NOMINATION: Performance of the Year - Notated Composition
For the performance of a single Australian work, showcasing the performer(s)’ success in revealing the nature and intention of a composition with clear notated instructions for the performer. Works with significant improvisatory aspects should instead be submitted for Performance of the Year: Jazz / Improvised Music.
A work is defined as a single complete musical composition, or expression. This includes music with movements or sub-works (i.e. song cycles), installations, and real-time compositions (improvised music).
If you believe your performance to be nominated in the wrong category or the details of your nomination to be incorrect, please contact the AMC via email at awards@australianmusiccentre.com.au before proceeding with the nomination.
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Nominee
Gabriella Smart
Nominee email
gabriella@gabriellasmart.com
Title of the work
PRIMORDIAL
Composer(s) of the work
Constantine Koukias
Performance Date
26/2/2023
Venue
Theatre Royal Space, Nipaluna/Hobart
Nominator Statement
I nominate Gabriella Smart for Performance of the Year: Notated Composition. Gabriella performed PRIMORDIAL, a work by Australian/Greek composer Constantine Koukias, at Mona Foma Festival in Hobart on February 26, 2023 in the Theatre Royal Space.
In realising an environmental design for PRIMORDIAL, Constantine incorporated manipulated sounds and found earth materials, imbuing the performance setting with an array of elements that both contrast and support the 'man made' lines of the piano, just as Constantine's music traverses the natural sonic environment. The projection design focuses within the piano, highlighting the extraordinary sounds that are projected from within it.
PRIMORDIAL concludes at the time when life first began on earth; re-enacting the shifting of tectonic plates to form the inland sea of the Flinders Ranges, the audience is taken on a journey through time to the appearance of the Ediacara fossils. Constantine Koukias has imagined the sound of shifting tectonic plates through manipulated piano preparations and electronics to create cascading waves of sound. The piano as we know it is reinvented, its resonance reflecting a haunting, fragile sound world as Gabriella Smart cajoles extraordinary prepared sounds that are improvised to Koukias electronic score.
Thomas Tamvakos wrote of the works premiere in Greece:
"Koukias' sharp and at times fragile music miraculously reflected this vast landscape on the edge of the Australian desert"
This Mona Foma performance was no exception over the course of an hour, Gabriella realised a mesmerising soundscape, and exploited piano preparations that I had never before witnessed, using the whole of piano not just the strings.
Gabriella wrote in the program: In 2019 I invited Constantine Koukias (AUS/NETH) to write PRIMORDIAL, inspired by the Ediacara fossil site in the Flinders Ranges. A composer of experimental opera, I knew Constantine would bring to this work his unique and expansive vision. We toured the Flinders Ranges fossil site in September 2019 and shortly afterwards, I spent long hours in a piano studio in Amsterdam with Constantine to create prepared sounds on the piano. These sounds were then manipulated by Mischa Duncan te Pas to create the tape which you hear tonight.
Nominee
Gabriella Smart
Nominee email
gabriella@gabriellasmart.com
Title of the work
PRIMORDIAL
Composer(s) of the work
Constantine Koukias
Performance Date
26/2/2023
Venue
Theatre Royal Space, Nipaluna/Hobart
In realising an environmental design for PRIMORDIAL, Constantine incorporated manipulated sounds and found earth materials, imbuing the performance setting with an array of elements that both contrast and support the 'man made' lines of the piano, just as Constantine's music traverses the natural sonic environment. The projection design focuses within the piano, highlighting the extraordinary sounds that are projected from within it.
PRIMORDIAL concludes at the time when life first began on earth; re-enacting the shifting of tectonic plates to form the inland sea of the Flinders Ranges, the audience is taken on a journey through time to the appearance of the Ediacara fossils. Constantine Koukias has imagined the sound of shifting tectonic plates through manipulated piano preparations and electronics to create cascading waves of sound. The piano as we know it is reinvented, its resonance reflecting a haunting, fragile sound world as Gabriella Smart cajoles extraordinary prepared sounds that are improvised to Koukias electronic score.
Thomas Tamvakos wrote of the works premiere in Greece:
"Koukias' sharp and at times fragile music miraculously reflected this vast landscape on the edge of the Australian desert"
This Mona Foma performance was no exception over the course of an hour, Gabriella realised a mesmerising soundscape, and exploited piano preparations that I had never before witnessed, using the whole of piano not just the strings.
Gabriella wrote in the program: In 2019 I invited Constantine Koukias (AUS/NETH) to write PRIMORDIAL, inspired by the Ediacara fossil site in the Flinders Ranges. A composer of experimental opera, I knew Constantine would bring to this work his unique and expansive vision. We toured the Flinders Ranges fossil site in September 2019 and shortly afterwards, I spent long hours in a piano studio in Amsterdam with Constantine to create prepared sounds on the piano. These sounds were then manipulated by Mischa Duncan te Pas to create the tape which you hear tonight.