Cadence - THE End of Music - SuPPORT MATERIAL
Cadence - the End of Music is a project with experienced multi-disciplined performers.
This project develops themes of sound first performance work. It is a laboratory for the purpose of ensemble building, performance strategy and new collaboration. Further work is planned toward public outcomes
This work is based on the idea of musicians as theatre protagonists.
It is a theatre of music rather than music theatre. Based on text, music, structured improvisation and physical performance principles.
This project develops themes of sound first performance work. It is a laboratory for the purpose of ensemble building, performance strategy and new collaboration. Further work is planned toward public outcomes
This work is based on the idea of musicians as theatre protagonists.
It is a theatre of music rather than music theatre. Based on text, music, structured improvisation and physical performance principles.
6 Minute Video
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Previous relevant work:
Urchin Commissioned by the Melbourne Recital Centre as Sea Sounds, an interactive sound oriented performance for babies and their carers. It performed for the Music Play festival in 2018. Inspired by research about the sea including fish communication, bioluminescence, extraordinary life forms, the physics of sound underwater and human pollution of the ocean. More about Urchin The Ennio Morricone Experience With Graeme Leak, Boris Conley, David Hewitt and Patrick Cronin An ensemble of second choice musicians dealing with impossible demands of harried film producers dealing with late changes in the cinematic production process (due to budgetary cuts). This performance strategy allowed ‘distance’ between embodiment of the musical material and absurd juxtaposition of ‘post production’ tasks. The work changed nightly: reorganising order, improvising and refining the material. The ensemble performed in contexts including concert halls, cabaret and theatre both in Australia and overseas. The ensemble eventually changed dramaturgic strategy to refine the performance material into the Spaghetti Western Orchestra. Another version of the approach was made by David Hewitt in collaboration : Sounds Cinematic for the Four Winds Music Festival, NSW. Phobia By Chamber Made with Dan Witton, Teresa Blake, Gerard Brophy, Graeme Leak, Boris Conley, David Hewitt and Patrick Cronin. Based on a combination of futurist experimental sound art coupled with the art of foley for film or live radio. Sound was the leader in the performance media hierarchy. ‘Action’ was determined by virtue of the reason that it was always to make sound. Theatrical approach to sound making using text, action, music, foley, atmosphere and narrative - tempered by an exploration of ‘film noir’. Developed over a short period the work had multiple seasons, toured Australia and internationally. Chamber Made - Phobia - website archive Still Awake Still! From the childrens book by Elizabeth Honey with Songs by Sue Johnson. Directed by Jessica Wilson with Carolyn Connors, Dan Witton and Renato Vacirca. The original text was used to develop improvisation to embody the nature of control and creative play. Toured widely in Australia and the United States including seasons at The New Victory Theatre on Broadway and seasons in most Australian capital cities. Still Awake Still Highlights, desoxy Theatre Dan co-founded desoxy theatre in 1990 with Teresa Blake creating original performance projects including work at major festivals, film and video, short pieces and independent seasons touring Australia, Venezuela, Spain, Japan, Belgium, Austria, Holland, England, Ireland, Scotland. archived website |
Urchin - Sea Sounds - Melbourne Recital Centre
Phobia, Chamber Made Opera
Film: 90% Yield Before Breakage from desoxy theatre and Margie Medlin Dan Witton Composer / Performer |
Cadence - End of Music - Project Biographies
Dan Witton : Lead artist
is a performer and art worker based in Naarm (Melbourne, Australia) with a diverse background in physically based theatre, electronic arts, music, and voice. He has toured with theatre and music projects, including The Sunshine Club (Wesley Enoch/John Rogers), Lady Day at the Emerson Bar and Grill (MTC/State Theatre SA/Belvoir), and performances at Carnegie Hall with Meow Meow Sequins and Satire, Divas and Disruptors: The Wild Women of the Weimar Republic. He has also appeared at the National Celtic Festival with Bush Gothic and the Côr of the Matter, a welsh language art music project .
His training spans circus arts, performance skills (voice, movement, drama, and dance), as well as musical disciplines such as strings, keyboard, brass, voice, and composition.
