Boom! International Festival of Percussion presents
Boom! International Festival of Percussion Opening Concert
Concert
The inaugural Boom! International Festival of Percussion will open with a bang on 1 October at 8pm with a powerhouse concert at Sydney Town Hall, featuring Taikoz, Synergy Percussion performers from three generations (old and new members), Michael Askill, Claire Edwardes, Jason Noble, Greta Kelly, Jess Ciampa, and Clocks & Clouds.
Please find full program below.
Please note this event will take place at Sydney Town Hall, not Seymour Centre.
If you have access needs, please call the Box Office on 02 9061 5344 to book tickets.
Prelude (from 7:30-8pm) | Clocks and Clouds Microtonal Ensemble
Clocks and Clouds' strange and seductive sounds will great you on entering the Town Hall, setting up the evening’s sound world.
Reflections | Ross Edwards | Synergy
Synergy gave the world premiere of this stunning work by Ross Edwards in 1985 and subsequently performed it on many international stages. The Synergy quartet dating from the late 1980s performs it once again for Boom!
Rebonds | Iannis Xenakis | Claire Edwardes
Xenakis’s classic solo percussion work combines polyrhythmic virtuosity with sonic soul.
Meditation | Jess Ciampa and Timothy Constable | Jess Ciampa, Timothy Constable
The gently thrumming undulations of Jess Ciampa’s frame drum is set within Timothy Constable’s seductive sound design.
Last Shaman | Timothy Constable | Synergy
A heartfelt response to Timothy Constable’s Korean mentor – the Shaman of the title – draws on traditional Korean-inspired rhythmic complexity. Another display of percussive virtuosity and passion.
Song To The Earth III | Corrina Bonshek | Boom! Festival Ensemble | Directed by Michael Askill | Featuring Greta Kelly, Shah Kaman
In the words of the composer, “[an] instrumental love song to the planet, composed whilst listening to environmental recordings from SE QLD and contemplating the ways that plant, animal, bird and elemental life move in spirals and waves, an experienced as aleatoric yet relaxing.”
Verve | Nathan Daughtrey | Ensemble Offspring
EO’s Claire Edwardes and Jason Noble join forces in this colourful and joyous duet for marimba and bass clarinet.
Home | Ian Cleworth | Taikoz
Ian Cleworth’s composition sets the sound of multiple taiko within a framework of ever-unfolding waves of sound. It unfolds in five parts: Dislocation, Rage, A Call From Across The Sea, Exile, Home (Dance).
Bright Earth, Dark Sky | Timothy Constable | Boom! Festival Ensemble | Featuring Greta Kelly, Shah Kaman Jason Noble, Bass Clarinet
This final piece brings all the evening's artists together in a percussive tour de force to celebrate the beginning of Boom! International Festival of Percussion.
Ian Cleworth and Riley Lee formed Taikoz in 1997. Over the past two decades the group has developed an original repertoire of works and productions that has seen them perform on the stages of Australia's finest concert halls, in the theatres of regional Australia, and in leading theatres and concert halls worldwide.
Taikoz has performed in Japan, Paris, Bangkok, Taiwan, Abu Dhabi, and the USA, where the ensemble headlined the Taiko Nation concerts at the 2014 World Taiko Gathering in Los Angeles. Most recently Taikoz toured India with Chi Udaka, receiving much critical acclaim. The group regularly appears in the theatres of regional Australia, having undertaken six Australia-wide tours.
Taikoz has composed over 30 original works for taiko including several in combination with instruments such as shakuhachi, koto, marimba, saxophone, cello, drum set, and didgeridoo. Distinguished composers Lachlan Skipworth, Sandy Evans, Gerard Brophy, Andrea Molino, Michael Askill, David Pye, Graeme Koehne, and Timothy Constable have also written works for the ensemble.
Synergy Percussion has the dual distinction of being Australia’s oldest and foremost contemporary music ensemble.
A world of sound with percussion at its heart, the group celebrated 40 years of concerts, collaborations, recordings, and commissions in 2014.
Over four decades of huge cultural change, Synergy Percussion has remained vital and fiercely committed to defying expectations of what percussion music might aptly express.
