{"id":7179,"date":"2012-04-10T23:44:02","date_gmt":"2012-04-10T13:44:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/soundslikesydney.com.au\/?p=7179"},"modified":"2012-04-10T23:44:02","modified_gmt":"2012-04-10T13:44:02","slug":"aurora-festival-shines-a-new-dawn-in-the-west","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/soundslikesydney.com.au\/?p=7179","title":{"rendered":"Aurora Festival shines a new dawn in the west"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Synergy Percussion<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For most of us, the sun rises in the east. For contemporary music fans,\u00a0dawn happens in\u00a0Sydney’s west\u00a0where the aptly named Aurora Festival\u00a0of Living Music launches on\u00a0May 4th.<\/p>\n

Running till the 13th of May the 4th Aurora festival is one of the few arenas\u00a0which gives voice to\u00a0living\u00a0Australian composers of contemporary chamber music. Inaugurated in 2006 by composer and music educator Dr Matthew Hindson AM,\u00a0the festival features contemporary classical repertoire as well as art and experimental music and sound art. It also aims to broaden the audience base for new music by\u00a0selecting venues\u00a0in the outer western suburbs, Sydney’s geographic and demographic hubs.<\/p>\n

After running three festivals over 6 years, Hindson has handed over his role to Andrew Batt-Rawden who took over as director of the festival in 2010 with a 2 year lead.\u00a0 His inaugural Aurora festival features 17 events, and more than 120 artistes from Australia and around the world. As well as performances there are forums and workshops\u00a0and the Australian premieres of some works. Batt-Rawden says: “\u201cOur 2012 program offers audiences an exclusive and compelling selection of music, unusual to Sydney. The work is bold, provocative, and sometimes outrageous. We have access to some beautiful venues here and we\u2019reinviting Sydney to come and engage with new and unique musical experiences, these moments can be life changing\u201d.<\/p>\n

These venues include the traditional – like the Joan Sutherland performing Arts Centre in Penrith, St Finbar’s Catholic Church in Glenbrook and Parramatta’s Riverside Theatre-\u00a0and the offbeat, like the Casula Powerhouse.<\/p>\n

Whilst the ideas behind the\u00a0music may be new to Sydney, on second glance they\u00a0underscore the relevance of contemporary music to life in the 21st century. There is a Pocket Gamelan for Mobile Phones, <\/em>created by electronics master Greg Schiemer\u00a0who has networked a set of mobiles phones and\u00a0programmed them with music software\u00a0to be played by a group of non-\u2010<\/span><\/span>trained musicians.\u00a0‘Collaboration’, ‘<\/span><\/span>easy to play’, ‘quick to learn’ and ‘accessible to many’ are the buzz words here.<\/p>\n

Opening the festival is a sonic-art\u00a0performance by Super Critical Mass directed by Julian Day and\u00a0involving 60 musicians from the region.<\/p>\n

Then there’s Japanese ‘noisition’ Merzbow <\/span><\/span>\u2010 <\/span><\/span>The King of Noise, whose performances are improvisations of\u00a0<\/span><\/span>extreme noise.\u00a0Merzbow will be joined by experimental\u00a0composer Oren Ambarchi\u00a0to form\u00a0Noise Duo <\/em>on the final night of the festival. Synergy Percussion, Zane Banks and Daniel Blinkhorn are some of the other featured artists.<\/p>\n

Sometimes moving forwards entails looking back to where we came from. Recorder player Alicia Crossley will be featured in a workshop and performance with these earliest of instruments; Marshall McGuire brings the harp into the 21st century; and Chamber Made Opera presents Minotaur The Island, <\/em>composed by David Young, with libretto and direction by Margaret Cameron in an elaboration of Monteverdi’s lost masterpiece from 1608,\u00a0L’Arianna.<\/em><\/p>\n

The focus is not just on performance with two critical interactive industry forums that look at the business aspects of being a musician. The Australian Music Centre’s\u00a0John Davis will host a discussion on\u00a0‘Supporting Emerging Composers in Australia’ and Batt-Rawden will chair one on ‘Sustainable New Music Business Models’ hosted by Batt- Rawden.<\/p>\n

The Aurora Festival\u00a0kicks off on Friday May 4th at 7.30 with an opening night party that follows the Super Critical Mass Sonic Art performance.\u00a0Opening the celebrations at the\u00a0Blacktown Arts Centre will be the Mayor of Blacktown, Alan Pendleton. This is a free event and tickets are limited. To attend, please register your details at <\/span><\/span>info@auroranewmusic.com.au<\/a> or\u00a0 call 02 93511939.<\/p>\n

The festival has free and ticketed events. Tickets range from $10 -$40 and are available through participating venues. For booking information and the full programme visit <\/span>www.auroranewmusic.com.au<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For most of us, the sun rises in the east. 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