Work with various companies, producing, and commissioning projects include:
Artplay (Sonic Labyrinth, Baby Whispering), Melbourne Recital Centre (Urchin), Still Awake Still (New Victory Theatre, US and Australian tours) Malthouse Theatre (Cosmonaut, Woyzek, Mary Maclean, Apocalypse Meow, The Red Shoes) Opera Australia (The Rabbits, Boris Godunov) Circus Oz, ABC & SBS Television, Belvoir St Theatre (HATE, Etcetera) Strange Fruit (Sydney Festival, Shizuoka Festival) Not Yet It's Difficult (Hanover World Expo) Blue Grassy Knoll (Galway Festival, Edinburgh Fringe, Capetown SA), Magpie Theatre (Verona, Bogota), The Ennio Morricone Experience (UK, Sydney Opera House, Arts House Melbourne) Chamber Made Opera (Phobia) Bush Gothic (Jodhpur RIFF, Womadelaide, UK, Australia) desoxy Theatre (Sydney Festival, PICA, Adelaide Festival, Tokyo, Venezuela, UK, Belgium, Austria, Netherlands, Spain) https://www.danwitton.com.au/
is a performer and art worker based in Naarm (Melbourne, Australia) with a diverse background in physically based theatre, electronic arts, music, and voice. He has toured with theatre and music projects, including The Sunshine Club (Wesley Enoch/John Rogers), Lady Day at the Emerson Bar and Grill (MTC/State Theatre SA/Belvoir), and performances at Carnegie Hall with Meow Meow Sequins and Satire, Divas and Disruptors: The Wild Women of the Weimar Republic. He has also appeared at the National Celtic Festival with Bush Gothic and the Côr of the Matter, a welsh language art music project .
His training spans circus arts, performance skills (voice, movement, drama, and dance), as well as musical disciplines such as strings, keyboard, brass, voice, and composition.
Work with various companies, producing, and commissioning projects include:
Artplay (Sonic Labyrinth, Baby Whispering), Melbourne Recital Centre (Urchin), Still Awake Still (New Victory Theatre, US and Australian tours) Malthouse Theatre (Cosmonaut, Woyzek, Mary Maclean, Apocalypse Meow, The Red Shoes) Opera Australia (The Rabbits, Boris Godunov) Circus Oz, ABC & SBS Television, Belvoir St Theatre (HATE, Etcetera) Strange Fruit (Sydney Festival, Shizuoka Festival) Not Yet It's Difficult (Hanover World Expo) Blue Grassy Knoll (Galway Festival, Edinburgh Fringe, Capetown SA), Magpie Theatre (Verona, Bogota), The Ennio Morricone Experience (UK, Sydney Opera House, Arts House Melbourne) Chamber Made Opera (Phobia) Bush Gothic (Jodhpur RIFF, Womadelaide, UK, Australia) desoxy Theatre (Sydney Festival, PICA, Adelaide Festival, Tokyo, Venezuela, UK, Belgium, Austria, Netherlands, Spain) https://www.danwitton.com.au/
Gemma Horbury Performer / Collaborator
is a musician, storyteller and transdisciplinary artist. She uses art to imagine radical futures, working as a Peatland Sonification Researcher in RMIT University’s Soil-Atmosphere-Anthroposphere Lab, in collaboration with international partners including the Borneo Orangutang Survival Foundation. Her groundbreaking spoken word album “The Story of Here” was a national finalist in the 2024 APRA AMCOS Art Music Awards, and she was a co-recipient of the Melbourne International Women’s Jazz Festival Recording Prize (2019). Gem has appeared as a featured performer with groups as diverse as the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, RockWiz, Yana Alana and the Paranas, and the JazzLab Orcheztra. www.gemmahorbury.com/
is a musician, storyteller and transdisciplinary artist. She uses art to imagine radical futures, working as a Peatland Sonification Researcher in RMIT University’s Soil-Atmosphere-Anthroposphere Lab, in collaboration with international partners including the Borneo Orangutang Survival Foundation. Her groundbreaking spoken word album “The Story of Here” was a national finalist in the 2024 APRA AMCOS Art Music Awards, and she was a co-recipient of the Melbourne International Women’s Jazz Festival Recording Prize (2019). Gem has appeared as a featured performer with groups as diverse as the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, RockWiz, Yana Alana and the Paranas, and the JazzLab Orcheztra. www.gemmahorbury.com/
Justin Marshall Performer / Collaborator
is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, sound producer, musician and band leader who has worked for over 25 years in contemporary sound art, theatre, popular, improvised and world music. His work is diverse, from "Sonic Labyrinth" with Aviva Endean to award winning albums with Zulya and The Children of The Underground and The Putbacks and sound designs for work at the intersection of cultural identities and contemporary sound production like "The Maloya Moshpit".
