We challenge the conventions and traditions of music making to reimagine the way music is played, experienced, understood and appreciated.  As a trailblazer, our genre-defying projects contribute to the development of new approaches to chamber music composition, percussion orchestration, new music, contemporary-classical, conceptual and experimental music, improvised performance, sound installation, site-specific/responsive performance and post-instrumental practice.

Speak seeks to expand music beyond its conventional limits: to exchange tools, practices, ideas and conceptual frameworks with other artforms and non-artistic disciplines; to discover new impactful forms of expression and knowledge; to contribute, not just to the evolution of music and performance, but also to the betterment of other disciplines within our culture and society. We routinely work with the best artists, thinkers and culture makers to inspire alchemy. We fuse music with theatre, choreography, dance, performance, art, sculpture, installation and cinema; percussion with astronomy, mathematics, food and sheep shearing. We believe that respectful collaboration and reciprocity are integral catalysts of invention.

Whether for, with or about communities, our projects involve ordinary people in creative processes and public outcomes. We believe participation doesn’t just perform a social good, but supports us to make better – more relevant, more vital, more contemporary – music and art. Process is as valuable as outcome; agency and authorship as much as well-crafted aesthetics; celebration as much as challenge. These works champion the quotidian and reveal the extraordinary in the everyday. By placing amateurs alongside professionals, we democratise artistic production and create a context where all sounds are equal: where every pitch or timbre, frequency or amplitude; every blip, hiss, pop, crackle; every brown, pink or white noise can be sonorous. Community music making becomes a vehicle for dialogue, inclusion, connection, innovation and change.