NOMINATION: Excellence in Experimental Practice
For works, people or events that interrogate, extend, or challenge standard artistic practice within the Australian repertoire
If you believe you are 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
Xani Kolac
Nominated Project/Activity
Stamina a work for solo five string electric violin and live looping in quadraphonic sound
Nominator Statement
Pushing the boundaries of the violin, reimagining audience-performer dynamics, and interrogating the endurance required of an artist and sound itself, Xani Kolacs new work Stamina which premiered at the Melbourne International Jazz Festival, is an inventive and radical exploration of physicality, the limits of the contemporary violin and violinist, improvisation, genre and spatialised, immersive sound performance.
Stamina is a work of endurance, featuring live looping, and five-string electric violin performed in quadraphonic sound. It is both a technically innovative and conceptually ambitious project, positioning Xani at the vanguard of contemporary experimental practice.
A self-driven researcher and explorer of the limits of amplified violin playing, Xani independently investigated quadraphonic sound as a compositional tool, and how it impacted live looping processes. Subsequently, she collaborated with sound and lighting designer Glen Nicol to push the potential of this work for live performance. Unlike traditional concert experiences Stamina is not bound by stereo limitations it places the audience inside the music, breaking down the hierarchical divide between performer and listener.
For Xani, spatial sound is not just a technological achievement it is a polemic. The artificial separation of land, nature, and space from music and performance is one that she actively challenges and dissolves. Just as the natural world is experienced in 360-degree sound, she believes that live music should move beyond fixed frontal presentation. Stamina is therefore a climate response a new way of making and experiencing music that reflects the immersive, interconnected world we live in.
The title Stamina reflects Xanis pathway as an outlier in contemporary and modern violin practice. Throughout her career, this difference has been isolating but has also led to the nurturing of her own niche specialisation. Stamina also describes the intense physical and mental endurance required to perform this work, especially while navigating a post-COVID world. Xani experienced health anxiety and hypochondria in the final stages of the lockdowns that made it difficult to venture out into the world and reconnect with musicians and audiences. This work is about Xanis courage to overcome her anxieties with exposure therapy, culminating in the desire to create and perform this work in a way that connects to her audience.
Each movement within Stamina presents a different challenge repetition, breath, pain, hypochondria and physical strain ultimately revealing the resilience of musicians, of art and of human connectedness. Xanis broader ethos music as a participatory, communal act, rather than an exclusive or hierarchical one has meant that her unique approach to violin playing contains deep thought, a sharing spirit, and the delight in taking risks.
Nominee
Xani Kolac
Nominated Project/Activity
Stamina a work for solo five string electric violin and live looping in quadraphonic sound
Stamina is a work of endurance, featuring live looping, and five-string electric violin performed in quadraphonic sound. It is both a technically innovative and conceptually ambitious project, positioning Xani at the vanguard of contemporary experimental practice.
A self-driven researcher and explorer of the limits of amplified violin playing, Xani independently investigated quadraphonic sound as a compositional tool, and how it impacted live looping processes. Subsequently, she collaborated with sound and lighting designer Glen Nicol to push the potential of this work for live performance. Unlike traditional concert experiences Stamina is not bound by stereo limitations it places the audience inside the music, breaking down the hierarchical divide between performer and listener.
For Xani, spatial sound is not just a technological achievement it is a polemic. The artificial separation of land, nature, and space from music and performance is one that she actively challenges and dissolves. Just as the natural world is experienced in 360-degree sound, she believes that live music should move beyond fixed frontal presentation. Stamina is therefore a climate response a new way of making and experiencing music that reflects the immersive, interconnected world we live in.
The title Stamina reflects Xanis pathway as an outlier in contemporary and modern violin practice. Throughout her career, this difference has been isolating but has also led to the nurturing of her own niche specialisation. Stamina also describes the intense physical and mental endurance required to perform this work, especially while navigating a post-COVID world. Xani experienced health anxiety and hypochondria in the final stages of the lockdowns that made it difficult to venture out into the world and reconnect with musicians and audiences. This work is about Xanis courage to overcome her anxieties with exposure therapy, culminating in the desire to create and perform this work in a way that connects to her audience.
Each movement within Stamina presents a different challenge repetition, breath, pain, hypochondria and physical strain ultimately revealing the resilience of musicians, of art and of human connectedness. Xanis broader ethos music as a participatory, communal act, rather than an exclusive or hierarchical one has meant that her unique approach to violin playing contains deep thought, a sharing spirit, and the delight in taking risks.