What's On at UWA

The exceptional ability of young emerging artists and their passion for music will always create an extraordinary experience for concertgoers.

In Main Stage: Culmination three outstanding performers compete in the finals of the prestigious VOSE Concerto Competition backed by the full forces of the brilliant UWA Symphony Orchestra. Who will win this coveted prize? Have your say and vote for your favourite performance in the People’s Choice Award!

Also on the program, Shumann's Konzertstuck for 4 Horns, and in celebration of the 200th anniversary of the French composer Gounod, the UWA Symphony Orchestra and Symphonic Chorus join forces with a performance of his beautiful, serene St Cecilia Mass.

Tickets from $18

Held on Whitfeld Court against the magnificent backdrop of Winthrop Hall, the UWA Christmas Concert will feature all your favourite Christmas classics and carols performed by acclaimed staff and students from the UWA Conservatorium of Music.

There will be plenty of fun for all the family with Santa making an appearance on the night.

Pack a picnic or enjoy a delicious treat from one of the local food trucks (Rancho Sombrero Tex-Mex, The Spanish Casa or Tim's Ice Creams) and join us for a fun-filled evening of music!

FREE entry - suitable for all ages

We welcome guests from 6pm. Concert starts 7pm and finishes by 8.45pm Please bring something to sit on (tall chairs only permitted on the grass bank).

Join the Perth Orchestra Project and conductor Izaak Wesson for an evening that challenges your expectations of the 'Baroque' style. We are very proud to present this programme of unorthodox, and rarely performed works in association with Artists-in-Residence Dr Cecilia Sun and Robert Gladstones. We also welcome Composer-in-Residence for this season Stephen de Filippo, a UWA graduate whose new work for harpsichord and orchestra will be premiered in this concert.

Experience the eclectic, bold, grotesque, sublime, and ultimately astounding compositional styles of Rebel, de Filippo, Zelenka and Martinu in this one-off performance at the Callaway Music Auditorium.

Join the Perth Orchestra Project and conductor Izaak Wesson for a programme of profound American music from the 20th century, as well a new composition by Perth-born composer Kate Milligan. POP is enormously proud to present this concert of masterworks by Charles Ives and Steve Reich, both of whom meditate on the fragility, duality, displacement and mysticism of the human condition in their respective works.

Ives’ brief but intensely introspective The Unanswered Question was a work decades ahead of its time, which provides a stunning opening to the concert. Reich’s Different Trains is a monolith of 20th century music and considered a seminal memorial piece to the Holocaust. The concert concludes with a new piece by UWA composition graduate Kate Milligan for flutes, strings and electronics. The world premiere of her work Migrations is sure to provide a poignant link to our contemporary time and place.

PRE-CONCERT TALK AT 7.30PM ON FRIDAY 22nd of NOVEMBER IN THE EILEEN JOYCE STUDIO, UWA CONSERVATORIUM OF MUSIC

Join the Perth Orchestra Project and conductor Izaak Wesson for a concert of tragedy, triumph, and raw emotion as we explore the concept of ‘heroes’ through music. This concert meditates on the question of ‘what is a hero, and how do they shape our lives?’, examining the ways in which three different composers over the last two centuries have been inspired to create art in response to ‘heroes’.

The programme begins with an extract from Glass’s Symphony No.4, which is heavily influenced by the music of David Bowie. In his iconic track 'Heroes' Bowie was inspired by two lovers who were separated by the Berlin Wall, which Glass draws on in this movement. Perth-born composer Charles Barblett then offers a contemporary take on the idea of heroes and villains in our world today, in what will be a world premiere performance that focusses particularly on the treatment of refugees and asylum seekers.

2020 is the 250th year since Beethoven's birth in 1770, so in celebration the concert concludes with Beethoven’s mighty Symphony No.3, the ‘Eroica’. POP will explore this work which was written at one of the most tumultuous times in European history, a time profoundly shaped by individuals who sought to dramatically change the world in which they lived.