Recent work includes musical director for the 150th Celebration of Her Majesty's Theatre in Ballarat produced by Every Body Now! overseeing the music for over 150 participants Castlemaine Circuses "Playing On The Edge" show, facilitating, mentoring and creating new work in the Prototype and Expanding Fields of Practice programs for Punctum Inc, and the AAO, sound design for Jessica Wilson's "The Wayfinders" as well as touring in the US and Australia with Emma Donovan and The Putbacks.
He was a founding member of Speak Percussion, and has worked closely with The Cumbia Cosmonauts, The Sugarfed Leopards, Emma Donovan and The Putbacks, D.D.Dumbo, Umlaut (Bar McKinnon) and The Wikimen. He has appeared on recordings by Baker Boy, Missy Higgins (Pip Norman) and played on soundtracks by Francois Tetaz and Anthony Pateras.
He performed for over 15 years with Polyglot Theatre, and developed shows including ‘Mungari Wilcha’ with the Tjanpi Weavers (2019), ‘Tangled’ (2012-19) and ‘Sticky Maze’(2015). He has also helped develop a variety of other theatrical and interactive projects and performances including ‘Urchin’ (Dan Witton 2018, Melbourne Recital Centre) ‘Café Scheherezade’(2011) produced by 45 Downstairs, The West Side Circuses Fringe show, ‘The Albatross’ and ‘Exit’ with Tania Bosak and the Barefoot Orchestra
Compositions and sound production includes‘Heart’ from Anatomy 1 by Big and Little Films/ABC, winner of Best Documentary at MIFF 2008, as well as collaborations with Michael den Elzen on ‘Sisters and Pearls’ and ‘Halal Mate’ by Rebel Films/SBS, and animations such as ‘Shhh’ directed by Adam Robb and produced by the VCA, winner of an AFI for best animation 2002. www.justinmarshallmusic.com/
is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, sound producer, musician and band leader who has worked for over 25 years in contemporary sound art, theatre, popular, improvised and world music. His work is diverse, from "Sonic Labyrinth" with Aviva Endean to award winning albums with Zulya and The Children of The Underground and The Putbacks and sound designs for work at the intersection of cultural identities and contemporary sound production like "The Maloya Moshpit".
Recent work includes musical director for the 150th Celebration of Her Majesty's Theatre in Ballarat produced by Every Body Now! overseeing the music for over 150 participants Castlemaine Circuses "Playing On The Edge" show, facilitating, mentoring and creating new work in the Prototype and Expanding Fields of Practice programs for Punctum Inc, and the AAO, sound design for Jessica Wilson's "The Wayfinders" as well as touring in the US and Australia with Emma Donovan and The Putbacks.
He was a founding member of Speak Percussion, and has worked closely with The Cumbia Cosmonauts, The Sugarfed Leopards, Emma Donovan and The Putbacks, D.D.Dumbo, Umlaut (Bar McKinnon) and The Wikimen. He has appeared on recordings by Baker Boy, Missy Higgins (Pip Norman) and played on soundtracks by Francois Tetaz and Anthony Pateras.
