ABOUT THE MUSIC
Corrina Bonshek
The Space Between Us... (2022)
WORLD PREMIERE
In July 2022, I drove 1000km west from my home just north of the easternmost edge of Australia to the tiny town of Quilpie in Channel Country.
I was struck by the space, the hugeness of sky, the shimmering mirages on horizon, and the dotting of trees and fence lines that danced in the distance, and vibrant greens against red earth.
This piece is inspired by my experience of that vast landscape, and is composed for performance in a highly reverberant space, such as the 7-second reverb at its premiere at St John’s Cathedral in Brisbane as part of Brisbane Music Festival.
The work is in 8 sections (some of which are like mini-pieces) that are programmatically titled.
1.1 Horizon stretches far and wide
1.2 Iridescent green dances across red earth
2 Blue-white mirage flickers and glistens like water
3. Moody sky, dark-purple swirls
4 Heavy clouds press the earth, Stormbirds cry
5 Gently blooming, a kaleidoscope of wildflowers turn to face the sun
6 Deep-blue sky pools (Reprise of 2)
7 Awaken dormant seeds and blanket me with colour (After the rains)
Several are inspired by huge sky and glistening mirage on the horizon (1.1, 2, 6). They draw attention to the resonance of the building by using alternating notes and pauses. The notes activate the reverb, the pauses allow the listen to hear the reverb tail.
Other sections/pieces reference the changing mood of the sky as storm clouds gather (4 and 3). These are harmonically more dissonant, moody, and at times crackle with energy.
I was also inspired by the riotous colour of flora after rain, from verdant, irridescent green of budding plants to the great swathes of wildflowers after the floods. The sections/pieces reference this (1.2, 5 and 7) The last is especially joyous, and at times, wild, with racing tempo and several dramatic tempo changes that ramp up the energy in a quasi finale.
The title refers to the physical space between the musicians, and the huge sense of space I felt whilst travelling in Channel Country as recalibrated my mind and body to a less human-centred landscape.
Program Note © Corrina Bonshek
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MUSIC CIRCUS WORKS
JS Bach | Largo from Violin Sonata #3 in C major, BWV1005
Courtenay Cleary | Violin
John Pax | Cygni
Thea Rossen | Percussion
Maria Grenfell | Four Leunig Pieces
Jeremy Stafford | Guitar
Kaija Saariaho | Duft
Luke Carbon | Clarinet
Olivier Messiaen | Louange à l’Éternité de Jésus from Quartet for the End of Time
Daniel Shearer | Cello
Alex Raineri | Piano
JS Bach | Adagio and Presto from Violin Sonata #1 in G minor
Miriam Niessl | Violin
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Corrina Bonshek (PhD Western Sydney University) is a Gold Coast based composer best known for her immersive, site-responsive large-ensemble works inspired by nature. Her music has been described as ‘sonically attractive’ (Loudmouth 2020), ‘meditative and euphonious’ (Journal of Music 2021), with ‘pared-back language and gentle, reflective motion’ (The Irish Times) and ‘connected to the essence of South-East Asian music – timelessness’ (Chinary Ung, 2015).
Corrina regularly composes for festivals and has created music for Taipei International Festival of the Arts (2017), Rainforest Fringe Festival Sarawak Malaysia (2019), Singapore Arts in Your Neighbourhood Festival (2022), Bleach* Festival (2017,2018, 2021), 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games Arts & Culture Festival, Hervey Bay Whale Festival, and more. In 2021, she formed Corrina Bonshek & Collaborators Limited, to support the creation of innovative music-led events that open the heart, uplift the spirit, and celebrate the connection of humans to nature and each other.
Corrina’s concert music has been released on USA-based Navona Label and independent releases by Alex Raineri (Inventions) and Jason Noble (Chi’s Cakewalk). It is regularly performed in Australia, and increasingly in Europe, USA, and Asia. In particular, her collaborations in Asia, have been a major influence on her compositional voice, and have led to several prestigious international engagements including resident composer at the 2015 Experimental Thai Music Laboratory of Burapha University in Thailand, inaugural visiting scholar of 2016 Nirmita Institute for Young Composers in Cambodia. In 2018, she was a finalist in Australia Art Music Awards – Instrumental Work of the Year category for Up in the Clouds, a work for septet that reimagined Pipa sound-colours and gestures from her solo work for Taiwanese virtuoso Jasmine Chen. In 2022, she was a finalist in Queensland Music Awards Classical Music Category for Dreams of the Earth, performed by Ady Ensemble under the baton of conductor and artistic director Adrian Head.
