Ensemble Offspring’s Kontiki Racket Is Back!
Australia’s most innovative and cutting-edge collective, Ensemble Offspring is bringing back Kontiki Racket, its vibrant 2-day festival celebrating new music, arts and culture.
The festival will feature artist talks, live video installations, and exciting new performances from Ensemble Offspring and the highly acclaimed Zephyr Quartet from South Australia. The festival’s musical highlights include world premieres from British composer Christopher Fox alongside a world premiere of the new percussion solo by Canadian sensation Nicole Lizée written for Ensemble Offspring’s percussionist and artistic director, Claire Edwardes.
Alongside the music, the festival will offer the ‘Kontiki Bazaar’ – an interactive market featuring everything from artisan food and beverages, to weird and wacky instrument and music exchange corners and ‘Meet The Artist’ sessions which will give the public the chance to get up and close and personal with performers.
Ensemble Offspring’s Hatched Academy artists will feature during the festival. This year’s Associate Artist viola player Henry Justo will perform alongside trumpet player extraordinaire Callum G’Froerer – their very first Associate Artist, and Niki Johnson on percussion.
Kontiki Racket will also see the launch of the group’s ‘2019 Offspring Bites’ series, an annual audio-visual release of their favorite recent commissions.
Kontiki Racket premiered at The Nest Creative Space in Alexandria in 2016 – a living and breathing new music culture. Unlike other festivals, Kontiki Racket is more than just a concert. It relies on audience members to quite literally be immerse themselves within performances, get up close and personal with the artists and most importantly relish the new sound worlds.
Tickets from $35
4 CONCERTS: Friday 21 June, 6.30pm & 8:30pm/ Saturday 22 June, 5pm & 7pm
KONTIKI BAZAAR: Friday 5-10pm/ Saturday 3-9pm
OFFSPRING BITES LAUNCH: Saturday 4pm
CONCERT 1 – Ensemble Offspring #1 ‘Raining’ : Friday 21st 6:30pm Olivia Davies – Femme (electro-acoustic)/Missy Mazzoli – Orizzonte (piano & electronics) 5’/Christopher Fox – Iron Rain (percussion, electric guitar, piano) 13’ WP/ Nicole Lizée – New work (percussion solo) 10’ WP/ Yannis Kyriakides – Zeimbekiko (electric guitar, violin & electronics) 11’
CONCERT 2 – Hatched Academy Associate Artist Henry Justo & Friends ‘Creating’” Friday 21st 8:30pm Yannis Kyriakides – Music for Viola 12’/Luciano Berio – Naturale (viola, percussion & electronics) 20’/Alice Humphries – New Work (trumpet solo) 8’ WP/Samantha Wolf – New Work (trio) 8’ WP
CONCERT 3 – Zephyr Quartet ‘Breathing’ Saturday 22nd 5pm Brendan Woithe – New Work (string quartet & electronics) 11’/Cat Hope – Wall Drawing (string quartet, theremin & electronics) 11’/Lisa Cheney – When We Speak (cello & electronics) 12’/Anna Meredith – Music for Ravens (string quartet) 3’/Hilary Kleinig – New work (string quartet) 4’/Caroline Shaw – Valencia (string quartet) 6′
CONCERT 4 – Ensemble Offspring #2 ‘Stealing’ Saturday 22nd 7pm Nicole Murphy – Stolen (electric guitar, piano, violin, clarinet, double bass, percussion, conductor) 12’ Australian Premiere/Kaija Saariaho – Lichtbogen (flute, percussion, harp, piano, 2 violins, viola, cello, double bass, conductor & electronics) 17’/Fausto Romitelli – Professor Bad Trip Lesson 1 (flute, clarinet, percussion, piano, violin, viola, cello, electric guitar, conductor) 14’
The performers: Claire Edwardes (Artistic Director/percussion) /Roland Peelman (conductor) /Véronique Serret (violin) /Anna McMichael (violin) /Blair Harris (cello) /Kirsty McCahon (double bass) /Rowan Phemister (harp) /Lamorna Nightingale (flute) /Jason Noble (clarinet) /Zubin Kanga (piano/keyboard) /Joe Fallon (electric guitar) /Zephyr Quartet (Hilary Kleinig, Jason Thomas, Emily Tulloch, Emma Perkins (Guest))/Henry Justo (viola – Hatched Academy 2019 Associate Artist)/Callum G’Froerer (trumpet)/Niki Johnson (percussion)