Core members Timothy Constable, Bree van Reyk, and Joshua Hill are all award-winning and internationally acclaimed exponents of new music in their own right, equally at home on world-music stages and in contemporary/ experimental art venues, pop concerts, and recital halls.
The ensembles’ expansive vision of percussion, together with the exceptionally wide musical experience of the members past and present, has allowed the group to work together with a diverse and exemplary family of artists from around the world.
Collaborators include Fritz Hauser, Hossam Ramzy, Omar Faruk Tekbilek, Aly N’Diaye Rose, Trilok Gurtu, Jose Vicente, Kazue Sawai, Dave Samuels, Evelyn Glennie, Riley Lee, Taikoz, Michael Kieran Harvey, Sydney Dance Company, Meryl Tankard and Regis Lansac, Akira Isogawa, Grainger String Quartet, William Barton, and the Leigh Warren Dancers, plus the Sydney and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras, among many others.
Well over 50 commissions of Australian and international composers have helped create an Australian percussion sonic identity, and contributed to the canon more generally.
Notable commissions include Steve Reich’s Mallet Quartet (2009, the most significant percussion work of the composer post drumming of 1971), Anthony Pateras’s Beauty Will Be Amnesiac Or Will Not Be At All (2013, the most ambitious Australian concert work for percussion), Nigel Westlake’s Omphalo Centric Lecture (1984, statistically the most performed classical percussion ensemble piece in the world), Ross Edwardes’ Prelude and Dragonfly Dance, Peter Sculthorpe’s Sun Song, Djilile, and Gerard Brophy’s Book of Clouds.
The group also commissions internally, and works by ensemble members have been performed internationally to high acclaim.
Synergy Percussion has a proven track record of successfully creating and executing education and outreach programs aimed at encouraging young people from all walks of life to engage with music.
The group has contributed to the education programs at all major tertiary music institutions across the country, including supervising the post-graduate percussion program at the Australian National University.
The ensemble has enjoyed a long-standing collaboration with Musica Viva to deliver such programs to students across Australia, the most recent being the highly successful Under Construction with composer, Damian Barbeler.
Members of the group also mentor young musicians through the Sydney Youth Orchestra’s percussion program and through the young artist in residence program.
Michael Askill is an Australian percussionist. He is a founding member of Synergy Percussion and Southern Crossings. He has been a principal with the Sydney and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras and the Australian Chamber Orchestra.
Image credit: Song to the Earth Photo by Derek Repchuk
From the set of Play School to the mainstage at the Sydney Opera House, Claire Edwardes is ‘the sorceress of percussion’ (City News, Canberra).
The only Australian to win the 'APRA Art Music Award for Excellence by an Individual' three times, Claire leaps between her role as Artistic Director of Ensemble Offspring and concerto performances with all of the Australian and New Zealand orchestras, plus numerous European orchestras.
Add her genre-spanning solo concerts, teaching at the Sydney Conservatorium, a broad spectrum of collaborations, premiering hundreds of new works by composers including Harrison Birtwistle and Elena Kats-Chernin, to passionately advocating for gender equity in music, and you begin to appreciate her astonishing energy.
Perhaps her most significant contribution, beyond her endless quest for excellence in performance, is in breaking down the barriers between art music and audiences, through her enthusiasm for bringing new music to unexpected places - including bowling clubs and old power stations.
Jess began his musical life as a trumpeter, changing to percussion halfway through a B.Mus.Ed at the NSW Conservatorium in 1984.
He is a multi instrumentalist, at home in a variety of styles. He has performed with all the major Sydney orchestras, as well as ensembles such as Synergy Percussion and Taikoz. He was principal percussionist for both Sydney seasons of The Lion King.
In the pop music world, Jess has recorded and toured with Tina Arena, Ian Moss, and Jeff Duff.
For several years Jess toured extensively in Europe with The Spaghetti Western Orchestra, a quintet who performed theatrical interpretations of the music of Morricone. Highlights included return seasons at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London and the 2011 Proms at The Royal Albert Hall.
For the past 31 years Jess has performed with several groups for Musica Viva in Schools.