Percussionist, composer and educator Thea Rossen is celebrated for her solo recitals and has attracted worldwide attention for her Music for Our Changing Climate, a powerful performance project exploring issues surrounding climate change and developed through a residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Canada. Since graduating from the Australian National Academy of Music, Thea has established a career as an innovative musician in Australia. She was a finalist for the Freedman Fellowships and fellow at the Bang on A Can summer festival in 2018 and has presented works at the Melbourne Recital Centre’s Metropolis Festival, Peninsula Summer Music Festival and was a featured artist in PlayOn’s sixth series. Most recently Thea premiered the Milk Carton Confessions, a new show written for her by composer Michael Sollis, at the Extended Play Festival in Sydney 2019. Thea is a founding member of the Enyato Duo with clarinettist Luke Carbon and Director of the Ad Lib Collective, a group of performers, composers and creators focussed on connecting with audiences through innovative performance events including cross genre collaborations and immersive concert experiences. Thea also writes and tours children’s education concerts and has written and presented works with the Melbourne and Western Australian Symphony Orchestras as well as Musica Viva in Schools.
Courtenay Cleary recently graduated with a Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School in New York where she studied with violin Professor Naoko Tanaka. During her time at Juilliard she was awarded the M. & E. Cohen Scholarship and the Charles H. Bechter Scholarship, and was a finalist in the 2020 violin concerto competition. She received her Bachelor of Music degree with first-class honours from the Royal Academy of Music in London where she studied with professor Maureen Smith. In 2017 Courtenay performed as a soloist for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and other distinguished guests at Westminster Abbey for the Royal Commonwealth Service. This was broadcast live on BBC television. In 2018 Courtenay again performed for the HM the Queen at Buckingham Palace for the Opening Ceremony of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. During her time in London, she has performed as a soloist at prestigious venues including the Wigmore Hall, St James’ Piccadilly, the Regent Hall and Colston Hall. She recently performed Margaret Sutherland’s Violin Concerto with the Canberra Symphony Orchestra, Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with the Willoughby Symphony Orchestra and Brisbane’s Corda Spiritus, gave the Australian premiere of David Lang’s Mystery Sonatas in Brisbane, as well as two solo recitals in the Queensland Performing Arts Centre Concert Hall. She is a Tait Memorial Trust and ABRSM scholar, and was recently awarded the Dame Joan Sutherland Award from the American Australian Association and the Guy Parsons Award from the Portland House and Australian Music Foundations. Courtenay was recently awarded a full tuition scholarship to undertake her Doctor of Philosophy in contemporary violin music at the University of Queensland. She is a member of the violin teaching faculty at both the University of Queensland and Griffith University’s Young Conservatorium Programme.
Courtenay was a member of the Patronus Quartet who in 2015 progressed to the semi-final of the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition. She has performed at many international festivals including Tallinn Music Week, the Melbourne Festival, the Aldeburgh Festival, Prussia Cove and the Juilliard Chamber Music Festival. She has performed in masterclasses for esteemed artists including Julian Rachlin, Tasmin Little, Daniel Hope, the St Lawrence String Quartet, and the Borodin Quartet, from whom her own quartet received a letter of recommendation for the MICMC.
Courtenay studied at the Australian National Academy of Music from 2012-2014 with William Hennessy. During her time at the academy she played alongside many visiting artists including the Brodsky Quartet, Brett Dean, Michael Collins, The Australian Chamber Orchestra, The Aurora Orchestra, Anthony Marwood, Dale Barltrop and was concertmaster of the ANAM orchestra under the direction of Simone Young, James Judd and Nicholas Carter.
In 2011 Courtenay studied under the direction of Associate Professor Patricia Pollett at the University of Queensland. During this time she was concertmaster of the University of Queensland Chamber and Symphony Orchestras and was finalist in the university’s Bach Prize and The Howard and Gladys Sleath Prize for Strings. She was the recipient of the Sleath String Scholarship for outstanding students and was a winner of the Sid Paige & Musica Viva/4MBS Chamber Music Prize.
