The Narli Tour Mark Atkins Judith Hamann Joe Talia Tos Mahoney and guests
A Musical Celebration 17–30 June 2018 Kooljaman Djarindjin Lombadina One Arm Point Kununurra Warmun Halls Creek Fitzroy Crossing Derby Broome
Welcome
Program
Tura New Music embarks on our 15th Northern Tour to the Kimberley, bringing international quality art music to regional centres and remote communities.
Tura’s 2018 Narli Tour brings together Indigenous musical icon Mark Atkins, with a colourful ensemble of instrumentalists from around Australia.
It is a great privilege to be welcomed into these communities to share the unique cultural and musical combinations that these tours enable.
This is a program of original new music created in collaboration with some of Australia’s finest musicians, coming together for this tour as the Narli Ensemble: cellist Judith Hamann, percussionist Joe Talia and flautist Tos Mahoney.
We most gratefully thank all those communities along with our donors, sponsors, funders, presenting partners and an army of individuals for their commitment and generosity – all coming together to make this tour possible. Finally, our hugest thanks to the musicians for sharing their creativity, stories, energy and generosity. We look forward to each day of the tour and meeting you all along the way. Tos Mahoney Artistic Director Tura New Music
As well as collaborations with local artists, some concerts include Traditional Owner Joonba (dance/song). New songs, new works and new arrangements feature in a program grown out of these creative collaborations, reflecting the Kimberley communities and landscape traveled through. The Program offers opportunities to make a significant contribution to the social, cultural, educational and community lives of people living in regional centres and remote communities of northern Australia. Tura presents this cross-cultural journey bringing the city to remote Australia and remote Australia to the cities. With performances in exotic remote locations, the tour weaves a rich tapestry of uniquely Australian music.
The Kimberley region is a truly unique and awe-inspiring part of Australia. A melting-pot of histories and cultures, the character of this place is not replicated anywhere else on earth. The Kimberley region holds immense cultural value for its Traditional Custodians – the songlines here have remained uninterrupted for thousands of years. There are around 30 distinct Aboriginal language groups in the Kimberley. Narli is privileged to travel through this country.
Concert Program
Schools and Community Workshops
Kooljaman 5.30pm, Sunday 17 June Kooljaman Centre Kununurra 5pm, Thursday 21 June Waringarri Aboriginal Arts Warmun 5pm, Friday 22 June Warmun Art Centre
Djarindjin & Lombadina
Halls Creek 6pm, Monday 25 June Shire Park Fitzroy Crossing 12pm, Wednesday 27 June Mangkaja Arts Centre Derby 7pm,Thursday 28 June Mowanjum Art Centre
Monday 18 June
One Arm Point Monday 18 June Beagle Bay Tuesday 19 June Kununurra Wednesday 20 – Friday 22 June Warmun Friday 22 – Sunday 24 June Halls Creek Sunday 24 – Tuesday 26 June Fitzroy Crossing Tuesday 26 – Wednesday 27 June Derby Wednesday 27 – Friday 29 June Broome Friday 29 – Saturday 30 June
Artists
Mark Atkins
Didgeridoo/Vocals/Guitar Acknowledged as one of Australia’s finest didgeridoo players, Mark Atkins is also recognised internationally for his collaborative projects with some of the world’s leading composers and musicians. A descendant of Western Australia’s Yamitji people, as well as of Irish/Australian heritage, Mark is known not only for his masterly playing, but also as a storyteller, composer, percussionist, visual artist and instrument maker. Mark has incorporated the didgeridoo sound into some unlikely musical environments, adding its primal pulse to orchestral works, theatrical productions and dance presentations. As a regular collaborator with Philip Glass, Mark co-wrote Voices for didgeridoo and organ with Philip Glass for the inauguration of the newly refurbished Melbourne Town Hall organ, performed for the Sydney and Melbourne seasons of Naqoyqatsi and toured with Glass’ Orion. Mark’s solo work Grungada has toured Australia, France and Hong Kong. He is a founding member of performance ensemble Black Arm Band. Mark is a prolific instrument maker, creating and painting didgeridoos from logs that he collects in the bush near his home in Tamworth, New South Wales. Exhibitions of his traditional and contemporary visual artwork have been shown in Japan, Europe and the United States.
