Flinders Quartet 2019 Composer Development Program participants announced

Launching from a supremely successful inaugural composer workshop in 2016, Flinders Quartet’s (FQ) Composer Development Program is now an annual event, the quartet has invited six emerging composers from across Australia to participate in the 2019 program:

Oliver Beard, NSW
Joseph Franklin, NSW
Timothy Franklin, VIC
Simon Kruit, WA
Natalie Nicolas, NSW
Chloe Sinclair, NSW

“There’s nothing quite like playing a work for a composer for the first time,” says cellist Zoe Knighton, “having the privilege of discovering someone’s musical voice and helping to bring it to life is central to our being as a quartet, and has made this project one of our favourite times of the year, informing all our music-making from Haydn to Sculthorpe.”

The six compositions will be workshopped with the members of the quartet and composition mentor, Stuart Greenbaum (Head of Composition at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music), resulting in a professional studio recording, a live concert recording and live-streamed public performance.

“I feel like the program had an important impact on me in two ways. Firstly, this program revealed a more collaborative, group-oriented side of composition, where not only is the composer present for directing rehearsals and shaping, but the ensemble also aids in directing the music’s trajectory. I’m glad that our submissions were not treated as final works (but were still given meticulous care in preparation), and that they all had somewhere further to go. This has been my second collaboration of such intertwined nature as a composer, and it confirms for me that I would like this approach to music making to be central in whatever I do, as a composer/percussionist/musician.” — Jet Kye Chong, 2018 participant

OPEN-TO-THE-PUBLIC WORKSHOPS
Monday 17 June, 10.00am to 4.00pm (including a break)
Performance Space, Library at The Dock, Docklands (map)

Tuesday 18 June, 10.00am to 4.00pm (including a break)
Performance Space, Library at The Dock, Docklands (map)

PERFORMANCE
Saturday 22 June, 6pm to 7pm
Performance Space, Library at The Dock, Docklands
Bookings: www.trybooking.com/BAYZD
(this is a free event but tickets are limited and bookings are essential)

This concert will also be live streamed by 5stream and can be viewed on FQ’s website, Facebook or YouTube channel.

Supported by Creative Victoria, the workshops will be open to the public, allowing aspiring composers to witness the creative process of other composers as well as demonstrating the participants’ compositional development. The workshops will culminate in a produced recording to be broadcast by media partner, 3MBS Fine Music Melbourne, and a public, live-streamed performance of the works with 5stream; thus providing the composers an invaluable reference and promotional tool, and documenting the development of chamber music in Australia.

“The broadcast element of this project is just phenomenal!! It is so unusual for emerging composers to have recordings of their work, let alone SPECTACULAR recordings to share with their audiences. I am truly so grateful that we will have record of this time together that the ensemble is happy for us to share with our audiences.” — Ella Macens, 2017 program participant