Philip Glass - Symphony No. 4 'Heroes', 1st Movement Charles Barblett - Distorted Perceptions (PREMIERE) Ludwig van Beethoven - Symphony No. 3 Eroica

Friday 31 January 2020 7:30 PM Sunday 2 February 2020 2:00 PM

Callaway Music Auditorium UWA Conservatorium of Music, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, Western Australia 6009

Tickets available online via TryBooking (https://www.trybooking.com/BHOIS) and at the door. Standard $20 Concession $15 Student $5

Be transported from the everyday by our free lunchtime concert series, featuring the best musical talent from within the UWA Conservatorium of Music and around the country.

Join us this week as soprano Sara Macliver and pianist Gladys Chua perform some of their favourite works for voice and piano including Grieg's 'Haugtussa' and Ravel's 'Five Greek Songs'.

In order to adhere to room capacities and appropriate social distancing, until WA enters Phase 5 our Lunchtime Concerts will be ticketed events. Entry is free but bookings are essential. Bookings can be made via https://www.trybooking.com/BKNYS

Be transported from the everyday by our free lunchtime concert series, featuring the best musical talent from within the UWA Conservatorium of Music and around the country.

This week UWA Chair of Violins and concertmaster of the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Shaun Lee-Chen, performs Bach's Partita no. 2 in D minor.

In order to adhere to room capacities and appropriate social distancing, until WA enters Phase 5 our Lunchtime Concerts will be ticketed events. Entry is free but bookings are essential. Bookings can be made via https://www.trybooking.com/BKNYS

Be transported from the everyday by our free lunchtime concert series, featuring the best musical talent from within the UWA Conservatorium of Music and around the country.

The UWA Guitar Studio will present a free concert of solo and chamber repertoire.

In order to adhere to room capacities and appropriate social distancing, until WA enters Phase 5 our Lunchtime Concerts will be ticketed events. Entry is free but bookings are essential. Bookings can be made via https://www.trybooking.com/BKNYS

Be transported from the everyday by our free lunchtime concert series, featuring the best musical talent from within the UWA Conservatorium of Music and around the country.

Transcend the everyday in a concert featuring the sublime sounds of UWA voice students. These emerging young artists will present a mixed program of songs and arias, including Mahler's 'Songs of a Wayfarer' sung by Honours student David Woods.

In order to adhere to room capacities and appropriate social distancing, until WA enters Phase 5 our Lunchtime Concerts will be ticketed events. Entry is free but bookings are essential. Bookings can be made via https://www.trybooking.com/BKNYS

The Conservatorium of Music is a vibrant centre for research in music and music education, where a thriving community of scholars is engaged in exploring the frontiers of knowledge, working on a wide range of research projects with diverse outputs.

Our free weekly seminar series showcases presenters from within UWA and from the wider community.

25 Aug | Three Minute Thesis (3MT) Competition

Get a taste of the variety of research happening in the Conservatorium of Music in this semester's three-minute thesis competition! Honours and HDR researchers showcase their research projects in concise presentations targeted towards a general audience.

Free entry - no bookings required

The Conservatorium of Music is a vibrant centre for research in music and music education, where a thriving community of scholars is engaged in exploring the frontiers of knowledge, working on a wide range of research projects with diverse outputs.

Our free weekly seminar series showcases presenters from within UWA and from the wider community.

1 Sept - Joshua Bamford | Music as a tool for social bonding: from 6 MYA to the COVID-19 era

Abstract: A growing body of literature suggests that synchronised activity (such as in music and dance) may lead to social bonding between individuals and within groups – known as the synchrony-bonding effect. This effect may have given rise to the array of synchronised activity present in all human cultures, as a replacement for the social grooming behaviour that is used to establish bonds in most other primates. Music and dance may be more efficient than grooming by allowing interaction with multiple others simultaneously, and at a distance. In my current research, I investigate the precise cognitive mechanisms that underpin the synchrony-bonding effect, attempting to explain why humans enjoy being in synchrony with others, leading to increased trust and feelings of affiliation. However, COVID restrictions have raised new questions about how people maintain social bonds in times of social distancing. In light of our “new normal”, I will discuss contemporary approaches of music making that attempt to overcome zoom-induced asynchrony.

