Author: Daryl Buckley

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Liza Lim wins the 2018 Don Banks award

The Australia Council Awards for 2018 was an extremely successful function and from an ELISION perspective it was both wonderful and timely to be able to witness one of our family of composers, Liza Lim, honoured with the Don Banks award. The award recognised the remarkable achievements of Liza Lim and her sustained contribution to the field of composition and contemporary classical music. Read more about Liza’s work here.

Liza Lim and Philip Adams
Composer Liza Lim and choreographer Philip Adams celebrating their recognition at the Australia Council Awards 2018

And the evening also brought ELISION’s artistic director together with past chair Professor Malcolm Gillies, past Deputy-Chair Tony Grybowski for a very rare photo opportunity!

Daryl Buckley, Tony Grybowski and Professor Malcom Gillies
Daryl Buckley, Tony Grybowski and Professor Malcom Gillies at the 2018 Australia Council Awards
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Visit to the studio of David Murphy

Composer Liza Lim with the Tres Soir
A visit to the workshop of David Murphy

We went to see visual artist, builder and instrument maker David Murphy at his Melbourne studio.  Liza and I were seeking new and amazing versions of the home-made inventions of Walter Smetak, recently encountered by Liza in Salvador da Bahia, and used in her large-scale chamber work Ronda – The Spinning World, originally written for Ensemble Modern. This piece embodies the madcap gyrations, the ballistic energies and torque of Brazilian capoeira turned into strange asymmetrical musical repetitions and improvisational-like extremes. Here David Murphy’s creations become the Australian versions of the Três sois, and Ronda, taking the improvisational and joyous life of the Brazilian aesthetic into a sonic realm. And I am so looking forward to harpist Marshall McGuire performing upon this instrument at our Melbourne Recital Centre concert on Wednesday April 18th. Be there, the sonic adventure starts at 7:30pm. It’s the Australian premiere of Ronda – The Spinning World.