...has established a virtuosic profile for the performance of new music. The ensemble has a reputation for delivering authoritative interpretations of complex, unusual and challenging aesthetics often developed in close collaboration with the composer. Its practice ranges from concert giving to cross-disciplinary projects with a range of new media and visual artists, performance-installation works and the use of improvisational experiences as a creative tool to inform structured and formally notated music.
The ensemble’s ambition is fuelled by the brilliance and dedication of the artists, focused strategic directions and a strong emphasis upon the creation of new work and artistic forms.
International concert and recording engagements received include performances for MaerzMusik, the Hebbel Theater of Berlin, the Berlin Philharmonie and Konzerthaus, Wien Modern, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, the Westdeutscher Rundfunk, Radio Bremen, Festival Ars Musica of Brussels, the Zürcher Theater Spektakel, Saitama Arts Theatre of Japan, IRCAM as part of the Agora Festival Paris, the Warsaw Autumn, the Chekov International Theatre Festival of Moscow, Festival d’Automne Paris and the Ultima Festival of Oslo. This activity complements an extensive programme within Australia marked by appearances at the Brisbane, Perth, Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide Festivals and the release of several recordings with NMC and MODE reviewed to acclaim by major international press.
The opera, The Navigator by Liza Lim to a libretto by Patricia Sykes was directed by Barrie Kosky at both the Brisbane and Melbourne festivals, the work has toured to international festivals in Moscow and Paris. The performance-installation works DARK MATTER and Opening of the Mouth by Richard Barrett in collaboration with Per Inge Bjørlo and Richard Crow respectively have been presented in Perth, Brisbane, Bremen, Brussels, Oslo and Huddersfield. TULP: the body public with composer John Rodgers and new media artist Justine Cooper premiered at both Sydney and Brisbane festivals to critical acclaim. Yuè Lìng Jié (Moon Spirit Feasting), a 'ritual street opera' by Liza Lim and Beth Yahp premiered at the Adelaide and Melbourne festivals and toured to theatres in Brisbane, Berlin, Saitama and Zurich. Also of note is Sight and Sound of a Storm in Sky Country with composer Timothy O'Dwyer and indigenous visual artist Lilla Watson, and What Remains: a simultaneous and structured improvisation for two ensembles by John Butcher and Timothy O'Dwyer.
ELISION has recorded over eighteen compact discs, undertaken twenty-two international tours to fourteen different countries and initiated thirty-six international commissions supported by organisations in the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, Holland, France and Japan. The ensemble now consists of twenty-one leading musicians based in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Singapore, Manchester, Paris, Berlin, Cologne and Bonn.