Arts Faculty News

Professor Margaret Kartomi, from the School of Music – Conservatorium, has been awarded an Australia Research Council grant for a 3-year project entitled ‘Female body percussion music as a contribution to cultural identity in western Aceh before and after the conflict and tsunami’.

Project Description

This is the pioneering project on an unstudied but widely practised mode of music and dance in the world: female body percussion. The fieldwork locale is western Aceh, which recently experienced prolonged war and the tragic tsunami. The project aims to analyse the techniques and social functions of the body percussion genres, examine change caused by the conflict and tsunami, and develop the first theory of the functions of female body percussion. Research outcomes include archival deposits of audio-visual recordings, three refereed articles, an edited book on cross-cultural comparative body percussion, two book chapters, and a PhD thesis.

View Monash Magazine article ‘Taking Notes‘ for further information on Professor Kartomi’s research.

View Professor Kartomi’s profile.

Dr Tony Gould from the School of Music – Conservatorium has received the 2009 Classical Music Award for Instrumental Work of the Year for The River Meets the Sea. The piece was composed with cellist Imogen Manins and percussionist David Jones.

The River Meets the Sea can be heard on the CD Under the Tall Trees from ABC Classics.

View further information about the Classical Music Awards.

From Superwomen to Domestic Goddesses

On 16 July, the National Centre for Australian Studies, Monash University, in conjunction with the Victorian Women’s Trust, hosted the launch of Dr Natasha Campo’s From Superwomen to Domestic Goddesses: The Rise and Fall of Feminism.

The book was launched by Professor Marilyn Lake (La Trobe University) and by Professor Rae Frances, Dean of Arts (Monash University). It examines the rise and fall of feminism in the public imagination in the last twenty years and explains why ‘feminism failed me’ has become the catch-cry of a generation.

Published by Peter Lang International Academic Publishers, the book is available now in the Monash University bookshop.

In this photo from left to right: Mary Crooks, Director of the Victorian Women’s Trust; Professor Rae Frances, Dean of Arts, Monash University; Professor Marilyn Lake, History Program, La Trobe University; Dr Natasha Campo, author, National Centre for Australian Studies, Monash University.

Photo courtesy of The Victorian Women’s Trust – Steb Fisher Photography.

The recordings of first and second year students from the School of Music – Conservatorium Jazz Studies program are now available on a new CD, ‘Sound Series 2008′.

In 2008, the students performed concerts at many venues including the Melbourne International Jazz Festival, Bennetts Lane Jazz Club and Paris Cat Jazz Club. The culmination of these performances was the recording and releasing of the CD. The production of the CD was an important part of the learning process, industry experience and the documentation of the student’s development.

Copies of the ‘Sound Series 2008′ CD are available from Jazzhead.

Richard Trostel rehearses Thomas Reiner’s Alaska Sinfonietta with the Juneau Student Orchestra and the Alaskan Youth Choir.

Dr Thomas Reiner, from the School of Music – Conservatorium, has recently returned from Alaska, where his Alaska Sinfonietta, commissioned by the Juneau Student Symphony, was given its first performance.

Alaska Sinfonietta was performed in March at the Juneau Arts and Culture Center where Dr Reiner was composer-in-residence thanks to generous support from the Association of Alaska School Boards, the Rasmuson Foundation and the Juneau Student Symphony.

The work, in three movements, is response to Aanti Yéili’s lament-song, Ch’a aadei yei unateegaa (1912) which is often misunderstood as an anthem. The first movement, ‘Innocence’ is simple in tonality, harmony and melody. The second movement is the most sonically adventuresome. It is in the last movement that the form of the Sinfonietta takes cultural and artistic license to extend the lament of Aanti Yéili’s song into hope for the future. The final movement is a setting of Nora Marks and Richard Dauenhauer’s poignant and optimistic poetry sung by a two-part youth choir: the Alaska Youth Choir and singers from Gustavus and Hoonah. Significantly, Richard’s poetry was also written in hopeful response to Aanti Yéili’s song.

