Saturday March 26, 2016 | 8:30 pm | $5-10
Judith Hamann + Rosalind Hall (duo) /// Alexander Garsden // David Smooke
A most excellent evening of music featuring three outstanding Australian improvisers:
Cellist Judith Hamann and saxophonist Rosalind Hall will perform their duo project and opening the night will be electronic musician Alexander Garsden.
Special opening set by local composer David Smooke improvising on toy piano!
About the artists:
Judith Hamann, Cello
Judith Hamann is an Australian-born cellist currently based between Melbourne and San Diego. Her performance practice stretches across various genres, encompassing elements of improvised, art, experimental, and popular music. Judith has studied contemporary repertoire with many cellists, including Charles Curtis and Séverine Ballon. She is developing a strong practice in improvisation through collaborative projects and performances, both in Australia and internationally, including Hammers Lake (with Carolyn Connors) and Golinski/Hamann/Dunscombe trio. She has worked with artists and ensembles, including Oren Ambarchi, ELISION Ensemble, Ellen Fullman, Graham Lambkin, Jon Rose, Not Yet It’s Difficult, Ilan Volkov, and La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela. Judith is a founding member of Golden Fur and one-half of the immersive duo project Cello II (with Anthea Caddy).
Rosalind Hall, Saxophone
The beguiling, chameleonic saxophone has possessed Rosalind Hall for most of her life. Since completing a Bachelor of Sound Art at RMIT, Rosalind has received grants from the Australia Council and the New Music Network and is currently undertaking a funded mentorship with Robin Fox. Rosalind has performed in Australian festivals such as the Melbourne Festival, Melbourne International Jazz Festival, the Now Now, Sound Out, Electrofringe and internationally at iiii (Nz), Breathing Sounds (Tai) and Konfrontation (Aus).
Alexander Garsden, Electronics
Alexander Garsden (b. 1987) is a composer, guitarist and electro-acoustic musician, working in numerous disciplines of exploratory music. He is based in Melbourne, Australia. Recent work includes commissions from the Melbourne and Sydney Symphony Orchestras, Speak Percussion, Michael Kieran Harvey, Jessica Aszodi, Golden Fur, and Jonathan Heilbron, alongside performances with Slave Pianos (Melbourne/Yogyakarta), Quiver, and Kim Myhr & Ole-Henrik Moe (Nor). He performs as a soloist of both notated and improvised musics, and in a range of other contexts including True Strength (with Ida Duelund-Hansen), Yuko Kono, Francis Plagne, Ned Collette and Wirewalker, Forth Impact (with Sam Dunscombe) and in duos with Erkki Veltheim and with Rohan Drape. As an educator he teaches through the RMIT and the University of Melbourne, and is co-director of the INLAND concert series.
David Smooke, Toy Piano
Composer David Smooke (b. 1969) currently resides in Baltimore, Maryland, where he teaches music theory, rock music history, and composition at the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University. The Washington Post claims that “Smooke has some of the most uninhibited brain cells around” and describes his music as “superb […] a kaleidoscopic sonic universe where anything could happen”; the Baltimore Sun adds that it is “a fascinating experience in sound and content […] exceedingly imaginative [and] complex.” His honors include those from the Maryland State Arts Council, the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance, BMI, the MacDowell Colony, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and Yellow Barn. He has composed commissions for groups including the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), Volti Choir, Rhymes With Opera, the Great Noise Ensemble, and the Peabody Wind Ensemble. He has an M.M. degree from the Peabody Conservatory, a B.A. magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, where he received the Century Fellowship, the highest fellowship offered by the Humanities Division. In addition to his composition activities, David performs on toy piano with the support of Schoenhut toy pianos, and has written extensively for NewMusicBox, the online magazine of New Music U.S.A.
