JENNIFER HIGDON DASH (2001)
GRAEME KOEHNE Love Song (2016)
RICHARD GRANTHAM Debugeti (2014)
JOE CHINDAMO Triologues (2015)
MARIA GRENFELL Voyage (2015)
STEPHEN CHATMAN Blues (2001)

featuring PLEXUS

Tickets: $24

BOOK TICKETS

In their first ever live-streamed performance, PLEXUS propels you through the polystylistic portal to share in our magical macrocosm of music. Featuring Australian compositional luminaries Graeme Koehne, Richard Grantham, Joe Chindamo, and Maria Grenfell, alongside award-winning Americans, Jennifer Higdon and Stephen Chatman, this is sure to be a transformative experience.

BARBARA HELLER Ciao, Ludwig! (2017)
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN Adelaide Op 46, arr. clarinet and piano
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN Violin Sonata No 4 in A minor, Op 23
ROBERT DAVIDSON Light and Shade (2019) (world premiere)
STUART GREENBAUM Dance Music for Concert Halls (2012)
featuring PLEXUS, with guest artist Michelle Wood (cello)

PLEXUS returns to Brunswick Beethoven Festival to present a world premiere by Robert Davidson, as well as solo, duo, and quartet works by Ludwig van Beethoven, Barbara Heller, and Stuart Greenbaum.

For ticket information, please visit facebook.com/brunswickbeethovenfestival/

STEFAN CASSOMENOS Requiem for the End of Time (2015)
DEBORAH CHEETHAM new work (world premiere)
STUART GREENBAUM Dance Music for Concert Halls (2012)
SAMANTHA WOLF new work (world premiere)

featuring PLEXUS
with guest artists Daniel Carison (baritone), Deborah Cheetham (soprano), Michael Dahlenburg (conductor), Damien Eckersley (double bass), Liane Keegan (contralto), Michelle Wood (cello), and Vox Plexus.

Tickets: $50 adults / $40 concession
(Three-concert package: $126 adults / $102 Concession)

BOOK TICKETS   /   PURCHASE PACKAGE

PLEXUS is joined by esteemed soloists Daniel Carison, Deborah Cheetham and Liane Keegan, as well as guest instrumentalists, conductor Michael Dahlenburg and newly formed choral ensemble Vox Plexus, as it inhabits the possessed paracosm of John of Patmos in his instant of apocalyptic epiphany, with Stefan Cassomenos’ Requiem for the End of Time. Combining English texts from the Book of Revelation with the Latin Mass for the Dead, this twenty-first-century Requiem was glowingly received at its premiere as “jubilant and arresting… a rapturous, hour-long musical orgy that disintegrates any line between what’s sacred and profane.” Melbourne composer Stuart Greenbaum’s Dance Music for Concert Halls openly wonders what it means to listen to dance music while sitting still, and takes us on a cultural expedition through a diverse heritage of Afro-American, English, Balkan and Latin dances. Presented alongside are two newly commissioned world premieres by powerful Australian composers Deborah Cheetham and Samantha Wolf.

PLEXUS: Paracosm is co-presented with Melbourne Recital Centre as part of their 2019 Southbank Series.

LEANNE BEAR new work (world premiere)
SCOTT MCINTYRE new work (world premiere)
SHOSTAKOVICH from the Jazz Suites (1935-38) (arr. Cassomenos)
STRAVINSKY Symphony of Psalms (1930) (arr. Cassomenos)
GALINA USTVOLSKAYA Trio (1949)

featuring PLEXUS
with guest artists Vox Plexus

Tickets: $50 adults / $40 concession
(Three-concert package: $126 adults / $102 Concession)

BOOK TICKETS   /   PURCHASE PACKAGE

PLEXUS heralds its newly minted choral ensemble, Vox Plexus, as guest artists for a world premiere arrangement of Stravinsky’s epic neoclassical masterpiece Symphony of Psalms, a Russian émigré’s response to the atheism of his motherland. Of the same decade, but from the opposite pole of the Soviet aesthetic sphere are drawn selections from Shostakovich’s lush Suites for Jazz Orchestra, in a world premiere reimagining for PLEXUS. Shostakovich’s onetime pupil Galina Ustvolskaya was later acknowledged by him as a profound influence on his own music, and Ustvolsakaya’s 1949 Trio for violin, clarinet and piano plumbs the depths of the human condition with characteristic prophetic insight. Alongside these Russian treasures are presented two newly commissioned world premieres, by equally compelling Australian composers Leanne Bear and Scott McIntyre.

