WELCOME!
Tonight’s program begins with a prelude by the Australian Taiko Academy’s ATA Ensemble in a piece by Ian Cleworth called DIAMONDS. Like the finale of Natural Forces, DIAMONDS uses one of percussionist-educator Greg Sheehan’s ‘rhythm diamonds’ as the basis for its composition. Read on for more insight into Greg’s intriguing concept.
We’re thrilled to have the ATAE appear tonight, as they represent the community of wonderful people who make up the Australian Taiko Academy and are living demonstration of what can be achieved when people get together with a common purpose, hard work, goodwill and friendship. Please enjoy their musical ofering!
Natural Forces is Taikoz’s latest full-length work and is largely composed by Artistic Director Ian Cleworth, with one notable exception.
The titles of the works that make up Natural Forces are:
• PULSE-WAVE (Text: The Waves [excerpt] by Virginia Woolfe)
• Interlude 1: STONE (Text: The Stones by Wendell Berry)
• FIERCE: THE VENGEANCE OF JOY, which is the one work by another composer, Tasmanian Karlin Love
• Interlude 2: ENTOMOLOGY (Text: Insects by John Clare)
• CELLS
• Interlude 3: CLOUDS (Text: I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud by William Wordsworth)
• DIAMOND-CATHARSIS
What binds them together is a connection to the natural world. In the four long-form pieces, the compositional process has its basis in nature. As in the natural world, intricate micro-patterns and sequences form, mosaic-like, to create structures on the macro scale. In the three Interludes, sound itself reminds us of the reverberations, echoes and resonances of nature. Each Interlude accompanies a poem recited by young Sydney actor Thom Blake.
The piece called CELLS, for example, assigns short rhythmic motifs, or cells, to individual players, who then repeat them over and over. In the process, each player gradually transforms their motifs through various methods, including adding and subtracting beats, displacing beats and improvising. Each individual motif crosses over the other in spirals of sound, sometimes directly relating to each other, other times in opposition – like the way cells interact, combine and replicate to make up the tissue of living beings.
The Finale is called DIAMOND-CATHARSIS. The title once again reflects the process of composition. In this case, it is the use of percussionist Greg Sheehan’s beautiful idea of the shape of a diamond containing numbers that can be read and converted into rhythmic phrases. The diamond Ian used is 32 beats, and all its musical material is derived from combinations of the numbers contained within the diamond: 7-6-5-3-3-2-2-2-2. The idea is that each number (of beats) within the diamond is played only once before the diamond is repeated, either in the same order or a diferent sequence.
DIAMOND is followed without break by CATHARSIS. It’s called this because that’s what is going to happen to the players if they play the program with the requisite spirit! In other words, through the process of mental, physical and emotional output, players might experience a ‘cleansing of the spirit’. And of course, by extension we’d love you to have a cathartic moment, too!
ARTISTS
TAIKOZ: Ian Cleworth (Artistic Director) | Kerryn Joyce | Ryuji Hamada | Silvana Imperatori | Haruka Kunimune | Nerida Wu
ATA ENSEMBLE: Jason Ashmore | Thom Blake | Liam Callaway | Keira Dandy (visiting student from Swarthmore College, Philadelphia) | Kirsten Jakobsen | Samantha Newton | Drake Roth (visiting student from Swarthmore College, Philadelphia) | Moss Wacker (visiting student from Swarthmore College, Philadelphia) | Victor Wu | Silvana Imperatori (Taikoz Artist) | Haruka Kunimune (Taikoz Artist) | Nerida Wu (Taikoz Artist)
ABOUT TAIKOZ
Ian Cleworth and Riley Lee formed Taikoz in 1997. Over the past twenty-seven years, the group has developed a wide and original repertoire of works and productions that has seen them perform on the stages of Australia's finest concert halls, in the theatres of regional Australia, and in leading theatres and concert halls worldwide.
Taikoz has performed numerous times in Japan, including at the illustrious National Theatre of Japan, as well as Paris’s Centre Pompidou, and arts festivals in Bangkok, Taiwan, New Zealand, and West Coast USA. A major international highlight was a five-city tour of India, which saw CHI UDAKA – their collaboration with Lingalayam Dance Company – receive wide critical acclaim. CHI UDAKA was remounted in 2023 at the invitation of the Sydney Opera House as part of their month-long 50th anniversary celebrations.
Esteemed collaborators include composers Sandy Evans, Yunyu, Karlin Love, Lachlan Skipworth, Gerard Brophy, Andrea Molino and Michael Askill, and artists as diverse as John Bell and the Bell Shakespeare Company, taiko greats Eitetsu Hayashi, Yoshikazu Fujimoto, Chieko Kojima and Shogo Yoshii, First Nations Artist Waangenga Blanco, art-music ensembles Synergy Percussion, Ensemble Ofspring and the Sydney Improvisers Composers Kollektiv Orchestra, as well as distinguished choreographers Meryl Tankard and Anandavalli and theatre company Belloo Creative. The group has also collaborated with the worldrenowned performing arts ensemble Kodo on two nation-wide tours of Australia.
Taikoz has appeared in concerto works with major orchestras, including 13 performances of Maki Ishii's ground-breaking MONO-PRISM, Gerard Brophy's BOOK OF CLOUDS and Andrea Molino's multi-media WINNERS, which premiered at the Brisbane Festival and the Pompidou Centre in Paris. Collaborating orchestras are the Sydney, Melbourne, West Australian and Queensland Symphony Orchestras, as well as the Dresden Sinfoniker in Europe. Most recently, Taikoz, Riley Lee and Kaoru Watanabe were featured soloists with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, performing their own works in arrangements for the ensemble and orchestra, culminating in a commissioned work by Lachlan Skipworth, THE BREATH OF THUNDER.
Taikoz has also enjoyed performing on major outdoor festival stages, including the WOMADs of New Zealand and Adelaide, Kobe Japan’s Kaikyousai Festival and the taiko festival Otaiko Hibike in Ota, Japan.
Co-founders Ian Cleworth and Riley Lee have both been awarded the Japanese Foreign Minister’s Commendation for their contributions towards promoting friendship and goodwill between Australia and Japan.
TAIKOZ PRODUCTION TEAM
Lee McIver Producer and General Manager, Percussion Australia
Bart Groen Stage Design
Roderick van Gelder Lighting Design
Samantha Newton Stage Management
WITH THANKS TO…
… all our generous, supportive, terrific, wonderful Donors; the NSW Government and Create NSW for their much-appreciated support of Percussion Australia in 2024; NIDA and their production team for the venue support and Penny Latey of Modern Pilates for keeping Taikoz’s bodies in one piece.
SUPPORT TAIKOZ & PERCUSSION AUSTRALIA
Scan this QR code to make a tax deductible donation to support future Taikoz and Percussion Australia projects and artists:
PERCUSSION AUSTRALIA BOARD
Ann Hoban Chair
Jeremy Wright Director
Natalie Musico Director
Alison Dunn Director
Chris Adams Director
Ian Cleworth Company AD, Director
CONTACT:
PO Box 284, Camperdown, NSW 1450 gm@percussionaustralia.com.au