Speak Percussion

Speak Percussion
Speak Percussion
Genres	New music / contemporary classical
Years active	2000–present
Website	http://speakpercussion.com/

Speak Percussion is an Australian percussive arts organisation based in Melbourne, specialising in experimental and contemporary classical music. The organisation has a flexible line-up of artists, with projects ranging from solo installations to works for 100 performers.

Founded in 2000 by Minako Okamoto, Justin Marshall, Rory McDougall, Phil Binotto and Eugene Ughetti whilst as students at the Victorian College of the Arts. Since 2003 the organisation has been lead by the current Artistic Director Eugene Ughetti.^[1]

Speak Percussion has had a particular focus on commissioning and premiering new percussion works, collaborating with composers such as Mark Applebaum, Richard Barrett, Chris Dench, Juliana Hodkinson, Liza Lim, Simon Løffler, Thomas Meadowcroft, Anthony Pateras, Michael Pisaro, Jon Rose, Matthew Shlomowitz and Bent Sørensen, in addition to performing masterworks of the genre by composers such as Gerard Grisey, Iannis Xenakis, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Lou Harrison and Steve Reich.

Original music and collaborations

In addition to their work with composers, Speak Percussion’s Artistic Director Eugene Ughetti and Artistic Associate Matthias Schack-Arnott produce their own music. These projects are characterised by their use of unorthodox percussive techniques and the integration of other artistic disciplines, including new media, video, lighting systems, architecture, gastronomy and kinetics.^[1]^[2]^[3]

Speak Percussion has also collaborated on improvised and self-devised works with a range of musicians including Robbie Avenaim, Tony Buck, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, Chris Corsano, Fritz Hauser, The Necks, Oren Ambarchi, Steven Schick, Ilan Volkov and Ingar Zach.

Education

In 2011, 2012, 2014 & 2015 Speak Percussion ran a national Emerging Artists Program focussing on new chamber music and experimental music practice. Each program brought together tertiary aged students from across Australia to work alongside Speak Percussion and an international guest artist. The guest artists included Mark Applebaum (Stanford University, USA), Richard Barrett (Sonology/UK), Kroumata (Sweden), Eighth Blackbird (USA) and Thomas Meadowcroft (GER/AUS).

More recently, Speak Percussion launched Sounds Unheard, a program for gifted and talented secondary school music students. Sounds Unheard is a free music education program that ran continuously from 2015-2017. It offered a range of music education opportunities, from performance through to online content that developed students’ skills and inspires through innovative approaches to music making.^[4]

Staff

Artistic Director / CEO & Percussionist – Eugene Ughetti

Executive Producer – Michaela Coventry

Artistic Associate & Percussionist – Matthias Schack-Arnott

Sounds Unheard Coordinator & Percussionist – Kaylie Melville

Percussionists

Although Speak Percussion has a flexible line-up of percussionists, there are certain percussionists who have played a particularly central role in the organisation’s projects over the last decade, including Louise Devenish, Kaylie Melville, Peter Neville and Leah Scholes.

Awards

Best Music Award – Melbourne Fringe Festival 2012^[5]

2015 Art Music Award – State Award for Excellence by an Organisation

2016 Art Music Award – Excellence in Experimental Music^[6]

2017 Art Music Award – Excellence by an Organisation^[7]

Selected commissions

Mark Applebaum – Composition Machine #1 (2015)^[8]

Richard Barrett – Urlicht (2014)^[9]

Richard Barrett – Codex XIV (2014)^[9]

Chris Dench – Permutation City (2005)^[10]

Rohan Drape – See Hearer Clearer (2012)^[11]

Fritz Hauser – As We Are Speaking (2004)^[12]

Juliana Hodkinson – Lightness (2015)^[13]

Liza Lim – Loveletter (2011)^[14]

Liza Lim - An Elemental Thing (2017)^[15]

Simon Løffler – ‘e’ (2015 rev. 2017)^[16]

Thomas Meadowcroft – The Great Knot (2011)^[17]

Thomas Meadwcroft – Cradles (2013)^[17]

Damien Ricketson – Rendition Clinic (2015)^[18]

Anthony Pateras – Refractions (2009)^[19]

Anthony Pateras – Hypnagogics (2005)^[19]

Anthony Pateras – Flesh & Ghost (2011)^[19]

Matthew Shlomowitz – Popular Contexts Vol. 6 (2013)^[20]

Bent Sørensen – The Silence (2014)^[21]

James Rushford – Whorl Would Equal Reaches (2014)^[22]

James Rushford – Twin Resistance (2012)^[22]

Selected projects

Assembly Operation (2017)

A hybrid percussion trio exploring the conceptual implications of the one yuan note, composed and directed by Eugene Ughetti in collaboration with dramaturge Clare Britton, ceramic artist Jia Jia Chen, video artist Cyrus Tang, lighting design Richard Dinnen and sound designer Nick Roux.

