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An Exhibition of Sculpture and Musical Performance

Sculpture and concept:
Peter Blizzard

Performance:
Adam Simmons (Saxophone)
Novak Conrad (Guitar)
Barry Cockcroft (Saxophone)
Tony Johnson (Keyboards)

Sunday 31 May 2009 12pm to 6pm
(performance commencing at 2.30)
35 Derby Street Collingwood Victoria

Australian Galleries is delighted to present a remarkable exhibition of Peter Blizzard’s sculptural work, with an accompanying experimental art performance. Whilst receiving numerous awards and commissions in Australia for public sculpture, Blizzard is also a highly regarded musician, who alongside his friend and pianist Tony Johnson has investigated the relationship between visual and performing arts since the late 1950’s. As a Senior Lecturer in Sculpture at the University of Ballarat, he initiated and organised regular experimental art performances involving a broad range of painters, sculptors, musicians, poets and dancers. A practice he continues to the present day.

To coincide with the opening of his exhibition Whale Song: Time and Space, Peter Blizzard has invited the musicians: Adam Simmons (saxophones, flutes), Barry Cockcroft (saxophones), Novak Conrad (guitar) and Tony Johnson (keyboards) to respond and improvise their captivating sounds to the shapes and forms of his sculpture, in a performance of experimental music.

His major work Whale Song Moon Halo, 2008 provides the cornerstone for the exhibition and the art performance, reflecting the artist’s strong views about the destructive nature of Japanese whaling, and the grave possibility of losing the sublime whale songs forever. Initially the musicians will provide individual solo performances, and for the first time, will hear the other’s response to the sculpture. If, after listening to one another’s performances they find some commonality in their responses, they will perform an ensemble piece based on their combined interpretations.

Peter Blizzard has been fighting cancer for the past four and a half years, and is still producing emotionally charged work which captures the inherent quality of a unique environment and it’s inhabitants. Australian Galleries invites you to celebrate with him the essential spirit of nature.

In recent weeks Rompduo (Barry Cockcroft & Adam Pinto) have given several concerts in Victoria, Australia. Performing several publications by Reed Music, the concerts saw the Australian premiere of several new works including the Sonata by Perry Goldstein, Naked Hum by Taran Carter, Three Places for a New Millenium by Stuart Greenbaum and two new compositions by Barry Cockcroft.

Blue Tongue is a solo piece in a blues style with a theatrical element to be performed with a sense of humour. After a brief rubato introduction, the rhythm and pulse remain relentless with a gradual increase in the dynamics and intensity of the piece. Toward the end the clarinetist should gradually disassemble their instrument while playing. The piece should be played with a sense of humour and creative ways of taking apart the clarinet could be employed.

Barry's other new piece for solo saxophone, Rock Me! is dedicated to all those musicians who aspired to be rock stars but somehow never quite made it. It features rapid quasi slap tonguing simulating an electric bass, a wild distorted section mimicking an out of control electric guitar and of course the inevitable drum solo produced by means some creative tonguing and reed work...

Rompduo also played their version of Debussy's Rhapsody and a new transcription of the Saint-Saëns Sonata for Oboe and Piano, performed on soprano saxophone. The ever popular Crazy Logic by Matthew Orlovich was heard in several concerts and remains one the most energetic works written for the duo. Adam performed the sublime Debussy's 10th Prelude. This piece is based on an ancient Breton myth in which a cathedral, which is submerged underwater off the coast of the Island of Ys, rises up from the sea on certain mornings. Sounds can be heard of priests chanting, bells chiming, and the organ playing, from across the sea.

Rompduo gave several masterclasses on their tour and worked with students from Melbourne schools, PLC, Buckley Park College, Warrnambool schools including Warrnambool College, Brauer College, King's College, Emmanuel College and Geelong School St. Joseph's College.

Rompduo will touring Australia and New Zealand in March of 2009.

Reed Music composer Stuart Greenbaum took out the 2008 Classical Music orchestral award for 90 Minutes Circling the Earth, a work inspired by observations made by astronauts from various countries, on how the Earth looks from outer space.

The Australian music industry celebrated the success of this year's most outstanding Australian classical music achievements at the 2008 Classical Music Awards. The Awards were presented by APRA and the Australian Music Centre, at The Playhouse, Sydney Opera House. Stuart has several works published by Reed Music including his popular works for saxophone.

Reed Music is proud to support a performance of renown French saxophonist Claude Delangle in a performance at the University of Melbourne.

Soloist, researcher and pedagogue, Claude Delangle, one of the greatest contemporary saxophonists, stands out as the master of the French saxophone. Privileged interpreter for classic works, he enriches the repertoire and encourages creation by collaborating with the most renowned composers, including L. Berio, P. Boulez, Toru Takemitsu, A. Piazzolla, and promoting the youngest. Since 1986, he is invited saxophonist in the Ensemble Intercontemporain, he also appears as soloist with the most prestigious orchestras (London BBC, Radio France, Radio of Finland, WDR Köln, Berlin Philharmonic, Kioi Tokyo) and works with D. Robertson, P. Eötvös, K. Nagano, E.P. Salonen, Miung Wung Chung, G. Bernstein and many other conductors.

He is also invited to important festivals such as the Zagreb Bienniale , Présences of Radio France or the Musica Nova Festival . The Festival Musica of Strasbourg invited him recently to offer the world premiere of the programme “ Tango Futur ”, interpreted afterwards at the Festival Aix en Musique and at the Theatre of the Palais Royal in Paris.

Passionate for his instrument, he goes beyond the work of the soloist and frequents the Musical Acoustic Laboratories of the University of Paris 7. The results of his research on specific acoustics of the saxophone will be for him a precious asset in his collaboration with composers.

His recordings for BIS, Deutsche Grammophon, Harmonia Mundi, Erato and Verany bring out French music while revealing new musical horizons from the repertoire created by the brilliant Adolphe Sax to the avant-garde works or the popular repertoire.

After obtaining several outstanding Premiers Prix at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique of Paris , Claude Delangle was appointed professor in 1988, where he has created the most prestigious saxophone class in the world. Pupils of all nationalities long to receive this education, which combines concerts with the possibility of studying with important composers and offers a large range of interdisciplinary activities. In Europe, North America, South America, Australia and Asia, Claude Delangle is requested for interpretation courses.

He is currently in charge of a collection at the Henri-Lemoine-Paris publications, where he works for the publishing of new repertoires and for the republishing of classic works, not forgetting, however, the publication of pedagogical works.

During this season 2003-2004 Asia will welcome Claude Delangle four times: in Japan he will perform in a tour with the Metropolitan Tokyo Symphony, in Hong Kong with the City Chamber Orchestra, in Singapore he will record for BIS the great concertos of the repertoire with the Symphonic Orchestra of Singapore and will give recitals in China. He is also planning the premiere of Trame 1 by Martin Matalon at the Arsenal in Metz, a tour of recitals in Central America in July and concerts with the orchestras of Saint Petersburg and Novossibirsk in September. The strong point of his Parisian season will be the Festival Agora in June, for which he has been given carte blanche by the IRCAM (Institute of musical acoustics research and coordination).