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C1 Seeds of Life

  • April 28, 2023

    11.00am - 12.45pm

  • National Arboretum

    Forest Drive, off Tuggeranong Parkway, Weston Creek, Canberra, ACT 2601

  • In Association with

Presented in partnership with Ausdance ACT and Australian Dance Party

Seeds of Life marks the ten-year anniversary of the National Arboretum Canberra, and 20 years since the devastating Canberra bush fires. The Djinama Yilaga choir, rising star clarinettist Oliver Shermacher perform together with local artists for a celebration of life and new growth. The event culminates with a performance of a new work by Australian Dance Party, co-commissioned by Ausdance ACT and Canberra International Music Festival.

Hillscape is the new work choreographed by Australian Dance Party’s Ashlee Bye with new composition by Dan Walker for Seeds of Life. We enter the vastness of the landscape to celebrate the Sisyphean cycle of generation and regeneration. Expanding and connecting into strong networks to negotiate the precariousness of the ecosystem, we reach out of the earth to climb and tumble, to bustle and thrive.

Hillscape is performed by Ashlee Bye, Yolanda Lowatta and Patricia Hayes Cavanagh with the support of Australian Dance Party.

 

Program

Margaret Whitlam Pavilion

Oliver Shermacher, clarinet

Jürg Wyttenbach, Una chica en Nirvana (2002)

Alice Chance, Stargazer

Nikola Resanovic,  alt.music.ballistix (1995)

A Matter of Fax
A Soliloquy
A Balkan Dance
Convolution@uakron.edu

 

Gallery of Gardens

Terra Australis Garden:  Miroslav Bukovsky, trumpet

Celebration Garden:  Flora Carbo, saxophone with Theo Carbo, electric guitar

AIDS Garden of Reflexion: John Mackey, saxophone

Discovery Garden:  Djinama Yilaga Choir

 

Amphitheatre

Hillscape , a new work commissioned by Ausdance ACT and Canberra International Music Festival for Australian Dance Week

Choreography: Ashlee Bye for Australian Dance Party

Music: Dan Walker

Dancers: Australian Dance Party

Ashlee Bye, Yolanda Lowatta, and Patricia Hayes-Cavanagh.

 

 

Artists

Djinama Yilaga choir

Oliver Shermacher, clarinet

Theo Carbo, electric guitar

Flora Carbo, saxophone

Miroslav Bukovsky, trumpet

John Mackey, saxophone

Ashlee Bye, choreographer

Ashlee Bye, dancer

Yolanda Lowatta, dancer

Patricia Hayes-Cavanagh, dancer

 

With thanks to Dr Cathy Adamek (Ausdance), Alison Plevey (Australian Dance Party) and A Major Lift for making this new work possible.

       

ARTIST Learn more about the artist

Artist Ausdance ACT

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Part of a national network, Ausdance ACT is the peak body for dance in the ACT, headed by Director Dr Cathy Adamek. Ausdance ACT provides high quality, accessible and inclusive dance programs, from across all genres, which engage and inspire dance makers, performers, audiences, and other participants in the ACT and surrounds. Our services include:- support for independent professional dancers; help with career pathways for emerging artists; professional development and performance opportunities; and promotion of dance and dance education.  Ausdance ACT has special interests in the professional sector, youth, dance education and inclusive access to dance opportunities.

Artist Djinama Yilaga Choir

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Djinama Yilaga is a First Nations Choir from the far south coast of NSW led by Walbunga/Ngarigo artist, Cheryl Davison. Djinama Yilaga is an intergenerational choir who sing stories of their life and culture as they revitalise the dhurga language through song. Djinama Yilaga was formed in 2019. Bringing the choir together was a way to heal for this group by share stories of culture and country through music and song but most importantly learning the language of their ancestors. Djinama Yilaga have over the last three years performed at Four Winds concerts, Cobargo Folk Festival, the National Museum of Australia, the National Gallery of Australia and most recently performed at the AGNSW Sydney Modern Project.

