Fractured Again

PRESENTED BY THE SYDNEY FESTIVAL AND ENSEMBLE OFFSPRING

January 21–23 @ 8.30pm

The Great Hall, The University of Sydney

Legend said that its players went mad, their nerves shredded by its clarity of sound ... it was so beautiful that it stung the brain. (Bruce Sterling, a fictional reference to the Glass Harmonica)

Fractured Again is a fragile and exotic work on the theme of glass that will transform the magnificent Great Hall at The University of Sydney into a unique sonic environment for Sydney Festival 2010. Created for Ensemble Offspring, the work is a multi-faceted performance experience, combining original music with video, lighting design and installation art.

Featuring the rare and angelic-sounding glass harmonica, Fractured Again begins with a rewrite from Donizetti's opera Lucia di Lammermoor. When Lucia kills her husband, her ensuing descent into madness was supposed to be accompanied by the glass harmonica: an instrument that fell from favour because it was thought to trigger insanity. Ensemble Offspring have acquired what is thought to be the only glass harmonica in Australia, and Donizetti’s ‘mad scene’ will be just the beginning of a startling yet beautiful passage through a fragile soundworld of glass.

Fractured Again will also feature musical instruments made of glass by installation artist Elaine Miles. Elaine has worked extensively with glass together with Eugene Ughetti in the Glass Percussion Project to create visually beautiful and sonically striking environments. For Ensemble Offspring, Elaine has created large panels of glass that are performed like exotic gongs as well as functioning as projection surfaces that are illuminated with interactive video created by Andrew Wholley. The unique acoustic sound of glass will be augmented by electronic music by Pimmon and fused with live violin, clarinet and percussion by Ensemble Offsrping performers Claire Edwardes, James Cuddeford and Jason Noble.

Over the last 12 years, the Sydney-based Ensemble Offspring have been dedicated to the performance of innovative new music and the development of multi-disciplinary projects while maintaining a commitment to a living classical music tradition.  With over 100 performances including a European tour as guests of the prestigious Warsaw Autumn Festival, appearances at Sydney Film Festival, Canberra International Music Festival, Sydney Opera House and Melbourne Recital Centre, they have consistently presented a progressive repertoire in a stimulating and accessible way.

FRACTURED AGAIN ARTISTS

Damien Ricketson is a composer and Co-Artistic Director of Ensemble Offspring. Damien's music is fragile and otherworldly – characterised by unusual timbres, exotic pitches and intricate textures.  His string quartet, So We Begin Afresh, recently received the NSW State Award for the best composition by an Australian composer in the 2008 Classical Music Awards and in 2009. Damien has been awarded grants from the City of Sydney, the Ian Potter Cultural Trust and the MLC School Burwood to develop Fractured Again.

Elaine Miles is an established artist working in glass and mixed media installation art. She has exhibited extensively including PSI New York (an affiliate of MOMA), Roulette Experimental Sound Space (New York), Melbourne Recital Centre (inaugural opening) and Federation Square.  Miles was the winner of the 2008 Civic Choice Award in the prestigious Melbourne Prize for Urban Sculpture, and is represented at Wagga Wagga Regional Art Gallery and Stonington Museum of Art at Deakin University.  Together with musician Eugene Ughetti, she is the founder of the Glass Percussion Project.

Andrew Wholley is a Sydney-based filmmaker. His short films as cinematographer have screened at Tropfest and St Kilda Film Festival. He directed and co-produced his first feature film Left Ear in association with Australian Film Commission in 2007. Wholley has created vision for live music & performance, most recently completing the AV design for Legs On The Wall's China Now show during the Beijing Olympics 2008.

Electronic music composer, Pimmon (AKA Paul Gough) has forged an international reputation for creating dense, challenging and engaging electronic music. Characterized by a unique mixture of drone and glitch-based digital soundscapes, Paul has recorded for various international labels including Tigerbeat6 and Fat Cat. His most recent release, Smudge Another Yesterday (2009, Preservation), was mastered by renowned Italian composer Giuseppe Ielasi.

Percussionist Claire Edwardes is a leading interpreter of contemporary classical music and Co-Artistic Director of Ensemble Offspring.  Performances have included solo concerto appearances with the Sydney Symphony, Melbourne and Queensland Orchestras and the Radio Chamber Orchestra (The Netherlands) as well as solo appearances at Huddersfield Festival of Contemporary Music (UK) and Australian Festival of Chamber Music (Townsville).  Edwardes was awarded an AMC/APRA award for outstanding contribution to Australian music (2007), an MCA Freedman Fellowship (2005) and Australian Young Performer of the Year (1999).

James Cuddeford has performed throughout Europe, Asia and Australia as both a soloist and chamber musician, as well as with orchestras including the Camerata Lysy Switzerland, BBC Scottish National, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Queensland, Adelaide and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras.  As a chamber musician he performed with Grainger Quartet, Sydney Soloists and Australian String Quartet.  Cuddeford’s own compositions have been performed by groups such as Nash Ensemble, Psappha Ensemble and Queensland Philharmonic.  Cuddeford is currently concertmaster of Hong Kong Sinfonietta.