Anicca (2016)

Major percussion duo by Matthias Schack-Arnott for a rotational percussion set-up, created in collaboration with creative engineer Richard Allen, video system programmers PDA and Richard Dinnen of Megafun.

Bell Curve (2016)

A large-scale work for 12 spatialised bell players by Eugene Ughetti.

A wave and waves (2015)

The world premiere performance of Michael Pisaro’s work for 100 percussionists, realised in collaboration with the composer and percussionist Greg Stuart for the 2015 Melbourne Festival.

Fluorophone (2015)

A program of works that use light sources as musical instruments. Works for strobe lights, amplified matches, tom-toms fitted with custom LED’s and amplified fluorescent lights by Simon Løffler, Damien Ricketson, Juliana Hodkinson and Eugene Ughetti.

Composition Machine #1 (2015)

The simultaneous performance of 10 unique versions of Mark Applebaum’s solo work Composition Machine #1, realised in collaboration with the composer.

Richard Barrett: Percussion Portrait (2014)

A program of works by UK composer Richard Barrett, from his early vibraphone solo through to two world premieres. Presented in collaboration with the composer and SIAL Sound Studios (RMIT).

Fluvial (2014)

A major solo work by Matthias Schack-Arnott utilising an 8 metre set-up of suspended percussion instruments.

The Black of the Star (2013)

Gerard Grisey’s electro-acoustic percussion sextet Le Noir de L'Etoile realised in collaboration with the CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science Department and SIAL Sound Studio (RMIT) for the 2013 Melbourne Festival.

Schallmaschine Maximus (2013)

A major site-specific work by Fritz Hauser and Boa Baumann, created for the ancient Roman theatre Augusta Raurica in Basel, Switzerland. Featured performers include Speak Percussion, Ensemble XII, Synergy Percussion, Bob Becker, Rob Kloet and Sylwia Zytnynska.

Transducer (2013)

A major electro-acoustic work by Eugene Ughetti and Robin Fox exploring the microphone as a sonic object, using novel transduction methods and kinetic microphone set-ups.^[23]

CIRCUIT (2012)

Australian and Danish works for electro-acoustic percussion. Performed in regional Australia and throughout Europe, including at Berliner Festspiele’s Maerzmusik.

The Box (2012)

A site-specific chamber opera composed by Fritz Hauser in collaboration with architect Boa Baumann and librettist Willoh S. Weiland. Presented by Chamber Made Opera in association with Speak Percussion and Aphids.

AUTOMATION (2012)

A survey of Australian robotic and automated percussive practice, composed and directed by Eugene Ughetti, comprising instruments by Graeme Leak, Matthew Gardiner, Ernie Althoff, and guest soloist Robbie Avenaim.

Thomas Meadowcroft: Percussion Portrait (2012)

The percussion works of Berlin based Australian Thomas Meadowcroft, from his solo Plain Moving Landfill through to his sextet Home Organs, and featuring the world premiere of his percussion trio The Great Knot.

Pasta Percussion (2010)

A program of works curated in collaboration with chef Glenn Flood, coupling musical works by Xenakis, Alvarez, Hauser and Ughetti with food and wine prepared simultaneously.

Speak & Unspoken (2009)

A major spatialised work for piano soloist Donna Coleman with three Speak Percussionists, composed by Fritz Hauser in collaboration with architect Boa Baumann.

Schallmaschine 06 (2006)

Aristically directed by Fritz Huaser, this project took audiences on a journey into hidden spaces of Federation Square for a minutely staged adventure in music for solo miniature percussion, composed by David Young. Presented by Aphids, Speak Percussion, Boa Baumann in association with the Melbourne International Arts Festival.