He performed for over 15 years with Polyglot Theatre, and developed shows including ‘Mungari Wilcha’ with the Tjanpi Weavers (2019), ‘Tangled’ (2012-19) and ‘Sticky Maze’(2015). He has also helped develop a variety of other theatrical and interactive projects and performances including ‘Urchin’ (Dan Witton 2018, Melbourne Recital Centre) ‘Café Scheherezade’(2011) produced by 45 Downstairs, The West Side Circuses Fringe show, ‘The Albatross’ and ‘Exit’ with Tania Bosak and the Barefoot Orchestra
Compositions and sound production includes‘Heart’ from Anatomy 1 by Big and Little Films/ABC, winner of Best Documentary at MIFF 2008, as well as collaborations with Michael den Elzen on ‘Sisters and Pearls’ and ‘Halal Mate’ by Rebel Films/SBS, and animations such as ‘Shhh’ directed by Adam Robb and produced by the VCA, winner of an AFI for best animation 2002. www.justinmarshallmusic.com/
Jenny M Thomas Performer / collaborator
A Sidney Myer Performing Arts Award recipient, Jenny has been invited to discuss her music and its relevance to Australia’s shifting cultural identity on ABC Radio National’s The Music Show, Yr Enfys (Wales) and her creative output during Melbourne’s 2019 lockdown was analysed in feature articles in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. Rhythms Magazine, BBC Music Magazine and The Guardian have also written features on her work and along with the members of Bush Gothic she has been interviewed and performed live across Australia and on BBC Radio, RTÉ (National Broadcaster of Ireland) and Radio New Zealand.
Born into a family that played folk music around campfires, Jenny graduated from the Victorian College of The Arts/Melbourne University with viola as her principal instrument. Working with the Australian Philharmonic Orchestra until her passion for alternative violin cultures took over, she then studied at the Indian Academy of Music Melbourne, Willy Clancy School Ireland and private tuition in Finland with Aarto Jarvela (Sibelius Folk Academy Helsinki).
The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and Symphony Symphony engaged her as a Norwegian Hardanger/Irish fiddle soloist whilst her exploration of Indian, Celtic & Scandinavian violin styles gained her invitations to perform at the Rudolstadt Tanz & Volk Festival Germany, Summer Viva Festival Italy and Sidmouth Folk Festival UK. Establishing her own record company, Fydle Records in 2003, she released solo albums which were chosen for Melbourne Herald-Sun's top 10 CD picks of 2006, top five albums for airplay on community stations by AMRAP 2007, a Golden Fiddle Award and inclusion on ABC Classic Drive CD 2011. As a violin soloist Jenny has recently performed with Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Chamber, Groundhog Day The Musical and her current position is touring with Imagine Live Theatre Production on a 6 month tour of Australia.
Jenny is best known as the Creative Director of Bush Gothic - a post-modern bush band who use Australian folk songs as the ensembles source material. Winner of ‘Best Band’ at the 2022Australian Folk Music Awards.The Rajasthan International Folk Festival built Bush Gothic a stage to play on within a UNESCO listed Maharajah’s Palace in India, Perth Festival’s director Iain Grandage calls them his ‘favourite Australian band’ and the BBC Music Magazine awarded them 5 STARS for their album ‘The Natural Selection Australian Songbook’. Bush Gothic have completed four international tours. Performances include: MonaFoma, Womadeliade, Welsh National Eisteddfod (Wales), Sidmouth Folk Festival (UK), Tauranga Arts Festival (New Zealand), Port Fairy Spring Music Festival, Ukaria Cultural Centre, Melbourne Recital Centre.
Composition Credits include: Arts Wales International, Gwrando (Listening), ABC TV/Reckless Eye Productions Close To The Bone documentary film score, Musica Viva 2021 Future Makers, Partridge String Quartet, Sydney Festival Rapture string quartet composition, Australian War Memorial film commission.
Theatre work includes: Circus Oz, Melbourne Workers Theatre, Womens Circus, Anthem (Melbourne Festival, Sydney Festival and Perth Festival).
https://www.jennymthomas.au/
A Sidney Myer Performing Arts Award recipient, Jenny has been invited to discuss her music and its relevance to Australia’s shifting cultural identity on ABC Radio National’s The Music Show, Yr Enfys (Wales) and her creative output during Melbourne’s 2019 lockdown was analysed in feature articles in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. Rhythms Magazine, BBC Music Magazine and The Guardian have also written features on her work and along with the members of Bush Gothic she has been interviewed and performed live across Australia and on BBC Radio, RTÉ (National Broadcaster of Ireland) and Radio New Zealand.
