TEMPO QUEER 2024
Fridays in July, 8pm.
Pianist and Artistic Director Coady Green presents the third Tempo Queer residency at Tempo Rubato. Four LGBTIQ+ artists or groups curate four recitals on the four Fridays in July, celebrating LGBTIQ+ composers and culture from around the world.
Curators: Coady Green, the Divisi Chamber Singers, Rebecca Lloyd-Jones & Dominic Flynn
TICKETS FULL $30 | CONCESSION $22
FRIDAY 26TH JULY 8PM
Ensemble Mania: LINE TRACING
Ensemble Mania’s Line Tracing concerts consist of an unbroken evening of music, featuring live performances of several works composed for solo instruments, each of which is followed by a musical response from a guest artist.
This year's concert (Line Tracing 4) features Ngambri/Canberra-based composer-performer Lynden Bassett (she/her), who will remix each piece in real-time, transitioning between the live performances and creating a cohesive unbroken listening experience.
Line Tracing 4 celebrates some of the queer friends of the ensemble with a program featuring all LGBTQIA+ composers both from Australia and overseas performed by some of Nipaluna/Hobart's and Naarm/Melbourne's most exciting queer and ally performers.
PERFORMERS
Dominic Flynn, Artistic Director
Alexander Meagher, percussion
David Moran, cello
Damian MacDonald, flute
With guest composer-performer Lynden Bassett
PROGRAM
Michael Finnissy: Tasmania II (2020)
Lynden Bassett: Remix #1
Dominic Flynn: Leg (2020)
Lynden Bassett: Remix #2
Reuben Jelleyman: Soliloquy for Cello (2019)
Lynden Bassett: Remix #3
INTERVAL
David William Murray: nor (2024)
Lynden Bassett: Remix #4
Nigel Butterley: Of Wood (1995)
Lynden Bassett: Remix #5
Jassy Robertson + Alexander Meagher + Lynden Bassett: Improvisation
Lynden Bassett: Remix #6
ABOUT ENSEMBLE MANIA
Ensemble Mania is a new music collective based between nipaluna/Hobart and naarm/Melbourne and was formed with the goal of providing unique listening experiences for Tasmanian and Victorian audiences. The ensemble’s efforts are focussed on showcasing music that would otherwise not be heard in Australia, from exciting current composers to recently uncovered pieces and local gems.
Since forming in 2020, Ensemble Mania has established itself as an exciting musical enterprise, having partnered with the likes of the Melbourne and Hobart City Councils, The Salamanca Arts Centre, and the Mona Foma Festival. They have presented premieres by Australian composers such as Don Kay, Hellgart Mahler, David William Murray, and Jassy Robertson, and international composers Michael Finnissy, Shiori Usui, Máté Szigeti, Andrew Toovey, and have featured performances by the likes of Peter Tanfield, Alexander Meagher, and Kyla Matsuura-Miller.
ABOUT LYNDEN BASSETT
Lynden Bassett (she/her) is an Indonesian composer-performer working on Ngunnawal and Ngambri land. She works solo and collaboratively across noise, electronic music, chamber music, free improvisation, and punk-and-hardcore.
Community and horizontality are the key threads in Lynden's work. As an organiser, a band member, and a collaborator she tries to find ways to grow and strengthen community relationships, grow the autonomy and agency of communities and individuals, and foster non-hierarchical relationships. These attempts are grounded in DIY methods and a commitment to disseminating gatekept skills and knowledge wherever possible.
Lynden has completed multiple tours with noise rock band HYMMNN, and solo performances supporting Senyawa and Lucas Abela. She has performed ongoingly with You Are Here, and continues to participate in cross-disciplinary project Everything I Am Not, facilitated by Yona Su. Recent work includes Why Wait? Everything is Already Cremated in Hell (2023), written in collaboration with pianist Ronan Apcar, and This is What We Have Today, a 2022 multimedia concert featuring 8 premiers by Canberra composers.
PAST CONCERTS IN TEMPO QUEER 2024
FRIDAY 5TH JULY 8PM
CURATED BY COADY GREEN
Coady Green, piano
With special guests:
Helen Morse, narrator
Justin Kenealy, saxophone
Adrian Tamburini, baritone
Boyd Owen, tenor
Jeanette Yaryan, piano
Pianist and Tempo Queer Artistic Director Coady Green opens the festival with a typically diverse, colourful program, featuring iconic Australian actor Helen Morse narrating a preview of Cheryl Durongpisitkul’s new work on the poetry of Candy Royalle, and with saxophonist Justin Kenealy, baritone Adrian Tamburini and tenor Boyd Owen.
