Montsalvat presents Of Birds and Monuments, performed by internationally award-winning artists, Coady Green (piano), Justin Kenealy (saxophone) and Yorta Yorta man Tiriki Onus (narrator). They present works by renowned Melbourne composers based upon stories from Indigenous texts prepared by Tiriki Onus and N’arweet Carolyn Briggs AM.
The program includes Linda Kouvaras' 'Herring Island Piano Sonata' for piano, recorded sound and narrator, with sound by Roger Alsop and text by head of the Boon Wurrung Foundation, N'arweet Dr Carolyn Briggs AM. It has won awards from the Australia Council for the Arts, City of Melbourne, Creative Victoria and more. It evokes Indigenous stories and landmarks from a 5km radius of Melbourne's human-made Herring Island.
In addition, Linda Kouvaras’ new work, ‘Buluwirri Bugaja Piano Suite’, will be performed. This is based upon stories from Tiriki Onus' own family of Indigenous artists and First Nations Human Rights Activist. In particular, stories surrounding Tiriki's grandfather Bill Onus, as documented in the award-winning film 'Ablaze', which won the Victorian Premier's History Award and a major Human Rights award at the Kiez Berlin Film Festival. This work is accompanied by a film containing archival footage.
Jane Hammond's evocative and beautiful composition 'Songs of the Helmeted Honeyeater' will be presented and is accompanied by an award-winning film by wildlife filmmaker Angus Hamilton, and text by renowned director and writer Theresa Borg, narrated again by Tiriki Onus, tells the story of the critically-endangered Helmeted Honeyeater bird, Victoria's avifaunal emblem.
This program is proudly supported by the Nillumbik Shire Council Reconciliation Grant.
Sunday 3rd September 2023
5pm - 7pm (incl. interval)
Barn Gallery
Adult $20
Concession or Child $15
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Coady Green is acknowledged as a major talent on the international concert circuit, described as “a virtuoso pianist with sensitivity, intelligence and charm”, “accurate and exhilarating” (Musical Opinion, London), and with “a strong and versatile technique capable of the most delicate coloring and tonal brilliance, rising to the challenges of extreme virtuoso demands with relish” (The Advertiser, South Australia).
Green is committed to the promotion of new Australian music, commissioning several new works from Australian composers each year, and working frequently with emerging and established Australian and international composers.
Tiriki Onus is a Yorta Yorta man and Head of the Wilin Centre for Indigenous Arts and Cultural Development, University of Melbourne. He is a successful visual artist, curator, performance artist and opera singer.
His first operatic role was in the premiere of Deborah Cheetham’s Pecan Summer in October 2010, which he reprised in 2011, and 2012 for the Melbourne and Perth runs. He received the Dame Nellie Melba Opera Trust’s Harold Blair Opera Scholarship in 2012 and 2013. In 2015 he was the inaugural Hutchinson Indigenous Fellow at the University of Melbourne.
Justin Kenealy is a multi-award-winning saxophonist who lectures in Music Performance and Saxophone at Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, University of Melbourne. Kenealy has performed throughout Australia, France, the United States, Netherlands and China. He performs regularly with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Orchestra Victoria.
His ensemble with pianist Coady Green, Duo Eclettico, has become the most active classical saxophone and piano duo in Australia.
Linda Kouvaras is a composer, musicologist, pianist and Professor at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, University of Melbourne. Kouvaras publishes in contemporary music, both classical and popular, focusing especially on Australian music, postmodernism and gender issues in music.
With full artist representation at the Australian Music Centre and with the Australasian Performing Rights Association, Kouvaras also publishes with Reed Music and is the recipient of a number of private and government grants and composing commissions, her works receiving frequent airplay on radio, in concert, CD recordings and at festivals across Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, USA, Asia and Europe.
N’arweet Dr Carolyn Briggs AM is a Boon Wurrung senior elder and is the chairperson and founder of the Boon Wurrung Foundation. A descendant of the First Peoples of Melbourne, the Yaluk-ut Weelam clan of the Boon Wurrung, she is the great granddaughter of Louisa Briggs, a Boon Wurrung woman born near Melbourne in the 1830’s.
Carolyn has been involved in developing and supporting opportunities for Indigenous youth and Boon Wurrung culture for over 40 years. Her cultural knowledge and experience has been recognised by communities throughout Australia.
Jane Hammond’s compositional output has been wide ranging, from music for small and large-scale community theatre projects to the concert hall, for ensembles and companies including Ensemble Liaison, Victoria State Opera, Opera Australia, and Melbourne International Festival. She has recorded for the ABC as pianist and conductor and her compositions have been broadcast by 3MBS FM, ABC Classic FM and ABC Radio National. Her works have been performed throughout Australia and internationally and have been described as being “of ravishing beauty and rare artistic distinction" (John Slavin, critic for The Melbourne Age).
Roger Alsop’s practice includes sound art, composition, interactive art & video art. He works in all forms of performance, recorded, sound, web, and video arts. He teaches undergraduate, postgraduate and research students at Melbourne University and Box Hill Institute, and has mentored performance students at Victoria University, and through the Spark program. He is an active researcher in the areas of performance and performing arts, interactive art, sound art, and composition, and has supervised and supervises research students in these areas.