Clocks & Clouds is a duo consisting of musicians Kraig Grady and Terumi Narushima.
Their totally acoustic performances include a specially retuned vibraphone and pump organ, as well as the thundering bass Meru Bars and/or 3D-printed flutes. These unique microtonal instruments explore the beauty of room resonances via ancient sacred scales and multidimensional geometries.
It is not uncommon for an audience to experience the sensation of harmonics sweeping through space due to the way in which sound waves from the instruments interact with the environment.
Presenting Artists Taikoz, Synergy Percussion, Michael Askill, Claire Edwardes, Jason Noble, Hamed Sadeghi, Jess Ciampa, and Clocks & Clouds
We are a registered COVID-Safe business with measures in place to make your next Seymour visit safe and enjoyable. You can find out more about our safety measures here, and we will also send safety information directly to you prior to your visit. To ensure we can reach you, we recommend checking that your contact information is up to date.
Sydney Town Hall
| Sat 1 Oct | 8pm |
|---|
120 minutes (including interval). Partial lockout applies.
| A Reserve Adult | $85 |
|---|---|
| A Reserve Concession (Pensioner, Health Care Card Holder, MEAA Member, Unemployed)* | $70 |
| A Reserve Full-time Student | $60 |
| A Reserve Under 35 | $35 |
| B Reserve Adult | $75 |
| B Reserve Concession (Pensioner, Health Care Card Holder, MEAA Member, Unemployed)* | $60 |
| B Reserve Full-time Student | $50 |
| B Reserve Under 35 | $35 |
$6 transaction fee applies.
*ID required during ticket purchase for verification purposes. Read more.
If booking with a Parents NSW voucher, please note multiple vouchers can be used per transaction, up to a total transaction amount of $250. Vouchers only redeemable when booking online. Read more.
Boom! International Festival of Percussion Opening Concert is available to purchase as part of a Boom! Festival Pass. Buy a Festival Pass to access all seven days of Boom! events at Seymour Centre and Sydney Town Hall, excluding participant access to workshops, for a total price of just $350 (adult price), $300 (concession price), or $250 (full-time student price).
Recommended for ages 12+. Contains dynamic music. Photography and filming prohibited.
The only authorised ticket seller for this event is Seymour Centre. If you purchase from an unauthorised seller, you risk that your tickets may be fake or invalid.
Program details for this event are subject to change. If any changes are made, this page will be updated accordingly.
Prelude (from 7:30-8pm) | Clocks and Clouds Microtonal Ensemble
Clocks and Clouds' strange and seductive sounds will great you on entering the Town Hall, setting up the evening’s sound world.
Reflections | Ross Edwards | Synergy
Synergy gave the world premiere of this stunning work by Ross Edwards in 1985 and subsequently performed it on many international stages. The Synergy quartet dating from the late 1980s performs it once again for Boom!
Rebonds | Iannis Xenakis | Claire Edwardes
Xenakis’s classic solo percussion work combines polyrhythmic virtuosity with sonic soul.
Meditation | Jess Ciampa and Timothy Constable | Jess Ciampa, Timothy Constable
The gently thrumming undulations of Jess Ciampa’s frame drum is set within Timothy Constable’s seductive sound design.
Last Shaman | Timothy Constable | Synergy
A heartfelt response to Timothy Constable’s Korean mentor – the Shaman of the title – draws on traditional Korean-inspired rhythmic complexity. Another display of percussive virtuosity and passion.
Song To The Earth III | Corrina Bonshek | Boom! Festival Ensemble | Directed by Michael Askill | Featuring Greta Kelly, Shah Kaman
In the words of the composer, “[an] instrumental love song to the planet, composed whilst listening to environmental recordings from SE QLD and contemplating the ways that plant, animal, bird and elemental life move in spirals and waves, an experienced as aleatoric yet relaxing.”
Verve | Nathan Daughtrey | Ensemble Offspring
EO’s Claire Edwardes and Jason Noble join forces in this colourful and joyous duet for marimba and bass clarinet.
Home | Ian Cleworth | Taikoz
Ian Cleworth’s composition sets the sound of multiple taiko within a framework of ever-unfolding waves of sound. It unfolds in five parts: Dislocation, Rage, A Call From Across The Sea, Exile, Home (Dance).
