APRA Composer Commission Award
On Friday May 8th from 7.30-9.30pm in the Iwaki Auditorium at ABC Southbank, the Melbourne Jazz Fringe Festival presents its 4th annual APRA Composers Commission Concert. Following the acclaimed success of previous winners Jex Saarelaht, Colin Hopkins and Erik Griswold, the performance of 2009 winner Ren Walters’ new work “Surrounded by C” will be one of the highlights of this year’s festival. The concert will be recorded by ABC Classic FM for broadcast on Gerry Koster’s Jazz Up Late.
Ren Walters is one of the most significantly unique voices in contemporary improvisation in Australia. A guitarist, bandleader, composer and performer in rock, jazz, fusion and free music since 1971, Ren has been a leader in instigating music performance venues and spaces in Melbourne. He has been a member of the Australian Art Orchestra and has travelled extensively (USA, Europe, South Africa) with his own bands. Ren has composed for and performed with music for contemporary dance, film, video and multimedia, and is also a practising graphic/visual artist, focussing on painting, collage and computer based design. He regularly performs real-time composition and precomposed works with “THIS Ensemble”, Dur-e Dara, TIP, Adrian Sherriff, Stephen Magnusson, Adam Simmons, TD5, and others around Melbourne and in particular at The Make It Up Club and Bennetts Lane Jazz Club. His current musical activity is largely based around recording/documenting gig and studio performance, and non-performance ‘domestic music making’.
Selected from a growing list of outstanding applicants, Ren’s work “Surrounded by C” is for voice artist, 3 brass instruments (primarily using mutes and other physical modifying devices, 3 clarinets (primarily bass clarinets), small percussive objects, and real-time manipulation and amplification with focus on placements of sounds in the space using a 5.1 surround sound system.
The key performers are voice artist Carolyn Connors and percussionist Dur-e Dara. Other members will be:
Adrian Sherriff, Shannon Barnett, James Wilkinson – trombones
Adam Simmons, Brigid Burke, Karen Heath – clarinets
Ray Luckhurst – sound
The Melbourne Jazz Fringe APRA Composers Commission Concert will also feature singer Gian Slater (National Jazz Awards and Freedman award finalist) with the Silo String Quartet. Gian recorded her latest album ‘Creatures at the Crossroads’ with the virtuosic pianist, Will Poskitt, who tragically passed away late last year. Gian has re arranged selections from the album for the Silo String Quartet.
The MJFF thanks the following sponsors:
Apra, Victoria University, Arts Victoria-Vic Rocks
For all enquiries: info@melbournejazzfringe.com