Judith Hamann Cello
Judith Hamann is a cellist currently based between Melbourne/San Diego. Her performance practice stretches across various genres encompassing elements of improvised, art, experimental, and popular music. Currently her work is focused on expressions of immersion and saturation: explored through durational, spatialised and electroacoustic approaches to sound. She has performed widely with festivals including Tectonics (Glasgow, Adelaide, Tel Aviv), UnSound (NYC), Adelaide Arts Festival, Melbourne International Arts Festival, The Now Now (Sydney), Dark Mona (Hobart), Extremities Japanese Australian Festival (Tokyo), She is a champion of new and rarely performed music, immersive approaches to sound, and engages with a range of interdisciplinary and experimental projects including the Amper&nd project (South Korea/Australia), and collaborative work with visual artists Keith Deverell and Sabina Marselli. She has been an artist in residence at Tokyo Wondersite Aoyama, and Q-02 (Brussels).
Joe Talia
Tos Mahoney
Joe Talia is an Australian drummer, composer and record producer/engineer based in Tokyo, from where he performs and works around the world. This is Joe’s first time in the Kimberley as part of the Narli Tour sharing his expertise and passion with community.
As well as being Tura’s Artistic Director, Tos Mahoney has a special passion for the Northern WA Tours that he initiated and has curated over the past 15 years. He has a parallel passion for playing, creating and improvising. Part of the early ’80s improv set in Perth and across Australia, Tos has had a long collaboration with WA composer/improviser/Ruined Piano aficionado Ross Bolleter resulting in many recordings published as Alone Together and Desert Air.
Percussion
He first established his reputation as a drummer in contemporary jazz and improvised music fields. In the last few years a great deal of his work has taken place alongside outsider singer-songwriters (such as Ned Collette, Yuko Kono and Francis Plagne), in groups which synthesize his adventurous, exploratory drumming with the demands of song form. Talia also works in the realm of electro-acoustic composition and performance, working with reel-to-reel tape machines and other analogue devices. Following the release of his musique concrete suite in/exterior in 2006, he established a duo with composer James Rushford.
Flute
Across the decades he has also collaborated as a performer with the likes of David Moss, Jon Rose, Jim Denley, Amanda Stewart, Catherine Schieve and many other Australian and international artists. Over the last 30 plus years Tos’s role as Artistic Director, curator and arts advocate has seen the initiation and roll out of a whole raft of projects and programs across Western Australia. A highlight of all that output is Tura’s annual Touring Program with its unique combinations of artists and connection to community they have created.
Guest artists
1 Kooljaman 2 Kununurra 3 Warmun 4 Halls Creek 5 Fitzroy Crossing 6 Derby
Gija Dancers 3 “Everything from Ngarraggarni (Dreaming) to real life events are kept alive in our traditional archives, and that archive is our joonba. Within that we always have our wirnan systems, of sharing and caring, accompanying us on our journeys.” Gabriel Nodea
Gabriel Nodea 3 Didgeridoo/vocals
Waringarri Dancers 2 Waringarri Dancers regularly perform at festivals and art fairs. Their performances feature theatrical beauty of the large cross-thread coloured objects the performers carry while stamping their feet in time to powerful singing and the beats of the clapping sticks. This corroboree or dance style has been performed in the Kimberley for thousands of years although the story and song can be current, existing in today. The dance boards are called balmarra and they represent specific characters in the performance, based on real life events.
Danny Marr 5 Vocals
Warmun artist, musician, cultural leader. ‘I paint what I dream. I do contemporary painting about the Dreaming and what I dream, in accordance with the Dreamtime connection and history of my Mother’s people, Gija people.’
Famed Fitzroy Express founder and leader, Danny’s song writing and guitar work formed the basis of the band. The lyrics are about his and the Kimberley lifestyle. Stephen Pigram 1 Guitar/Ukulele/Vocals/Harmonica Stephen Pigram, an Indigenous folk musician from the pearling town of Broome, Western Australia, performs vocals, acoustic guitar, harmonica, ukulele and dulcimer as part of folk/rock septet The Pigram Brothers.
Act-Belong-Commit Standing Strong Together with Tura New Music and the 2018 Narli Tour.