Bright Earth, Dark Sky | Timothy Constable | Boom! Festival Ensemble | Featuring Greta Kelly, Shah Kaman Jason Noble, Bass Clarinet
This final piece brings all the evening's artists together in a percussive tour de force to celebrate the beginning of Boom! International Festival of Percussion.
Ian Cleworth and Riley Lee formed Taikoz in 1997. Over the past two decades the group has developed an original repertoire of works and productions that has seen them perform on the stages of Australia's finest concert halls, in the theatres of regional Australia, and in leading theatres and concert halls worldwide.
Taikoz has performed in Japan, Paris, Bangkok, Taiwan, Abu Dhabi, and the USA, where the ensemble headlined the Taiko Nation concerts at the 2014 World Taiko Gathering in Los Angeles. Most recently Taikoz toured India with Chi Udaka, receiving much critical acclaim. The group regularly appears in the theatres of regional Australia, having undertaken six Australia-wide tours.
Taikoz has composed over 30 original works for taiko including several in combination with instruments such as shakuhachi, koto, marimba, saxophone, cello, drum set, and didgeridoo. Distinguished composers Lachlan Skipworth, Sandy Evans, Gerard Brophy, Andrea Molino, Michael Askill, David Pye, Graeme Koehne, and Timothy Constable have also written works for the ensemble.
Synergy Percussion has the dual distinction of being Australia’s oldest and foremost contemporary music ensemble.
A world of sound with percussion at its heart, the group celebrated 40 years of concerts, collaborations, recordings, and commissions in 2014.
Over four decades of huge cultural change, Synergy Percussion has remained vital and fiercely committed to defying expectations of what percussion music might aptly express.
Core members Timothy Constable, Bree van Reyk, and Joshua Hill are all award-winning and internationally acclaimed exponents of new music in their own right, equally at home on world-music stages and in contemporary/ experimental art venues, pop concerts, and recital halls.
The ensembles’ expansive vision of percussion, together with the exceptionally wide musical experience of the members past and present, has allowed the group to work together with a diverse and exemplary family of artists from around the world.
Collaborators include Fritz Hauser, Hossam Ramzy, Omar Faruk Tekbilek, Aly N’Diaye Rose, Trilok Gurtu, Jose Vicente, Kazue Sawai, Dave Samuels, Evelyn Glennie, Riley Lee, Taikoz, Michael Kieran Harvey, Sydney Dance Company, Meryl Tankard and Regis Lansac, Akira Isogawa, Grainger String Quartet, William Barton, and the Leigh Warren Dancers, plus the Sydney and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras, among many others.
Well over 50 commissions of Australian and international composers have helped create an Australian percussion sonic identity, and contributed to the canon more generally.
Notable commissions include Steve Reich’s Mallet Quartet (2009, the most significant percussion work of the composer post drumming of 1971), Anthony Pateras’s Beauty Will Be Amnesiac Or Will Not Be At All (2013, the most ambitious Australian concert work for percussion), Nigel Westlake’s Omphalo Centric Lecture (1984, statistically the most performed classical percussion ensemble piece in the world), Ross Edwardes’ Prelude and Dragonfly Dance, Peter Sculthorpe’s Sun Song, Djilile, and Gerard Brophy’s Book of Clouds.
The group also commissions internally, and works by ensemble members have been performed internationally to high acclaim.
Synergy Percussion has a proven track record of successfully creating and executing education and outreach programs aimed at encouraging young people from all walks of life to engage with music.
The group has contributed to the education programs at all major tertiary music institutions across the country, including supervising the post-graduate percussion program at the Australian National University.
The ensemble has enjoyed a long-standing collaboration with Musica Viva to deliver such programs to students across Australia, the most recent being the highly successful Under Construction with composer, Damian Barbeler.
Members of the group also mentor young musicians through the Sydney Youth Orchestra’s percussion program and through the young artist in residence program.
Michael Askill is an Australian percussionist. He is a founding member of Synergy Percussion and Southern Crossings. He has been a principal with the Sydney and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras and the Australian Chamber Orchestra.
