Buy Tickets

Whitewater (free)

  • Saturday, 3 May 2025

    11:20 am

  • Courtyard, National Film and Sound Archive

    2 McCoy Crescent

  • In Association with

“Whitewater is a utopia aiming to show that the bagpipe is a universal instrument. To imagine music for solo bagpipe that does not evoke its cultural origin, music that is only music, with no other function than to be listened to. This project also entails a modification of traditional playing modes, as well as work on how to use the bagpipe sound and harmonic strangeness outside of strictly melodic practice. All this seems paradoxical for a traditional musician like myself. Yet it is the way I have chosen for Whitewater, in order to see what kind of music I can envisage for my instrument.” Erwan Keravec.

Producer
Offshore, an association subsidized by the DRAC Brittany (Ministry of Culture and Communication) and the Regional Council of Brittany.

In residency at
Le gmem-CNCM-Marseille

Presented with support from

 

Supported by the Embassy of France to Australia

ARTIST Learn more about the artist

Artist Erwan Keravec - highland bagpiper, composer and improviser

READ MORE
Erwan Keravec is a highland bagpiper, composer and improviser. In seeking out the more unusual sounds, and ways of playing and listening to his instrument, far from its original cultural setting, he is exploring improvised music, free and ‘noise’ jazz, and establishing a repertoire of contemporary music for solo pipes, trio with solo voice and with choir. With an interest in movement and in settings associated with reinvention, he also writes, plays and improvises for dance.
Since 2007, he has pursued his quest for a style of piping that’s removed from its original setting, with the projects Urban Pipes I (2007) and Urban Pipes II (2011). To make his intentions clear, he commissioned composers to write solo pieces for the instrument as part of the Nu Piping series (since 2011). So far, he has been behind 19 works by 17 composers. For the quartet SONNEURS, he commissioned 12 pieces. This research will lead to IN C // 20 PIPERS (2022) and 8 PIPERS FOR PHILIP GLASS (2024).

Go to Artist's Page