First hearing the classical guitar on his family’s Julian Bream records, Jeremy Stafford was inspired to begin learning the instrument, and that spark carries through in his playing today. Jeremy received his Bachelor of Music from the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University in 2020, graduating with distinction, three consecutive awards for academic excellence and the coveted guitar prize for best performance. He was also the first guitarist invited to participate in the Brisbane Club Award as a finalist, in the history of its institution at the Conservatorium. Jeremy studied with ARIA-winning guitarist Karin Schaupp and has participated in masterclasses with renowned guitarists such as Chrystian Dozza, András Csáki, Minh Le Hoang and Timothy Kain. As a concerto soloist, Jeremy was featured as a student with the QCGU symphony orchestra, and performed Nigel Westlake’s “Antarctica” with the Brisbane Philharmonic Orchestra to a sold-out audience. In addition to his solo experience, Jeremy has performed with various ensembles in the Sunshine Coast Chamber Music Festival, Adelaide Guitar Festival, Tyalgum Music Festival and the Brisbane Festival. Ongoing chamber collaborations include a duo with Melbourne-Brisbane flautist Anna Rabinowicz, and the Jacaranda Guitar Quartet. Recent highlights include a performance residency at the European Masterpieces exhibit at GOMA, performing at the Griffith University graduations to over 2000 people, and in duo with Karin Schaupp in the Brisbane Music Festival. Jeremy is a passionate educator, having managed a busy private studio in Manly West for several years, and works as a guitar tutor at various educational facilities in the south-east of Brisbane. In 2022, Jeremy has been contracted for performances in Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales, and will release an album focusing on Australian music for solo classical guitar.
Hailed as a “born communicator” (The Australian), a “brilliant young musician” (Otago Times), and a “soloist of superb virtuosic skill and musicality” (Limelight), Alex Raineri (b. 1993) is active Internationally and throughout Australia as a recitalist, concerto soloist, chamber musician, writer, producer and educator.
International performances include tours throughout America, Southeast Asia, United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, Germany and Austria. Within Australia, Alex has appeared as a feature artist in many major festivals and venues. As a concerto soloist he has appeared with the Queensland, Tasmanian, Darwin and West Australian Symphony Orchestras, Ensemble Q, Southern Cross Soloists, Orchestra Victoria, Four Winds Festival Orchestra, Bangalow Festival Orchestra, Queensland Youth Symphony and the Queensland Pops Orchestra. He has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3, Radio NZ, California Capital Public Radio, ABC Classic FM and all of the Australian MBS Networks.
Alex is the Artistic Director of the annual Brisbane Music Festival. He is a passionate exponent and commissioner of contemporary music, having given 109 World Premieres + 147 Australian Premieres to date.
Major awards include the Kerikeri International Piano Competition and Australian National Piano Award. He was the recipient of the Queensland Luminary Award in the 2021 APRA/AMCOS Art Music Awards and received a Kranichsteiner Musikpries at the International Summer Courses for New Music (Darmstadt, Germany).
Notable collaborations include Andreas Ottensamer, TwoSet Violin, eighth blackbird, ELISION, Sara Macliver, Natalie Clein, Natsuko Yoshimoto, Karin Schaupp, Greta Bradman, Li Wei Qin, Teddy Tahu Rhodes, Jack Liebeck, Kathryn Stott, Slava Grigoryan, Brett Dean, William Barton, Ensemble Offspring, Orava Quartet, and many others.
Additionally to a full-time performative profile, Alex is a radio-presenter on 4MBS Classic FM, a reviewer for The Music Trust’s ‘Loudmouth’, and holds associate artist positions at both the Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University + University of Queensland.
Luke Carbon is a woodwind multi-instrumentalist and educator based in Melbourne. An orchestral musician, chamber player, and fluent improviser, he attended the Australian National Academy of Music during 2015-2016 and was awarded a Master of Music Research, the Musica Viva Chamber Music Prize, and a programming award for his exploration of third stream music.
Luke is a guest musician on both clarinet and saxophone with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Orchestra Victoria, a guest clarinetist with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and Victorian Opera, and has performed with ELISION, Ensemble Offspring, and Rubiks Collective.
Recent festival appearances include the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival, Metropolis, Bendigo International Festival of Exploratory Music, Dots+Loops, and the Brisbane Music Festival. Luke has performed numerous national and international premieres by composers including Yitzhak Yedid, Gunther Schuller, William Russo, Christine McCombe, and Kate Moore, amongst many others.
