestral instrument. To celebrate, our percussion musicians, faculty, and alumni - led by Head of Percussion, Peter Neville - present a kaleidoscopic concert series.
Nov
21
6:00 PM18:00
Six Degrees Ensemble: Above Us
About the Ensemble
Melbourne chamber music group Six Degrees Ensemble specialises in Australian, contemporary and lesser-known works. Their invigorating concerts typically feature six or more artists that includes a rotating line-up of guests and an exciting variety of instruments in the spotlight.
I’m delighted to be a guest percussionist in this concert!
Their performance in Primrose Potter Salon uses distinct textures and instrumental combinations inspired by the cosmos above us. An immersive repertoire of Elliot Gyger, George Crumb, Somei Satoh, Hildegard von Bingen and Robert Schumann reveals the multilayered and multidimensional timelessness of the celestial world.
In this concert Six Degrees Ensemble combines sitar, piano, percussion, piccolo and bass flute, cello and two vocalists to create a distinctive program. A shimmering constellation of music inviting audiences to reach for the stars and celebrate creativity in all its forms.
Oct
24
6:00 PM18:00
Ossicle Duo: pathways-faultlines-fractures
Ossicle Duo are pioneers of exploratory art music, blending technical refinement and liveliness to produce performances with palpable energy. Their practice preferences collaboration, supporting and promoting new experimental sonic realms.
The duo’s performance in Primrose Potter Salon will undoubtedly push the envelope, teaming up with local composer and boundary dissolver K. Travers Eira. The collaboration will see them create a map detailing nodes and networks for the duo to follow, projected onto the walls of Primrose Potter Salon.
Join Ossicle Duo in forging an aural path. A sonic exploration that celebrates the poetics of play and possibility.
Aug
18
to Aug 21
Scream Star
Speak Percussion has commissioned three world renowned composers, Johannes Kreidler, Jessie Marino and Matthew Shlomowitz for a daring new music performance project interrogating the relationship between the screen and stage.
Brought together for their unique compositional voices and strong track record of integrating screen-based media in live performance, Scream Star marks the first collaboration between these leading lights in experimental and contemporary classical music.
Performers on screen and archival footage clash with a live percussion performance in a series of screen-performance works by prominent internationally lauded composers, video artists and filmmakers. Drawing inspiration from archival Australian TV, lo-fi video techniques, concert etiquette, shadow puppetry and foley artistry.
Thu 18th August – Sat 20th, 7.30pm | Sun 21st, 5pm
Jun
30
6:00 PM18:00
The Fifth Season
New experimental sonic realms.
Click here to get tickets now.
With a program of groundbreaking premieres by composers from Australia and New Zealand, the duo starts with Liam Flenady’s The Five Seasons, a thrilling and disorientating musical dystopia, forecasting a world in ecological crisis.
Finishing with Jaslyn Robertson’s Cut It, the duo plunges the into a granular electroacoustic noise world, drawing on her own experiences of censorship in the arts as a non-male composer.
Jun
17
3:00 PM15:00
Bespoke Artists Showcase
The Bespoke Artists Program supports independent, early-mid career artists and arts workers with a focus on career sustainability. Across this annual program, participants will receive professional development in three key areas; business, career and artistic leadership.
I’m lucky to have been in the program since 2020 and I’ve been working on co-creating a piece for bamboo, ceramics and fixed media titled ‘Navigating Distance and Closeness’ with Niki Johnson, and I’ll also be performing in Zela Papageorgiou’s new work for percussionists, moving image work and electronics titled ‘Dissipative Structures’.
Please email me at hamishu@gmail.com if you’d like to come along - it’s free and there will be wine!
There are 2 showings, one at 3pm and one at 7pm. I hope to see you there.
Apr
30
7:30 PM19:30
Forest Collective | Diapsalmata: Portrait of a Self
“Even to see oneself in the mirror, one must recognise oneself.
For unless one does that, one does not see oneself, only a human being. ”
— Soren Kierkegaard, The Sickness unto Death
A transgender composer bids a musical farewell to her troubled past state of existence through a heartfelt artistic expression of the abstract mental journey it took to get her out of it.