Image credit: Song to the Earth Photo by Derek Repchuk
From the set of Play School to the mainstage at the Sydney Opera House, Claire Edwardes is ‘the sorceress of percussion’ (City News, Canberra).
The only Australian to win the 'APRA Art Music Award for Excellence by an Individual' three times, Claire leaps between her role as Artistic Director of Ensemble Offspring and concerto performances with all of the Australian and New Zealand orchestras, plus numerous European orchestras.
Add her genre-spanning solo concerts, teaching at the Sydney Conservatorium, a broad spectrum of collaborations, premiering hundreds of new works by composers including Harrison Birtwistle and Elena Kats-Chernin, to passionately advocating for gender equity in music, and you begin to appreciate her astonishing energy.
Perhaps her most significant contribution, beyond her endless quest for excellence in performance, is in breaking down the barriers between art music and audiences, through her enthusiasm for bringing new music to unexpected places - including bowling clubs and old power stations.
Jess began his musical life as a trumpeter, changing to percussion halfway through a B.Mus.Ed at the NSW Conservatorium in 1984.
He is a multi instrumentalist, at home in a variety of styles. He has performed with all the major Sydney orchestras, as well as ensembles such as Synergy Percussion and Taikoz. He was principal percussionist for both Sydney seasons of The Lion King.
In the pop music world, Jess has recorded and toured with Tina Arena, Ian Moss, and Jeff Duff.
For several years Jess toured extensively in Europe with The Spaghetti Western Orchestra, a quintet who performed theatrical interpretations of the music of Morricone. Highlights included return seasons at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London and the 2011 Proms at The Royal Albert Hall.
For the past 31 years Jess has performed with several groups for Musica Viva in Schools.
Clocks & Clouds is a duo consisting of musicians Kraig Grady and Terumi Narushima.
Their totally acoustic performances include a specially retuned vibraphone and pump organ, as well as the thundering bass Meru Bars and/or 3D-printed flutes. These unique microtonal instruments explore the beauty of room resonances via ancient sacred scales and multidimensional geometries.
It is not uncommon for an audience to experience the sensation of harmonics sweeping through space due to the way in which sound waves from the instruments interact with the environment.
Sydney Town Hall
| Sat 1 Oct | 8pm |
|---|
120 minutes (including interval). Partial lockout applies.
| A Reserve Adult | $85 |
|---|---|
| A Reserve Concession (Pensioner, Health Care Card Holder, MEAA Member, Unemployed)* | $70 |
| A Reserve Full-time Student | $60 |
| A Reserve Under 35 | $35 |
| B Reserve Adult | $75 |
| B Reserve Concession (Pensioner, Health Care Card Holder, MEAA Member, Unemployed)* | $60 |
| B Reserve Full-time Student | $50 |
| B Reserve Under 35 | $35 |
$6 transaction fee applies.
*ID required during ticket purchase for verification purposes. Read more.
If booking with a Parents NSW voucher, please note multiple vouchers can be used per transaction, up to a total transaction amount of $250. Vouchers only redeemable when booking online. Read more.
Boom! International Festival of Percussion Opening Concert is available to purchase as part of a Boom! Festival Pass. Buy a Festival Pass to access all seven days of Boom! events at Seymour Centre and Sydney Town Hall, excluding participant access to workshops, for a total price of just $350 (adult price), $300 (concession price), or $250 (full-time student price).
Recommended for ages 12+. Contains dynamic music. Photography and filming prohibited.
The only authorised ticket seller for this event is Seymour Centre. If you purchase from an unauthorised seller, you risk that your tickets may be fake or invalid.
Presenting Artists Taikoz, Synergy Percussion, Michael Askill, Claire Edwardes, Jason Noble, Hamed Sadeghi, Jess Ciampa, and Clocks & Clouds
We are a registered COVID-Safe business with measures in place to make your next Seymour visit safe and enjoyable. You can find out more about our safety measures here, and we will also send safety information directly to you prior to your visit. To ensure we can reach you, we recommend checking that your contact information is up to date.
Program details for this event are subject to change. If any changes are made, this page will be updated accordingly.
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