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Tundra Ensemble and Ephemera Trio present Ephemera
February 11, 2023 @ 8:30 pm
Tundra Ensemble and Ephemera Trio present Ephemera, a musical exploration of celestial landscapes including pulsars, craters, planetary atmospheres, stars, sun, and void. Merging the sound worlds of jazz and contemporary classical, and set to real space sound projections, it is a unique experience. The ensemble is led by Keyna Wilkins (piano/flute/compositions) with Elsen Price (double bass/loop pedal) and Will Gilbert (trumpet) and includes freely improvised pieces to space sounds, compiled by astronomer Paul Francis, and is accompanied by beautiful NASA space projections.
Comprising members of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Australian Jazz royalty, and some of Sydney’s most in-demand musicians, witness the music weaving and instrumental colours of the Ephemera Trio + Tundra Ensemble.
Drummer, Conductor, and Composer Jason Isaac unites 11 standout musicians to share what emerges when Mahler, Brahms, Beethoven, Stravinsky, and Debussy find their way into large-scale works written for rhythm section, saxophones, and brass quintet. Isaac says he started writing this suite whilst conducting professional orchestras in Australia and New Zealand as part of the Symphony Services International Conductor Development Program.
“I was amazed by how these composers are able to create music of such intensity and weight, yet present their ideas logically and develop them organically. I wanted to explore the depth of how a composer like Brahms can extract an entire Sonata from movement out of the distance between 2 notes or the virtuosic way that Mahler manipulates one idea after another and connects them into such a compelling narrative. Great improvisers do this in solos – I wanted to try to extend this into the broader architecture of the pieces; to include the solos; then to develop material even further in the way that a Symphony or Suite would” he says.
His background as an instrumentalist led to the formation of this ensemble which is essentially a brass quintet, rhythm section (piano, bass, drums), and 3 saxophones.
Saturday, 11th of February 2023:
Ephemera Trio – 8:30 pm, Tundra Ensemble – 9:30 pm