The expressive and multifaceted baritone of Stephen Marsh gives voice to the restless thoughts and reflections of a 'self' stuck in a mental labyrinth, via settings of text fragments from the Danish existential philosopher Soren Kierkegaard. Moving through a cycle of continual self-construction/deconstruction, darkly comic/tragic musings and elusive despair, Portrait of a Self depicts someone struggling to dig underneath their consciousness, make sense of their condition and become a real person, all amongst music which is itself in a state of fluctuating stylistic identity.
This piece from Melbourne composer Kym Dillon is born from a very specific experience, but more broadly it is a story of mental health, selfhood, and the unearthing of identity in the most foundational sense.
Be sure to join Forest Collective, under the direction of guest conductor Elliott Gyger, for this very special one-off performance.
I am a guest percussionist for this concert, joining Zela Papageorgiou, Forest Collective’s core percussionist.
All text and images are sourced from the Forest Collective Website
Apr
16
to Apr 17
Four Winds Festival: Common Ground
I am delighted to be a percussionist in the 2022 Four Winds festival! I will perform at two concerts:
PART ONE: DRUMMING | 2:45pm Saturday April 16th
Steve Reich’s Drumming Part One features four players on tuned bongo drums. This is the first of four parts that make up his mesmerising, focussed and heart-pumping early work, Drumming. Composed in 1971 on Reich’s return to New York from Ghana, where he was inspired by that country’s tight music ensembles. With no changes in melody or rhythm, slight shifts in timing and pitch create the work’s momentum.
I am delighted to join Nathan Gatenby, Anna Camara and Jackson Vickery.
FOUR WINDS FINALE | 2:45pm Sunday April 17th
The Finale’s conclusion embraces the whole site and audience in an immersive Australian Premiere performance of Tan Dun’s Prayer and Blessing featuring twelve percussionists playing tam-tams, string quartet, soprano Chloe Lankshear, and conducted by Four Winds Artistic Director Matthew Hoy. Created in response to Covid-19 this global work shares a timely message of community, in a text by Chinese philosopher Laozi.
Mar
27
6:00 PM18:00
from these old skins
About the concert
Ranging from the intimate to the expansive, these thrilling contemporary works take us to the frontiers of human experience.
Ossicle Duo delves into music that questions the nature of individuality. Distorted trumpet and trombone join expansive drums and live electronics in Ubiitsi, a study of journalistic freedom in dystopian states. Heather Stebbins evokes electronic sounds in her acoustic work from these old skins for frame drum and trombone. Electronics give an otherworldly feel to Richard Barrett’s CODEX III, a structured improvisation exploring density, articulation and the individual versus the collective. And a new commission for Ossicle Duo by emerging Melbourne-based composer Matthew Laing examines identity and place, using pre-recorded electronics to express the majesty of the universe.
Apr
21
6:00 PM18:00
Praxaeology
Two of Melbourne’s most vibrant chamber music ensembles, Rubiks Collective and Ossicle Duo, unite to explore the logic behind human action.
Donnacha Dennehy’s Mild, Medium-Lasting, Artificial Happiness veers between whimsical and sarcastic unisons, Panayiotis Kokoras’s Study on Phonetics juxtaposes metallic jolts and whispered bowings, and two percussionists examine a tinkling pallet of delicate glass objects in Annie Hsieh’s Quietude.
The concert culminates in the world premiere of a new work for the virtuosic forces of these combined ensembles by rising Australian composer Jakob Bragg, recipient of the 2020 University of Melbourne Commission Award.
Presented by Melbourne Recital Centre and Rubiks Collective and Ossicle Duo
Aug
17
6:00 PM18:00
Mountain Black/Turbine Sky
Book tickets here
Percussion glinting in chrome. Electronics shot in silver.
Mountain Black, Turbine Sky is a 21st century rite, where technology, prehistory, and the sapien ambition entwine.
What future auditory culture do we imagine for our contemporary communities? Can we reconcile the mystery of our ancient and vast landscapes with the unstoppable force of human exponential growth?
Presented by Melbourne Recital Centre and JOLT
Feb
18
2:00 PM14:00
Natural Order
Ossicle Duo’s debut performance features contemporary art music for trombone and percussion, inspired by interaction and interference with natural systems.
Natural Order is made possible by a CoPP Cultural Development Fund grant.
Adults $25 / Students and City of Port Phillip Residents $15
Feb
15
6:00 PM18:00
Belle Chen's Global Soundscapes
Hamish Upton features as a guest musician in Belle Chen's Global Soundscapes.
