NOMINATION: Performance of the Year - Jazz / Improvised Music
For the performance of a single Australian work, showcasing the performer(s)’ success in improvisatory creation or collaboration. This may entail entirely improvised work or significant improvisatory input such as solo passages.
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.
Art Music Award guidelines →
Nominee
Mindy Meng Wang and David Hirschfelder
Nominee email
dh@davidhirschfelder.com
Title of the work
UNFOLD
Composer(s) of the work
Mindy Meng Wang and David Hirschfelder
Performance Date
8/11/2024
Venue
Darebin Arts Centre
Nominator Statement
As a guitarist and composer coming from a jazz background, I was keen to go along and witness this performance given by my colleague and friend, Oscar-nominated BAFTA-winning Australian composer and pianist David Hirschfelder, together with world-renowned Chinese-Australian guzheng performer and composer Mindy Meng Wang, at the Darebin Arts Centre in Melbourne, on the 8th of November 2024.
The performance, which lasted about an hour, comprised five musical movements, each of which was accompanied by screen projections of selected poetry by the 6th Dalia Lama, in Mandarin and English.
The poetry was interspersed with digital artwork, representational rather than literal, allowing one's mind to create its own cinematic images, propelled by the surprisingly wide range of textures and emotions evoked by the combination of Mindys guzheng and Davids piano.
The audience was utterly mesmerised by the electricity generated by these two performers. Despite their sonic differences and stylistic diversity (for example, the immovable pitch of the piano contrasting with the bending notes of the guzheng) the two instruments blended so well together that it was sometimes difficult to discern who was playing what. On many occasions, it sounded like there were more than two musicians onstage.
I spoke with David and Mindy after the concert, and was astounded to learn that the entire musical performance was improvised. All the melodies, motifs and musical gestures were created and developed in the moment, somehow miraculously synchronising with the projected poetry and digital art, which was also modulated in real-time, in response to the music.
Given the music sounds as if it has been composed (and indeed it was - in real-time) it was inevitable that the recording of this performance would be subsequently mixed in a studio and released in early 2025 as an album titled UNFOLD, on various digital streaming platforms, such as Spotify.
It was an unforgettable concert, and for all of the above reasons, I believe this performance deserves to be nominated for Performance of the Year: Jazz/Improvised Music.
Sincerely,
Phillip Buckle
Guitarist / Singer / Songwriter / Music Producer
Nominee
Mindy Meng Wang and David Hirschfelder
Nominee email
dh@davidhirschfelder.com
Title of the work
UNFOLD
Composer(s) of the work
Mindy Meng Wang and David Hirschfelder
Performance Date
8/11/2024
Venue
Darebin Arts Centre
The performance, which lasted about an hour, comprised five musical movements, each of which was accompanied by screen projections of selected poetry by the 6th Dalia Lama, in Mandarin and English.
The poetry was interspersed with digital artwork, representational rather than literal, allowing one's mind to create its own cinematic images, propelled by the surprisingly wide range of textures and emotions evoked by the combination of Mindys guzheng and Davids piano.
The audience was utterly mesmerised by the electricity generated by these two performers. Despite their sonic differences and stylistic diversity (for example, the immovable pitch of the piano contrasting with the bending notes of the guzheng) the two instruments blended so well together that it was sometimes difficult to discern who was playing what. On many occasions, it sounded like there were more than two musicians onstage.
I spoke with David and Mindy after the concert, and was astounded to learn that the entire musical performance was improvised. All the melodies, motifs and musical gestures were created and developed in the moment, somehow miraculously synchronising with the projected poetry and digital art, which was also modulated in real-time, in response to the music.
Given the music sounds as if it has been composed (and indeed it was - in real-time) it was inevitable that the recording of this performance would be subsequently mixed in a studio and released in early 2025 as an album titled UNFOLD, on various digital streaming platforms, such as Spotify.
It was an unforgettable concert, and for all of the above reasons, I believe this performance deserves to be nominated for Performance of the Year: Jazz/Improvised Music.
Sincerely,
Phillip Buckle
Guitarist / Singer / Songwriter / Music Producer