His woodwind/percussion ensemble Enyato Duo, with Thea Rossen, has additionally commissioned works by Paul Dean, Samantha Wolf, and Tim Hansen. As a doubler on clarinet, saxophone, flute, oboe, and bassoon, Luke has played close to a dozen professional musical theatre productions, including West Side Story, The Sound of Music, and Evita. He is a current member of the Musica Viva in Schools group Water, Water, Everywhere, which reached its 200th performance in 2019. Luke teaches clarinet, saxophone, and bassoon at Wesley College.
Miriam Niessl was born into a large musical family blessed by the joy of music. From the young age of 4, she commenced her studies under the Suzuki tutelage of Christine Dunaway and after being awarded her AMusA at 13 continued her studies with Dr Brendan Joyce, the artistic director of Camerata. As a young talent, Miriam was invited to multiple Suzuki summer and winter schools and received masterclasses from several of Australia’s and America’s most distinguished professionals. Moreover, through AUSTA-Q, Miriam has undertaken public masterclasses from Dr Robin Wilson, Violin professor of the Australian National Academy of Music and deemed the Pamela Dowsett Bursary Recipient. Through the Queensland Symphony Orchestra’s ‘Young Instrumentalist Prize’, Miriam was awarded the loan of an A.E Smith Violin and the highly memorable opportunity to perform a duet with the Concertmaster, Warwick Adeny.
As a longstanding member of the Queensland Youth Orchestras, this is Miriam’s nineth year in the organisation where she is Associate Concertmaster of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra under Simon Hewett’s Baton. These years have provided Miriam with an abundance of opportunities to perform as a soloist, in the representative quartet and on several tours to regional Queensland. The orchestra toured to Asia and Europe in 2017 where the following year Miriam was selected as Principal Second Violinist. Hence, after closely working with the renown John Curro AM MBE, it was a very touching moment for Miriam to have been part of his memorial service in 2019.
In 2021, Miriam commenced her studies at the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University where she now studies under the repute Michele Walsh. Her tertiary studies are supported by the Sir Samuel Griffith Scholarship due to outstanding secondary schooling academic achievement. Miriam competed in several in house competitions including the Basil Jones Sonata Prize and the Matilda Jane Aplin Prize where she was awarded as a finalist and prize winner respectively. Miriam has immensely enjoyed her membership in the Tarilindy Quartet where the group was announced a finalist in the 4MBS chamber music prize and nominated to represent Australia in the ‘Musical Chairs’ international Chamber Music Festival in Canada.
This year, Miriam is greatly excited to participate in the Australian Youth Orchestra’s National Music Camp, perform as soloist with the Indooroopilly Chamber Orchestra and having been invited by Artistic Director Alex Raineri, make her debut performance in the Young Artist series of the Brisbane Music Festival.
Daniel Shearer is a young artist with a love and passion for the cello. Since 2020 he has learnt from famed Hungarian cellist Gyorgy Deri at the Queensland Conservatorium, where he is in his fourth year of his Bachelor in Performance. Daniel grew up performing for possums on his back deck but has since garnered a growing audience from festival appearances, recitals and competitions across Queensland. He has performed in masterclasses at the Juilliard School, taught by renowned cellists such as David Finckel, Ani Aznavoorian, Bion Tsang and Astrid Schween. As well as solo work, Daniel is a committed chamber musician having performed with faculty members of the Queensland Conservatorium. He has also played in a chamber master class with Sophie Rowell, concertmaster of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. Daniel plays the Widow Twankey cello on loan from Jenny Moore.
VENUE - ST JOHN'S CATHEDRAL
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF SUPPORT
This performance is co-presented with Corrina Bonshek & Collaborators (supported by City of Gold Coast).
With thanks to DeepBlue for generous support of sound gear loan, with thanks also to James Enchalmeier for operation.
The Space Between Us... was co-commissioned by Alex Raineri for Brisbane Music Festival, with generous support from the APRA AMCOS Art Music Fund (in partnership with the Australian Music Centre and SOUNZ), Arts Queensland, and the Australian Government through the Australia Council, it’s arts funding and advisory body.
Alex Raineri's appearance in the 2022 festival is generously supported by Loris Orthwein.
Miriam Niessl + Daniel Shearer's appearances in the 2022 festival are generously supported by Phillip Bacon Galleries.
The Brisbane Music Festival is supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland.
With gratitude to the following partner organisations and funding bodies for their support.
With thanks also to Gretel Farm, Simply Classical, The Brunswick Green and the countless individuals who have privately supported the 2022 BMF.