An immersive and evocative recreation of locations around the world through classical music, soundscapes, improvisation and perfumes.
From tropical sounds of Java, storms in southern Spain, the spice markets of Istanbul to Buenos Aires, pianist Belle Chen performs works of Ravel, Mompou, Poulenc, Scarlatti, Fazil Say, and Piazzolla amidst manipulated field recordings and improvisation in collaboration with perfumer Nadjib Achaibou and guest musicians.
Oct
14
to Oct 15
Bangsokol - A Requiem for Cambodia
From a time of colossal horror springs a work of immense compassion.
It has been almost four decades since the fall of Phnom Penh to the Khmer Rouge. Bangsokol is the first major symphonic work to address this legacy of pain and will premiere at Melbourne Festival before performances at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and Philharmonie de Paris.
The 1970s saw an entire generation of Cambodian artists torn from the world, but in the years since a growing community has formed to bring new expression to a culture still devastated by unimaginable events. The tradition of the requiem is proof that some of the greatest and most uplifting works of art have been born of the darkest events, and Bangsokol joins their number as an extraordinary new work spanning song, film, dance and speech.
Acclaimed filmmaker Rithy Panh and renowned composer Him Sophy are both survivors of the years of massacre, and have gathered an international host of collaborators to produce a work that fuses the traditional bangsokol—a Buddhist rite bringing peace to the dead—with the Western requiem. The result is an unprecedented work that transforms tragedy into hope and carves out a new space in which to heal.
It is a ritual tribute to the more than two million Cambodians murdered, created by an unprecedented team of international collaborators including childhood survivors of the regime.
I will perform the timpani part in this event.
Content from Melbourne Festival Website.
Oct
7
7:30 PM19:30
American Triptych - Jan Williams
Three of the world’s greatest living percussionists gather in Melbourne to celebrate the centenary of the birth of their compatriot, American composer Lou Harrison. In what is set to be one of the country’s major percussion events of 2017, Steven Schick, William Winant and Jan Williams – each the stuff of musical legend – preside over an inspirational ten days of concerts, talks, masterclasses and events with students and practitioners from around the country.
Throughout American Triptych, Lou Harrison’s unique musical cosmos will be celebrated alongside music by his friends and colleagues of that other great musical tradition; the 20th century American tradition.
CLICK HERE to view the full American Triptych program of concerts, masterclasses and discussions.
HARRISON Canticle no. 1 for 5 percussionists
HARRISON First Concerto for flute and percussion
FELDMAN Instruments 3
CAGE Double Music
HARRISON Labyrinth no. 3 for 11 percussionists
Oct
3
7:30 PM19:30
American Triptych - William Winant
Three of the world’s greatest living percussionists gather in Melbourne to celebrate the centenary of the birth of their compatriot, American composer Lou Harrison. In what is set to be one of the country’s major musical events of 2017, Steven Schick, William Winant and Jan Williams – each the stuff of musical legend – preside over an inspirational ten days of concerts, talks, masterclasses and events with students and practitioners from around the country.
Throughout American Triptych, Lou Harrison’s unique musical cosmos will be celebrated alongside music by his friends and colleagues of that other great musical tradition; the 20th century American tradition.
CLICK HERE to view the full American Triptych program of concerts, masterclasses and discussions.
HARRISON Tributes To Charon
COWELL Ostinato Pianissimo
HARRISON Varied Trio
CAGE Four6
HARRISON Concerto for organ and percussion
HARRISON Song of Quetzalcoatl
Sep
25
to Sep 26
2Hz - Presentation at Transplanted Roots Percussion Symposium
Zela Papageorgiou present on:
Reconstructing and re-contextualising orchestral objects: investigating how composers and performers integrate stringeD instruments into percussion performance
Photo credit: Thea Rossen
www.transplantedroots.org
Sep
2
to Sep 3
Nihilist Cipher
I will be joining Mauricio Carrasco to perform Vacuum's Vessels at 12pm on Saturday 2nd September, and 3pm Sunday 3rd September.
Mauricio Carrasco’s association with BIFEM goes back to 2012 when he was the first of three recitalists at the Prospectors Day pop-up event. As a BIFEM Associate Artist he has had a fundamental influence on the tone, content and direction of the festival. It is a distinct pleasure to present Mauricio in his newest recital programme at 2017 BIFEM, a charged and powerful hour of 21st century music for guitar by a stellar performer. This programme will be performed twice at 2017 BIFEM.