Bio: An alumnus of UWA, Joshua Bamford's research on the origins of musicality have taken him to Finland, Austria and, most recently, to the UK where he is pursuing a DPhil in Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology at the University of Oxford. He is currently in Perth as a visiting researcher at the UWA School of Psychological Science. In his spare time he sings opera, conducts folk song choirs, and goes swing dancing.

Free entry - no bookings required

Be transported from the everyday by our free lunchtime concert series, featuring the best musical talent from within the UWA Conservatorium of Music and around the country.

Fluxus

Head of Contemporary Music, Ashley Smith, and Head of Electronic Composition, Chris Tonkin, inspire a community of young artists to discover new worlds and ideas in music. They will explore the edge between noise and music, activity and performance in this not to be missed immersive experience.

For an idea of what to expect - see here: www.facebook.com/UWAmusic/videos/1724038457619783/

In order to adhere to room capacities and appropriate social distancing, until WA enters Phase 5 our Lunchtime Concerts will be ticketed events. Entry is free but bookings are essential.

Be transported from the everyday by our free lunchtime concert series, featuring the best musical talent from within the UWA Conservatorium of Music and around the country.

UWA Wind Orchestra

The UWA Wind Orchestra, under the baton of Dr Paul De Cinque and Doctor of Musical Arts student Chris Milne present a program of works including:

HYDE – 'Village Fair' (tr. De Cinque), LEDGER – 'Indian Pacific' (tr. De Cinque), GRANDAGE – 'Magnetic', GRAINGER – 'Faeroe Island Dance'

In order to adhere to room capacities and appropriate social distancing, until WA enters Phase 5 our Lunchtime Concerts will be ticketed events. Entry is free but bookings are essential.

A jam-packed program of stimulating performances and events in 2020 showcases the immense talent of our young emerging artists and their mentors, along with celebrated alumni, and national and internationally recognised guest artists. From workshops and lectures to intimate chamber performances and large-scale collaborations, there’s something for everyone to enjoy.

Jen Winley Master's Recital

Under the baton of Master of Music candidate Jen Winley, the UWA Chamber Orchestra perform Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture and Haydn's Symphony 96.

Free entry - no booking required

A jam-packed program of stimulating performances and events in 2020 showcases the immense talent of our young emerging artists and their mentors, along with celebrated alumni, and national and internationally recognised guest artists. From workshops and lectures to intimate chamber performances and large-scale collaborations, there’s something for everyone to enjoy.

Pinata Percussion | Voices, Motions, and Sounds

Join Pinata Percussion for their first concert under the direction of WASO Percussionist Francois Combemorel. These young emerging artists will lead you on a journey around the world with repertoire from the U.S, Belgium, France, Australia, Japan and the Netherlands performed not just with traditional instruments, but using voices, lights and body percussion in a sensory journey that is sure to delight.

Tickets: $15 Standard, $10 Concessions, UWA Music and School students attend for FREE (email [email protected] for details)

The Conservatorium of Music is a vibrant centre for research in music and music education, where a thriving community of scholars is engaged in exploring the frontiers of knowledge, working on a wide range of research projects with diverse outputs.

Our free weekly seminar series showcases presenters from within UWA and from the wider community.

‘Economics of Visibility’: The Gendered Body on the Orchestral Podium

The exclusivity of the Classical Music industry is widely documented, and scholarship indicates that orchestral conducting remains a particularly male-dominated profession: Women on the podium engage in complex gendered contortions and ‘management’ of the body as the visibility of their practice dictates. However, feminist sensibilities have changed significantly since this extant literature was published and gendered leadership has re-emerged as a subject of global public discourse. As such, a re-evaluation of the gendered conditions of the podium is long overdue. In a critical analysis of representations of elite conductors in the media, as well as a series of semi-structured interviews with practicing conductors, this paper will assess the state of gender diversity on the orchestral podium in the contemporary context. Banet-Weiser’s ‘Economics of Visibility’—that which posits the visible feminine body as product with market value—provides a crucial framework for assessing gender in a neoliberal, postfeminist context.