Born into a family that played folk music around campfires, Jenny graduated from the Victorian College of The Arts/Melbourne University with viola as her principal instrument. Working with the Australian Philharmonic Orchestra until her passion for alternative violin cultures took over, she then studied at the Indian Academy of Music Melbourne, Willy Clancy School Ireland and private tuition in Finland with Aarto Jarvela (Sibelius Folk Academy Helsinki).
The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and Symphony Symphony engaged her as a Norwegian Hardanger/Irish fiddle soloist whilst her exploration of Indian, Celtic & Scandinavian violin styles gained her invitations to perform at the Rudolstadt Tanz & Volk Festival Germany, Summer Viva Festival Italy and Sidmouth Folk Festival UK. Establishing her own record company, Fydle Records in 2003, she released solo albums which were chosen for Melbourne Herald-Sun's top 10 CD picks of 2006, top five albums for airplay on community stations by AMRAP 2007, a Golden Fiddle Award and inclusion on ABC Classic Drive CD 2011. As a violin soloist Jenny has recently performed with Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Chamber, Groundhog Day The Musical and her current position is touring with Imagine Live Theatre Production on a 6 month tour of Australia.
Jenny is best known as the Creative Director of Bush Gothic - a post-modern bush band who use Australian folk songs as the ensembles source material. Winner of ‘Best Band’ at the 2022Australian Folk Music Awards.The Rajasthan International Folk Festival built Bush Gothic a stage to play on within a UNESCO listed Maharajah’s Palace in India, Perth Festival’s director Iain Grandage calls them his ‘favourite Australian band’ and the BBC Music Magazine awarded them 5 STARS for their album ‘The Natural Selection Australian Songbook’. Bush Gothic have completed four international tours. Performances include: MonaFoma, Womadeliade, Welsh National Eisteddfod (Wales), Sidmouth Folk Festival (UK), Tauranga Arts Festival (New Zealand), Port Fairy Spring Music Festival, Ukaria Cultural Centre, Melbourne Recital Centre.
Composition Credits include: Arts Wales International, Gwrando (Listening), ABC TV/Reckless Eye Productions Close To The Bone documentary film score, Musica Viva 2021 Future Makers, Partridge String Quartet, Sydney Festival Rapture string quartet composition, Australian War Memorial film commission.
Theatre work includes: Circus Oz, Melbourne Workers Theatre, Womens Circus, Anthem (Melbourne Festival, Sydney Festival and Perth Festival).
https://www.jennymthomas.au/
Gina Gascoigne Lighting - Visual &Technical Artist
Gina Gascoigne is a lighting designer with over 30 years of experience. She has worked for contemporary dance groups internationally and more locally theatrical productions, circus companies and directors including Kamarra Bell-Wykes, Outer Urban Projects, Archie Roach, Circus Oz, Snuff Puppets, Susie Dee, Melbourne Festival, Adelaide Festival, La Fura dels Baus, Chamber Made Opera, Maude Davey and The Flying Fruit Fly Circus, NICA.
She has a Masters in Research (Fine Art) at RMIT and is a Certified Feldenkrais practitioner.
www.ginagascoigne.com/
Gina Gascoigne is a lighting designer with over 30 years of experience. She has worked for contemporary dance groups internationally and more locally theatrical productions, circus companies and directors including Kamarra Bell-Wykes, Outer Urban Projects, Archie Roach, Circus Oz, Snuff Puppets, Susie Dee, Melbourne Festival, Adelaide Festival, La Fura dels Baus, Chamber Made Opera, Maude Davey and The Flying Fruit Fly Circus, NICA.
She has a Masters in Research (Fine Art) at RMIT and is a Certified Feldenkrais practitioner.
www.ginagascoigne.com/
Aviva Endean Perfromer / Collaborator
is a clarinettist, composer and sound-artist living between Wurundjeri and Dja Dja Wurrung country. A leader in her field, she creates shared spaces for attentive listening, opening our ears to the world around us as we consider place and space. Whilst deeply steeped in music, Aviva’s vision extends beyond her primary artform to expand ways in which sound can be experienced, and to discover new forms of expression n that reflect the here and now.
Aviva has developed a profile as a significant force in Australian contemporary music, initiating highly regarded recorded and performance works. She collaborates widely with artists across cultures and disciplines, and curates contexts which empower those she collaborates with.