Aug
22
6:30 PM18:30
Terra Incognita with Ensemble Francaix
I will join Ensemble for 'Worker's Union' in this not-to-be-missed concert!
The thrill of the unknown captures the hearts of explorers, whether of land or in art. In the final chapter of their Fellowship series, Ensemble Françaix embarks on a journey towards uncharted musical territories, from the distinctly Australian sound-world of Katia Beaugeais to the jazzy cosmopolitan strains of André Previn. The core trio is then joined by ANAM percussionists to perform works by Turkish-German composer Hakan Ulus and Dutch post-minimalist Louis Andriessen that will test the limits of their technique and powers of concentration.
BEAUGEAIS Terra Incognita
PREVIN Trio for oboe, bassoon and piano
ULUS Tariq
ANDRIESSEN Workers Union
Aug
12
7:00 PM19:00
Cage and Zappa
THE MUSIC
Selections from John Cage’s magical Sonatas and Interludes for prepared piano, inspired by the composer’s study of Indian philosophy and aesthetic, provide a dreamlike prelude to an evening of virtuosic music for piano, under the fervent direction of Michael Kieran Harvey. The later half of the program opens with keyboard music by Frank Zappa’s 18th century Italian namesake and includes selections from Harvey’s 48 Fugues for Frank, his exhilarating homage to Frank Zappa.
CAGE Sonatas and Interludes - selections
CAGE Amores
Dinner break
FRANCESCO ZAPPA Trio Sonata no. 3
ZAPPA Ruth is Sleeping
ZAPPA The Black Page
HARVEY 48 Fugues for Frank - selections
ZAPPA G-Spot Tornado
ZAPPA Sofa
Content and image from www.anam.com.au
Jul
29
8:00 PM20:00
Simone Young conducts the AWO & ANAM Messiaen's Turangalila
Simone Young returns to conduct the AWO and the Australian Academy of Music (ANAM) in a unique mentoring performance of the mammoth Turangalila-Symphonie.
I will join the awesome percussion section in this not-to-be-missed performance!
Jun
10
8:00 PM20:00
No Turning Back
Booked and performed in an orchestra for a special promotional event for Nike Football.
May
17
8:00 PM20:00
Music for our Changing Climate
The Carlton Connect Initiative at LAB-14 is proud to present the Ad Lib Collective with their program of new works which invite reflection and discussion about humanity’s response to the changing climate. This hour-long experience moves seamlessly through musical works which flow over an undercurrent of light and sound installations, immersing the audience in a visceral world of melting ice and its implied consequences.
The Ad Lib Collective and the Penny Quartet, invites you to experience this thought-provoking program which was recently workshopped in a residency at the Banff Centre for Creative Arts in Alberta, Canada.
Ad Lib Collective
Thea Rossen (Percussion/Composer)
Jared Yapp (Composer)
Zela Papageorgiou (Percussion)
Penny Quartet
Amy Brookman (violin)
Madeleine Jevons (violin)
Jarrad Mathie (guest cello)
Hamish Upton (percussion)
Giovanni Vinci (Double Bass)
Poetry by Nick Drake
Bar open from 7:30PM
Apr
23
10:00 AM10:00
Perth Day of Percussion 2017
Members of the Ad Lib Collective, Thea Rossen and Hamish Upton will present a lecture demonstration on the music of Steve Reich at this year's WA Day Of Percussion on April 23rd, 2017. Our session is at 10 am in the Callaway Auditorium - University of Western Australia. More info and tickets here
Apr
16
to Apr 17
The Orchestra Project performs Mahler's Sixth Symphony
On Sunday 16 April, The Orchestra Project performs Mahler's Symphony no 6 in A minor 'Tragic'. Composed in 1903-4, the symphony has had a profound impact on listeners ever since - Alban Berg went as far as to say that it was the only Sixth Symphony, despite Beethoven's 'Pastoral'!
This is a rare chance for Melbourne audiences to hear this monumentally powerful work in the glorious acoustic of the South Melbourne Town Hall, home of the Australian National Academy of Music.
Mar
26
11:00 AM11:00
Music in Vines
Members of Ad Lib Collective Hamish Upton and Thea Rossen present a workshop and performance for school children and the community at Great Western Performing Arts Centre.