Atlas of the Sky

Atlas of the Sky winner of APRA AMCOS Art Music Award for Performance of the year in 2019.

About

Atlas of the Sky is a new work of dramatic and ritualistic power by award-winning and internationally acclaimed Australian composer Liza Lim. It combines driving rhythms with swarming percussion and vocal sounds from a ‘crowd’ of performers.

 

Featuring Speak Percussion’s virtuosic instrumentalism and Jessica Aszodi’s vast palette of vocal colour, Atlas of the Sky tells stories about the stars, the power of crowds and changing constellations of memory.

 

The ‘crowd’ of performers consists of a group twenty trained and untrained musicians plus young people from Speak Percussion’s Sounds Unheard program, who will create large-scale patterns that counterpoint the turbulent rhythms of our contemporary world. Using purpose-built instruments, the work demonstrates the expressive elemental power of string drums, stones, wood blocks made of Australian timber and the semantron — a resonant plank of wood that is used like a bell in Greek and Eastern European Christian Orthodox ritual.

 

The music is expressive, lyrical, textural, percussive, playful, dynamic and conceptually rich. Liza Lim is one of Australia’s most celebrated contemporary classical composers, and has strong affinities with Asian and indigenous Australian cultural practices.

Past Performances

16 January 2020

Sydney Festival

City Recital Hall
8pm

‘Crowd’ performers:
Silva Osaki, Sebastian Rafael Barker MacKenzie, Ruth Thompson, Tiffany Wong, Saskia Shearer, Joe MacDonald, Nathaniel Hawkins, Paul Traynor, Jacqui Bushell, Luisa Machielse, Phoebe Bognár, Rachel Whealy, Pepe Newton, Shervin Mirzeinali, Solly Frank, Daniel Portelli

19 July 2018

DARMSTÄDTER FERIENKURSE

Darmstadt, Germany
7.30pm

‘Crowd’ performers:
Elliott Harrison, Corentin Marillier, Roberto Maqueda, Yung-Tuan Ku, João Dias, Zacarias Maia, José Lacerda, Angela Hui, Wim Pelgrims, Taylor Long, Sven Hoscheit, Alejandro Sarriegui, David Mengelle, Antoine Brocherieux, Oded Geizhals, Louise Devenish

18 June 2018

Premiere

Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, Melbourne Recital Centre
7.30pm

‘Crowd’ performers:
Chris Ardley, Simon Aubor, Owen Bomford, Melisand Box, Debbie Brady, Kay Cooper, David Cramond, Kris Eira, Jonathan Griffiths, Lee Zelda Hunt, Perri Hammond, Jim Hill, Zoe Petch, Madison Petherick, Gillian Tang, Katherine Walsh, Emily Wans

Artists

Composer
Liza Lim
Musical Director & Percussionist
Eugene Ughetti
Soprano
Jessica Aszodi
Percussionist
Kaylie Melville
Percussionist
Matthias Schack-Arnott
Producer
Michaela Coventry/ Sheah Sutton
Lighting Designer
Keith Tucker
Movement Director
Jo Lloyd
Costuming
Shio Otani
Tilman Robinson
Sound Engineer

Supporters

Atlas of the Sky would not have been possible without the support of the following people and organisations.

au-council
Australia Council for the Arts
c-v
Creative Victoria
department
Victorian Department of Education
city-of-melbourne
City of Melbourne
helen
Helen Macpherson Smith Trust