Kate Milligan is a composer, conductor, and researcher. She is currently mid-way through a Master of Music by research at UWA, having graduated from her undergraduate degree in composition in 2018. She has since been commissioned by a range of Perth-based ensembles including Decibel, Perth Orchestra Project, and Intercurrent. This year, she is a participant in Tura’s national Summers Night Project for emerging female and non-binary composers, as well as WASO’s Emerging Conductors Program. Kate is currently working with the Perth Symphony Orchestra (PSO) as the inaugural Conducting Fellow and as an Artistic Planner.

Free entry - no bookings required

A jam-packed program of stimulating performances and events in 2020 showcases the immense talent of our young emerging artists and their mentors, along with celebrated alumni, and national and internationally recognised guest artists. From workshops and lectures to intimate chamber performances and large-scale collaborations, there’s something for everyone to enjoy.

Songs Sacred and Profane

A delightful collection of works for chamber choir performed by UWA’s Con-Cantorum.

Tickets: $10–15

A jam-packed program of stimulating performances and events in 2020 showcases the immense talent of our young emerging artists and their mentors, along with celebrated alumni, and national and internationally recognised guest artists. From workshops and lectures to intimate chamber performances and large-scale collaborations, there’s something for everyone to enjoy.

For all the Saints

CON-CANTORUM AND THE ST MARY’S CATHEDRAL CHOIR

Descending from the roofline of the majestic St Mary’s Cathedral are sixteen stained glass windows commemorating beloved and lesser known saints. In this program, Con-Cantorum joins with St Mary’s Cathedral Choir to present a program of joyous and reflective music – works that celebrate stained glass, light, the saints, and the mystery of the Mass. This eclectic program of traditional works, and twentieth-first century mini-gems by female composers, includes WA premieres of And the Lord said, Fiat Lux by Alice Chance and O splendidissima gemma (based upon St Hildegard von Bingen) by Stef Conner, Kaleidoscope by deVoight, and the premiere of a new commission for Con-Cantorum, With Visioned Eyes (for St Joan) by Lydia Gardiner.

Tickets: $25 Standard / $22 Concessions

The West Australian Symphony Orchestra, the West Australian Symphony Orchestra Chorus and the Symphonic Chorus of UWA present

Carmina Burana

Carmina Burana has been repurposed, remixed and reworked by the best in the business for hundreds of films and TV commercials. However, there is nothing quite like the raw power of this epic classic performed live. The wheel of fortune spins on the pleasures of lust and the perils of life in a collection of 24 medieval poems thrillingly sung by a 130-voice choir with WASO.

To open, WASO dance with the devil in UWA graduate Iain Grandage’s spectacular percussion concerto, inspired by Australian gothic stories.

2 October & 3 October 2020 | 7.30pm

IAIN GRANDAGE Dances with Devils: Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra

ORFF Carmina burana

Jessica Gethin (conductor), Amy Manford (soprano), Perry Joyce (tenor), James Clayton (baritone), WASO Chorus, UWA Symphonic Chorus, Aquinas College - Schola Choir, Hale School - Young Voices

Tickets: $30–94

waso.com.au

Be transported from the everyday by our free lunchtime concert series, featuring the best musical talent from within the UWA Conservatorium of Music and around the country.

The Music of Nicholas Bannan

Dr Nicholas Bannan is an accomplished international composer, conductor, music researcher and Associate Professor at the UWA Conservatorium of Music. He joined UWA from the University of Reading in 2006. He won several competitions as a composer, including the Fribourg Prize for Sacred Music in 1986, and has completed commissions for the Allegri and Grieg Quartets, the Guildhall String Ensemble, Cantemus Novum of Antwerp, and the Gentlemen of St Paul's Cathedral.

In 2020 Nicholas will be retiring from UWA so we invite you to join us for a special Lunchtime Concert featuring works written by Nicholas and performed by students and staff of the Conservatorium

In order to adhere to room capacities and appropriate social distancing, until WA enters Phase 5 our Lunchtime Concerts will be ticketed events. Entry is free but bookings are essential | https://www.trybooking.com/BKNYS