Her current projects include: ‘The Cloud Maker’ an ensemble featuring six women from diverse cultural backgrounds (Winner: Art Music awards 2023); ‘Hand to Earth’ a band interweaving Yolŋu manikay with contemporary improvisation (finalist: ARIAs, Songlines, Music Victoria awards 2022); and her solo wind/electronics set, which has been presented inter/nationally including Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (UK), Sound of Stockholm (Sweden), Only Connect (NO) The Substation (VIC) and MONA FOMA (TAS).
Her debut solo album was released on Norwegian label SOFA in 2018 to critical acclaim, with reviews speaking to Aviva’s innovation and virtuosity, describing the work as ‘captivating, sophisticated, miraculous’ & ‘trance-inducing’. Her follow up electro-acoustic album released on Room40 (2022), captured the imagination of listeners with its richly textured sound worlds; reviews stating, ‘Endean has proven time and time again that she is an expert of the aural adventure’.
Aviva has been supported by numerous prestigious opportunities including being the inaugural ‘Pathfinder’ Associate Artist with Australian Art Orchestra (2018-19), resident composer at The Peggy Glanville Hicks home (2021), a recipient of The APRA/AMCOS Art Music Fund (2020/2023), and a Freedman Fellowship (2015). https://www.avivaendean.com/
is a clarinettist, composer and sound-artist living between Wurundjeri and Dja Dja Wurrung country. A leader in her field, she creates shared spaces for attentive listening, opening our ears to the world around us as we consider place and space. Whilst deeply steeped in music, Aviva’s vision extends beyond her primary artform to expand ways in which sound can be experienced, and to discover new forms of expression n that reflect the here and now.
Aviva has developed a profile as a significant force in Australian contemporary music, initiating highly regarded recorded and performance works. She collaborates widely with artists across cultures and disciplines, and curates contexts which empower those she collaborates with.
Her current projects include: ‘The Cloud Maker’ an ensemble featuring six women from diverse cultural backgrounds (Winner: Art Music awards 2023); ‘Hand to Earth’ a band interweaving Yolŋu manikay with contemporary improvisation (finalist: ARIAs, Songlines, Music Victoria awards 2022); and her solo wind/electronics set, which has been presented inter/nationally including Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (UK), Sound of Stockholm (Sweden), Only Connect (NO) The Substation (VIC) and MONA FOMA (TAS).
Her debut solo album was released on Norwegian label SOFA in 2018 to critical acclaim, with reviews speaking to Aviva’s innovation and virtuosity, describing the work as ‘captivating, sophisticated, miraculous’ & ‘trance-inducing’. Her follow up electro-acoustic album released on Room40 (2022), captured the imagination of listeners with its richly textured sound worlds; reviews stating, ‘Endean has proven time and time again that she is an expert of the aural adventure’.
Aviva has been supported by numerous prestigious opportunities including being the inaugural ‘Pathfinder’ Associate Artist with Australian Art Orchestra (2018-19), resident composer at The Peggy Glanville Hicks home (2021), a recipient of The APRA/AMCOS Art Music Fund (2020/2023), and a Freedman Fellowship (2015). https://www.avivaendean.com/
Flora Carbo Performer /Collaborator
is a saxophonist, composer and music leader from Naarm (Melbourne, Australia).
Her unique practice creates novel musical environments that connect people through improvisation, composition and conceptual works, led by her explorations into the vocal qualities of the alto saxophone.
Her work traverses settings, methods and scales, with works devised for major festival stages at Melbourne International Jazz Festival, Canberra International Music Festival, Phoenix Central Park’s Strata Festival, Amersfoort Jazz Festival, and alongside luminaries of Australian jazz and improvised music like Barney McAll and Andrea Keller. Her creativity grounded in a constant flow of collaboration amongst a tight-knit generation of leading young Australian artists in Naarm, with regular projects and small gigs for new ideas alongside uncategorizable original musicians like Helen Svoboda, Niran Dasika, Iran Sanadzadeh, Eitan Ritz, her brother Theo Carbo, and many others.