Artist Miroslav Bukovsky

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Miroslav Bukovsky is a distinguished jazz trumpeter. He was one of the founders of the renowned Jazz ensemble the Ten Part Invention (TPI) along with Roger Frampton and John Pochee; has played with the Free Boppers, the KMA Orchestra and the Australian Art Orchestra. He has led the award - winning ensemble Wanderlust for many years and remains active composing and performing with them and TPI.  Born in Czechoslovakia, Miroslav graduated with Honours (Absolutorium) from Leos Janacek State Conservatorium in Ostrava. Arriving in Australia in 1968 as a refugee after the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, Miroslav has had a long and established career as one of Australia's leading jazz trumpeters, composers and educators. He was one of founding teachers of the first Jazz course in Australia at the Sydney Conservatorium in 1975. Miroslav furthered his studies in the USA in 1981-82 in New York, LA and Indiana University, including private studies with William Adam, Dave Baker, Dave Liebman, Randy Brecker and Bobby Shew. He has performed and recorded with a variety of groups and orchestras, including Marcia Hines, Ginger Rodgers, Debbie Renolds, Bob Bertles, "Moontrane", the Bruce Cale Orchestra, Sydney Conservatorium Orchestra, KMA Orchestra, the Freeboppers, Renee Geyer, Daly-Wilson Big Band, Monica and the Moochers, Eurogliders, Australian Crawl, Jimmy Barnes, Jump Back Jack, Carl Orr, the Mighty Reapers, Ernie Watts, the Australian Art Orchestra and more recently with John Riley and Benny Maupin. His ARIA winning band Wanderlust performed extensively at many major European and Asian festivals since 1995. He toured major festivals with TPI in Asia and USA.

Artist Theo Carbo

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Theo Carbo (b. 1999, Melbourne, Australia) is a guitarist, composer, electronic musician, producer and sound engineer. Growing up as an astute student of jazz, Theo’s proficiency as a guitarist has seen him working in groups of Australia’s most important improvising musicians including Barney Mcall, Andrea Keller, Sam Anning, Nadje Noordhuis, Joseph O’Connor and Paul Williamson. A keen philosopher of music and a student of composition at the Victorian College of the Arts, Theo has recently been developing a broader practise which involves elements of experimental composition, electronic processes, solo and ensemble improvisation and studio engineering. "Theo is a naturally gifted artist with a unique and refined take on things. His musical maturity is a great argument for the collective unconscious" - Barney Mcall

Artist Australian Dance Party

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Australian Dance Party is a collective of contemporary dance artists creating joyous, bold and urgent site-specific dance work in Canberra and beyond. We harness the universality, power and playfulness of the human body to connect to the ordinary and extraordinary spaces around us, inspiring thinking, feeling and action in today’s world. Through a focus on creative practice, we are creating and presenting new work, developing and sustaining careers for dance artists in our region. And we have fun….it’s a Party!

Artist Flora Carbo

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Flora Carbo is a Melbourne based saxophonist who is quickly becoming one of the most exciting young artists in the Australian jazz scene. Having studied with Julien Wilson, Melissa Aldana, Jeff Clayton and Scott McConnachie, Flora has performed extensively in Melbourne and around Australia and at festivals including Wangaratta Festival of Jazz, Melbourne International Women’s Jazz Festival and the Stonnington Jazz Festival. Recently completing a Bachelor of Music (Degree with Honours) at the University of Melbourne, she has worked with world renowned artists including pianists Barney McAll and Andrea Keller, as well composing and playing with The Rest Is Silence, AAALTO and the Flora Carbo Trio (who released their debut album ‘Erica’ in 2018). In May 2017 she won the prestigious James Morrison Scholarship at the Generations in Jazz Festival, in 2016 she was selected as one of the 10 finalists in the National Jazz Awards. Flora was nominated for the Freedman Jazz Fellowship in 2019 and 2018 and as a finalist for the Young Australian Jazz Artist of the Year at the 2019 Australian Jazz Bell Awards. In 2018, Flora toured internationally with the ‘Company 2’ circus production ‘Scotch and Soda’ and participated in the 2019 Banff Workshop for Jazz and Creative Music in Banff, Canada. Flora’s sophomore recording ‘VOICE’ was released in April 2020.

Artist Oliver Shermacher

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Australian born clarinettist Oliver Shermacher completed his Bachelors at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music under Francesco Celata, and his Masters at the Freiburg Hochschule für Musik with Kilian Herold and Anton Hollich. He is currently living between Germany and Australia, performing as soloist, chamber musician and orchestral clarinettist. He was recently awarded the highly prestigious recognition of the 1st Prize and Audience Choice at the 2022 Aeolus Competition in Düsseldorf, one of the world's most significant competitions for wind instrumentalists. Oliver won the Freedman Fellowship in 2018 and reached the Grand Finals of the 2018 ABC Young Performers Award, also receiving the Audience Choice award. Oliver has performed as soloist with the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Apex Ensemble and was the Artist in Residence with the Willoughby Symphony Orchestra for their 2021/2022 Season, having premiered the Alice Chance Clarinet Concerto with the orchestra in 2022. Oliver has played as Principal Clarinet with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Opera Australia Orchestra, Freiburg Philharmonisches Orchester and with the Australian World Orchestra on Bass Clarinet. Oliver is a passionate composer, theatre maker and new music enthusiast with a focus on the intersection between theatre and solo performance.