Tura
Based in Perth, Western Australia, award winning Tura New Music is a producer and an advocate for new music and the sonic arts. Founded in 1987, Tura has a proud history of achievement in initiating cultural development from inner cities to remote communities across Australia. We support, advocate and ignite new music and sound art with a fresh perspective. We provide the means, support and opportunities that enable the relentless pursuit of musical discovery. For the past 17 years, Tura has been touring new music to regional Western Australia. Tura has built long-lasting relationships with regional, rural and remote communities, creating vital and sustainable programs with workshops, concerts and cultural exchanges. Board Gavin Ryan | Chair Rod Campbell Simon Dawkins Robyn Johnston Helen Symon Justine Lawler Dominique Monteleone
Personnel Tos Mahoney: Artistic Director Annalisa Oxenburgh: General Manager Tristen Parr: Program Manager Anna Sparkes: Marketing and Development Liesbeth Goedhart: Development Consultant Rachel Davison Management: Social Media TR PR Tracy Routledge: Media Tour Personnel Guy Smith: Production Manager AUM: National PR Consultant Chil3: Project branding and design Film Documentation: Mark Jones Contact Tura New Music Ltd Subiaco Arts Centre 180 Hamersley Road Subiaco Western Australia 6008 info@tura.com.au +61 8 9228 3711
tura.com.au
Thanks
Tura New Music thanks the following organisations and individuals for their support of the 2018 Narli Tour. Kooljaman Kooljaman Inc Board and Management Erica Menheere Djarindjin and Lombadina Djarindjin Aboriginal Corporation Lombadina Aboriginal Corporation Christ the King School One Arm Point Ardyaloon School Ardyaloon Inc Beagle Bay Beagle Bay Community Inc Sacred Heart School Lyla Forte Kununurra Waringarri Aboriginal Arts Centre Cathy Cummins Kununurra Senior High School Ed McNeill Susie Williams Warmun Warmun Arts Centre Stephanie Rajalingam Gabriel Nodea Ngalangangpum School Halls Creek Shire of Halls Creek Halls Creek District High School Jungarni-Jutiya Indigenous Corporation Halls Creek Visitor Centre Margaret Glass Jake Hay Rachel Jennings-Tovey
Fitzroy Crossing Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency Belinda Cook Fitzroy Crossing District High School Liz Ritchie Jane Barker Patrick Davies Derby Mowanjum Art and Cultural Centre Ella Doonan Peter Croll Derby District High School Fionna Greig Broome Nyamba Buru Yawuru Ltd
Tura Donors
“Australia has to learn the value of culture. It is about the quality of our experience of lives lived through dreams dreamed. Tura makes this available for all Australians, particularly those most in need of it. This brave organisation represents an investment of infinite returns.” Paul Grabowsky AO
Tura Travelers
The Tura Travelers program offers high level Tura Donors the opportunity to experience the wonders of our annual Touring Program embedded with the touring artists and crew. Seeing the country, meeting the people and hearing the music is a once in a lifetime experience. The next Tura Travellers opportunity is August 23–30 with the Kimberley Echoes Tour Contact Liesbeth Goedhart development@tura.com.au
Tura Donor Circle Tura thanks its Next30 Leadership Donors: Ambassadors Carl Erbrich Irene Lawson and Brendan Kissane Visionaries Anonymous Debra Knight Helen Symon and Ian Lulham Champions John Barnier Katrina Chisholm Peter McMullin Paul Sokolowski Joan Spiller and Philip Yetton Shane and Gabrielle Tregillis
Pioneers Zelinda Bafile Adil Bux Peter Connaughton Felicity Davis Norman Dennis Dwellingup Arts Collective Elizabeth Fong Elizabeth Gherardin Paul Grant Guy and Belinda Leclezio Leigh Mackay Kirsty Macmillan Clare McArdle Philip McCann Andrew and Gabe Mostyn Mark and Rose Okeby Kate and Gavin Ryan Meryl Sexton Ros and Ian de Souza Larissa Strk and Simon Tan Andrea Tsalamandris Julie Wager
To support Tura’s programs go to tura.com.au
Tura Partners
Tura’s annual programs are supported by the Government of Western Australia through the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries in association with Lotterywest and the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.
The 2018 Narli Tour is curated and produced by Tura New Music. Tura New Music gratefully acknowledges: Government Project Funding Partner The 2018 Narli Tour is made possible through the Australia Council’s Contemporary Music Touring Fund.
Major Partners
Supporting Partners
Media Partners
tura.com.au