From his office at Monash, Thomas shared drafts of his work with the Juneau Student Symphony and the Alaska Youth Choir. The musicians tried out the music and gave feedback to the composer as to the playability of their parts. Alaska Sinfonietta is scored for full orchestra and youth choir and runs for approximately ten minutes. Future performances of single movements of the work a planned for every concert of the Juneau Student Symphony; the idea here is to use the Sinfonietta much like a musical logo for the orchestra.

Dr Tony Gould from the School of Music Conservatorium has this week been awarded Australia’s most valuable and prestigious individual music prize – the Australia Council for the Arts’ Don Banks Music Award. The Australia Council presented eminent Australian jazz pianist and composer with the $60,000 award at a ceremony celebrating his rich contribution to Australian music at Bennetts Lane Jazz Club.

Australia Council chief executive officer Kathy Keele said that Dr Gould’s achievements placed him at the forefront of Australian jazz and improvised music.

‘Dr Gould has made a stellar contribution to Australia’s cultural life as an outstanding pianist, composer and music educator,’ she said.

‘His work combining improvisation with classical music traditions has been key to his enormous impact on Australian music, and especially on his many students. He has been at the vanguard of improvised music and helped craft a distinctive Australian musical voice.’

Dr Tony Gould’s career stretches over more than 30 years of achievement. He has more 13 original recordings under his belt, including collaborations with some of Australia’s most eminent jazz musicians including John Sangster and David Jones, and has supported some of the biggest names in jazz, from Dave Brubeck to Oscar Peterson. His full orchestral version of Dylan Thomas’ Under Milk Wood was premiered by the Queensland Philharmonic Orchestra.

Recent awards include: APRA / Australian Music Centre (AMC) Classical Music Award for “Outstanding Contribution to Australian Music in Education” (2005) Australia Council Music Board Fellowship (2006-2007) Distinguished Artist residency at Arthur Boyd’s artist’s studios in Bundanon (2007) Order of Australia (AM) (2007).

Music conservatorium students.

Twenty-six jazz and popular music students from the Monash University School of Music Conservatorium had the time of their lives on a recent trip to the Monash Prato Centre in Italy.

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A new book by Monash University musicologists, which examines youth orchestras within Australia and throughout the world, will have its official launch next week.

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Mr Iwan Amir

The enigmatically-named sitting dance tradition of the Indonesian province of Aceh has been highlighted in the first ever documentary on the subject.
Merantau Tanpa Melangkah, by Monash PhD student Mr Iwan Amir was recently screened at Monash University’s Clayton campus.

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Arts Victoria has announced funding for Melbourne-based composer Philip Czaplowski’s Birrarung Marr for chamber orchestra, a work commissioned by Australia Pro Arte. Philip is currently a PhD candidate in the School of Music , Monash University , under the supervision of Dr. Thomas Reiner.

The new work will be premiered on Sunday 19 th/Monday 20 th June 2005 , during the opening concert of Australia Pro Arte’s 2005 season at BMW Edge, Federation Square .

“Birrarung Marr is the first new major public park created in Melbourne for over 100 years. My new composition will be a personal response to the landscape of this significant new Melbourne parkland, as well as to the area’s Aboriginal history and significance to the Wurundjeri people who originally inhabited the area.”

Over the last 5 years, Philip Czaplowski has emerged as one of Melbourne’s most respected and widely performed composers.

Performers of Philip’s music include the Melbourne SO, Christchurch SO, Australia Pro Arte, the Canberra Wind Soloists, the Chamber Strings of Melbourne, Geelong Chamber Orchestra, the Australian Chamber Soloists, Australia Felix, the Monash Festival Orchestra, Kazimierz Dawidek, Harry Sparnaay, Jeffrey Crellin, and many of Australia’s leading soloists.

In addition to numerous Australian performances, Philip’s music has been performed in the USA , England , Poland , Austria , Holland , Germany , Argentina , Brazil , Ireland , Romania , and New Zealand , and his works have been broadcast by ABC Classical FM, ABC Radio National, 3MBS FM, and Radio Adelaide.