As part of the SoundOut Festival 2023 we have arranged for the ever inventive and virtuosic Jon Rose and extraodinary Peter Knight, who has just stepped down as Director of the Australian Art Orchaestra after ten years, will be hosting a workshop seperately.
Jon Rose (see bio below) first give a talk on his experimental musical instrument making practice which will be followed by a workshop on free imrpovisation. That will be from 1pm - 4pm on Friday 27 Jan.
Peter Knight (see bio below) will give a workshop on improvisation from 9am -12pm on 28 Jan
Session #1 Jon Rose 1pm - 4pm 27 Jan
Session #2 Peter Knight 9am - 12 28 Jan
All at the Drill Hall Gallery ANU
Tickets $15 each session
https://www.eventbrite.com.au/.../soundout-workshops...
Jon Rose says "Many have tried to describe what music is - let alone improvisation - some clever analogies, some bogged down in rhetorical convenience, some refuse the first fence. I’d say that after Cage and hip-hop, there is no definition that begins to adequately cover the subject - but it’s fun trying. Here are a few attempts from my questionnaire of a few years ago:"
"Music is now (and will be) what the human brain (and sense apparatus) makes of the noise made by any entity (human, biological or mechanical). The best music is that noise which makes its way to the brain via a route unmediated by considerations of money, celebrity, or taste." Nick Shimmin
"We are so out of tune and are in various states of hearing loss-Music is a hearing aid. Music is used to amplifying the self and the human groups we collect in. It's how we hear ourselves in the world. It's vanity publishing for our species. The culture that made no distinction between themselves and the world, the Australian Indigenous peoples, had few instruments and no word for music in their languages. Their hearing was just fine." Jim Denley
"For music to take place a combination of the following is required: weather, lawyers, neighbours, talent, an idea, management, history, drugs, police, other musicians, an encouraging audience, no audience, an act of God." Mohamed El-Sayed
"Music in the 21st Century is in a subprime crisis; it aspires to ownership, but borrows a lot more than it can pay back. As an investment (economic, cultural, personal) it has junk status, because it can never be a thing. It can only be a context for something. The loss of content in music is disguised by the fact that it was abstract to begin with. As pure context, music today is bankrupt and thus has a chance to free itself from the economy of aesthetics and the blackmail of affective signification once and for all." Erkki Veltheim
https://www.jonroseweb.com/a_jonrose_definitions_of_music...
Bios
Jon Rose: violin, Alice Springs NT
Jon Rose - violinist, composer, improviser, instrument builder, multi-media artist, inventor of the interactive violin bow, and cultural critic. His primary life's work is The Relative Violin. This is the development of a total artform based around the one instrument - it includes innovation in the fields of new instrument design, environmental performance, new instrumental techniques, radiophonic works, and the development of inter-active electronics - while interrogating and intervening in the history of music itself. He performs his group and solo projects world wide. In a 45 year career, he has been featured regularly in the main festivals of New Music, Jazz, performance and Sound Art such as Ars Elektronica, Festival D'Automne, Maerzmusik, Dokumenta, North Sea Jazz Fest, New Music America, the Vienna Festival, the Berlin Jazz Festival, Moers Festival, The Melbourne Festival, etc. Jon has appeared on over 90 albums and CD's; he has worked with many of the innovators and mavericks in contemporary music such as Derek Bailey, Alvin Curran, Otomo Yoshihide, Ilan Volkov, Christian Marclay, or John Zorn. Since 2009, Jon Rose has been commissioned by the Kronos String Quartet to write and build Music from 4 Fences for the Sydney Opera House; realised his bicycle powered Pursuit project at Canberra 100; performed an improvised solo part for the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra; created major radiophonic works for the BBC, ABC, DR, and ORF; toured in Europe with his current improvisational groups; performed his interactive multi-media composition Internal Combustion for violin and orchestra at The Philharmonic, Berlin; been apprehended by the Israeli Defence Forces at the Separation Fence near Ramallah in the occupied territories, and arrested for playing the violin in front of The Sydney Opera House. He is probably the only living violinist with his own museum (The Rosenberg Museum). This radical cornucopia of over 1,000 artefacts of violinography has been exhibited throughout Europe and was brought home to Australia in 2015 where it has been exhibited at Carriageworks (Sydney) and Substation (Melbourne) amongst other smaller venues. In 2012 Jon was honored with The Music Board of The Australia Council's senior prize - the Don Banks Award for a life-time's achievement and contribution to Australian music. His book about the state of music today Music of Place: Reclaiming a Practice is published by Currency House Press. In 2018, Contemporary Music Review honoured Jon with a complete edition of the magazine dedicated to articles on his life's output - Jon Rose: The Rosenberg Museum.
Peter Knight: composer/trumpeter/sound artist, Melbourne
Perpetually curious, composer/trumpeter/sound artist
Peter Knight’s practice exists in the spaces between categories, between genres, and between cultures. In recent years Peter has emerged as a significant international force in contemporary music, initiating commissions, collaborations, and performances with a diverse range of artists including recently, Anthony Braxton (USA), as a soloist with Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Nicole Lizée (Canada), Amir ElSaffar (USA), Daniel Wilfred (Arnhem Land), Senyawa (Indonesia), Baliphonics (Sri Lanka), Hyelim Kim (Korea/UK), Paul Grabowsky (Australia) and Alvin Lucier (USA). He has performed his music at some of the most significant festivals and venues in the world including recently: London Jazz Festival, Pierre Boulez Saal (Berlin), JazzFest Berlin, Soundstreams (Toronto), and National Forum of Music (Wroclaw, Poland). Peter has released 12 albums of his music on various labels and in 2022 a new solo album, Shadow Phase, is coming out on the iconic Room40 label. Peter has also been Artistic Director of one of Australia’s leading contemporary ensembles, the Australian Art Orchestra, for the last ten years. In addition, Peter regularly composes for film, sound installations, and contemporary theatre, most notably with acclaimed performer/director, Tamara Saulwick (Chamber Made). Peter has won numerous awards, nominations, and fellowships including the Albert H. Maggs Composition Prize (2017), several AMC Art Music Awards, Bell Jazz Awards, Green Room Theatre Awards, and an Australia Council Music Fellowship (2013). He holds a doctorate from Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University and was named its Alumnus of the Year in 2013.
Firstly we wish to acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which we work, live, perform and learn, the Ngunnawal and Ngambri People. May we continue to celebrate and commend the rich depth of knowledge from the oldest continuing cultures in the world.
Thank you to the wonderful staff of the Drill Hall Gallery for all their generous support and warm hearts.
We would also like to give thanks to a benefactors.... soon