Flora’s recorded projects are acclaimed documents of moments in this scene. Her albums are MAGNIFY (2023); Arthur’s Walks (2022); VOICE (2020); and Erica (2018). Her bands include The Rest Is Silence; Aalto; The Floor Is Well, Thanks; Flora Carbo Trio; and Ecosystem. Her unique saxophone sound has been honed through private study with Julien Wilson, Jim Denley, Melissa Aldana and Scott McConnachie, she completed a Bachelor with Honours degree at the University of Melbourne and the James Morrison Academy in 2019.
Increasingly recognised as a composer, Flora’s significant commissions and premieres include Momentually with Theo Carbo at the 2023 Canberra International Music Festival; the SIMA Emerging Composers Commission 2022; Flora Carbo Percussion Ensemble for quartets of adaptable instrumentation at 2023 Strata Festival; and Ecosystem for three voices and three saxophones at the 2022 Melbourne International Jazz Festival.
Flora was the Melbourne International Jazz Festival’s Take Note Leader for 2022. She was a finalist for the Freedman Jazz Fellowships 2022 and 2021; for the Young Australian Jazz Artist of the Year at the 2019 Australian Jazz Bell Awards; and for the 2016 National Jazz Award; and won the James Morrison Scholarship at the Generations in Jazz Festival in 2017.
In 2023 Flora undertook ‘Residency in Motion’, a five-month international program generously supported by the Ian Potter Cultural Fund. Pursuing her long-held interest in situating her musical thought within concepts of embodiment and motion, Flora travelled solo by bicycle through Europe and the UK, alternating creative time with artist residencies, mentorships, network building and collaborative opportunities as an intensive development of her emerging solo practice. https://floracarbo.com/
is a saxophonist, composer and music leader from Naarm (Melbourne, Australia).
Her unique practice creates novel musical environments that connect people through improvisation, composition and conceptual works, led by her explorations into the vocal qualities of the alto saxophone.
Her work traverses settings, methods and scales, with works devised for major festival stages at Melbourne International Jazz Festival, Canberra International Music Festival, Phoenix Central Park’s Strata Festival, Amersfoort Jazz Festival, and alongside luminaries of Australian jazz and improvised music like Barney McAll and Andrea Keller. Her creativity grounded in a constant flow of collaboration amongst a tight-knit generation of leading young Australian artists in Naarm, with regular projects and small gigs for new ideas alongside uncategorizable original musicians like Helen Svoboda, Niran Dasika, Iran Sanadzadeh, Eitan Ritz, her brother Theo Carbo, and many others.
Flora’s recorded projects are acclaimed documents of moments in this scene. Her albums are MAGNIFY (2023); Arthur’s Walks (2022); VOICE (2020); and Erica (2018). Her bands include The Rest Is Silence; Aalto; The Floor Is Well, Thanks; Flora Carbo Trio; and Ecosystem. Her unique saxophone sound has been honed through private study with Julien Wilson, Jim Denley, Melissa Aldana and Scott McConnachie, she completed a Bachelor with Honours degree at the University of Melbourne and the James Morrison Academy in 2019.
Increasingly recognised as a composer, Flora’s significant commissions and premieres include Momentually with Theo Carbo at the 2023 Canberra International Music Festival; the SIMA Emerging Composers Commission 2022; Flora Carbo Percussion Ensemble for quartets of adaptable instrumentation at 2023 Strata Festival; and Ecosystem for three voices and three saxophones at the 2022 Melbourne International Jazz Festival.
Flora was the Melbourne International Jazz Festival’s Take Note Leader for 2022. She was a finalist for the Freedman Jazz Fellowships 2022 and 2021; for the Young Australian Jazz Artist of the Year at the 2019 Australian Jazz Bell Awards; and for the 2016 National Jazz Award; and won the James Morrison Scholarship at the Generations in Jazz Festival in 2017.
In 2023 Flora undertook ‘Residency in Motion’, a five-month international program generously supported by the Ian Potter Cultural Fund. Pursuing her long-held interest in situating her musical thought within concepts of embodiment and motion, Flora travelled solo by bicycle through Europe and the UK, alternating creative time with artist residencies, mentorships, network building and collaborative opportunities as an intensive development of her emerging solo practice. https://floracarbo.com/
Letters of Support
Participant/ Collaborator Letters of Support