PROGRAM
Cameron LAM Australian Green Gold – Australian Red Gold – Tasman Blue: WE TOUCH TO FEEL *
Bryn RENARD for Coady Green… My Voice in Shattered Shapes *
James RUSHFORD Porch Image *
Cheryl DURONGPISITKUL A Million Tiny Awakenings SPECIAL PREVIEW **
For soprano saxophone, piano and narrator, on poetry by Candy Royalle
With special guests Helen Morse (narrator) and Justin Kenealy (saxophone)
Gregory SPEARS Scenes from Fellow Travellers
Librettist: Greg Pierce
Based on the 2007 novel by Thomas Mallon
With special guests Boyd Owen (tenor) as Timothy Laughlin
and Adrian Tamburini (baritone) as Hawkins Fuller
With special guest Jeanette Yaryan (piano)
Scene 1: Park in Dupont Circle
Scene 4: Tim’s Apartment
Scene 5: St. Peter’s Church
Scene 11: Roof of the Old Post Office
Scene 14: Brick House
Scene 16: Park in Dupont Circle
* Australian premiere
** World Premiere
ABOUT COADY GREEN
One of Australia’s busiest concert pianists, Coady Green is acknowledged as a major talent on the international concert circuit, described as “a virtuoso pianist with sensitivity, intelligence and charm”, “accurate and exhilarating” (Musical Opinion, London), and with “a strong and versatile technique capable of the most delicate coloring and tonal brilliance, rising to the challenges of extreme virtuoso demands with relish” (The Advertiser, South Australia).
FRIDAY 12TH JULY 8PM
THE DIVISI CHAMBER SINGERS
GOD AND GAYS: A TENUOUS RELATIONSHIP
Chamber choir
With special guest Coady Green, piano
Performed by:
Alex Gorbatov
Marjorie Butcher
Bailey Montgomerie
Alexandra Amerides
An exploration of 1000 years of queer composers and their stories - God and Gays examines the relationship between queer musicians and the places of worship they serve faithfully, or otherwise.
Four members of Divisi Chamber Singers perform a program that highlights the intricate bond between spirituality and queer identity through classical compositions. An evening of introspection and poignant reflection; the tenuous yet profound relationship between God and the gay experience is examined through the lens of both historical and contemporary composers.
Weaving the music of contemporary Australian composers Kym Dillon, Lily Flynn, Sally Whitwell, and David Yardley into the ageless canon of sacred music, the members of Divisi hope to challenge preconceptions about the relationship between queer people and the church through its history and the stories of people navigating it today.
ABOUT DIVISI CHAMBER SINGERS
Divisi Chamber Singers have won swathes of awards for their work championing LGBTIQ+ composers and writers, with their Compose Queer programs and their groundbreaking debut album 'Spectrum' - the first ever Australian album devoted to works by Australian LGBTIQ+ composers. One of the most exciting Chamber Choirs in Australia, here they present a vibrant celebration of LGBTIQ+ music. Music by Meta Cohen, Cameron Lam, James Rushford, Sally Whitwell, Joseph Twist and many more.
FRIDAY 19TH JULY 8PM
REBECCA LLOYD-JONES: THOUGHT SECTORS
Sarah Hennies (b.1979) | Thought Sectors (2020)
Performer: Rebecca Lloyd-Jones, percussion
Sarah Hennies’ Thought Sectors (2020) explores the intersection of percussion, psychoacoustics, and themes of queer and trans identity. A work that rewards persistence, Thought Sectors presents seemingly simplistic musical motifs that gradually unfurl into intricate sonic layers and phenomena.
Inspired by psychologist Ernest Hilgard’s term ‘divided consciousness,’ Thought Sectors explores how the human brain can be divided into distinct components rather than a single unified consciousness, propelling the soloist to the edge of virtuosity while simultaneously occupying the banal, taking the listener on a sonic journey that blends conventional percussion instruments - the vibraphone, the bass drum - with found and obscure objects: a flour sifter, a stapler, a water jug, pebbles. Spanning almost 60 minutes, Thought Sectors pushes the extremes of audibility, timbre, and form, interrogating the connection between physical space, reverberation, extreme dynamics, and the listener’s relationship of listening and time.
ABOUT REBECCA LLOYD-JONES
Rebecca Lloyd-Jones is a Meanjin based creative, whose practice is centred in feminist experimental/sonic traditions. Rebecca holds a Doctorate from UC San Diego, is the Artistic Director of Synergy Percussion and is currently lecturer/percussion co-ordinator at Griffith University Queensland Conservatorium.