PLEXUS: Psalmodic is co-presented with Melbourne Recital Centre as part of their 2019 Southbank Series.

GAVIN BRYARS Sub Rosa (1986)
THOMAS GREEN new work (world premiere)
GEORGES LENTZ Nguurraa (2001)
KATE MOORE new work (world premiere)
FREDERIC RZEWSKI Coming Together (1971)
JOSEPH SCHWANTNER Music of Amber (1980)

featuring PLEXUS
with guest artists Hannah Coleman (recorder), Gerry Connolly (spoken voice), Damien Eckersley (double bass), Brent Miller (percussion), Eliza Shephard (flute), Michelle Wood (cello) and light artist Kit Webster.

Tickets: $50 adults / $40 concession
(Three-concert package: $126 adults / $102 Concession)

BOOK TICKETS   /   PURCHASE PACKAGE

PLEXUS is joined by an array of guest instrumentalists, as well as celebrated actor Gerry Connolly, as it presents a concert of ethereal music, performed synchronously with a newly commissioned phosphorescent installation by light artist Kit Webster. Luxembourg-born Australian composer Georges Lentz transports us to the realm of his self-described ‘mystic sound web’ with Nguurraa, which forms part of his magnum opus Mysterium, inspired by Pythagoras’ poetic notion of the Music of the Spheres. American composer and poet Joseph Schwantner responds to his own poem Sanctuary with his gleaming Music of Amber – “Sanctuary. . . deep forests, a play of shadows, most ancient murmurings from a dark millennium, the trembling fragrance of the music of amber. . .” English composer Gavin Bryars awakens a radiant sense of other-worldly space with Sub Rosa, and American composer Frederic Rzewski exalts the crushed voice of the oppressed with Coming Together, his epic setting of the letters of Sam Melville, an inmate killed in the 1971 Attica Prison Rebellion. Presented alongside are two newly commissioned world premieres by acclaimed Australian composers Thomas Green and Kate Moore.

PLEXUS: Phosphorescence is co-presented with Melbourne Recital Centre as part of their 2019 Southbank Series.

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN  Violin Sonata No 8 in G major, Op 30 No 3
CLARE STRONG Mirror Reflections: The Forest (2015)
CLAUDE DEBUSSY Première Rhapsodie, for clarinet and piano (1910)
STEPHEN CHATMAN Blues (2001)
MARIA GRENFELL Choro (2014)
BRENTON BROADSTOCK This Everlasting Silence (2017)
ARAM KHACHATURIAN Trio (1932)
featuring PLEXUS

PLEXUS returns to Brunswick Beethoven Festival to present recently commissioned works by Clare Strong and Brenton Broadstock, as well as solo, duo and trio works by Ludwig van Beethoven, Claude Debussy, Stephen Chatman, Maria Grenfell, and Aram Khachaturian.

For ticket information, please visit brunswickbeethovenfestival.com

KATY ABBOTT  new work  (world premiere)
STEFAN CASSOMENOS  Chansons Françaises (2018)
GERALD COHEN  Variously Blue (2009)
CLARE STRONG  new work  (world premiere)
JOHN POLGLASE  Trio No 7  (world premiere)

featuring PLEXUS
with guest artist Helen Morse (actor)

Tickets: $50 adults / $40 concession
(Two-concert package: $85 adults / $68 Concession)

BOOK TICKETS   /   PURCHASE PACKAGE

PLEXUS pays homage to Debussy in his centenary year, exploring intersections of text and music from La Belle Époque. Legendary actor Helen Morse sets the scene to this world, with Stefan Cassomenos’ imaginative adaptations of exquisite songs from fin-de-siècle French composers, including Debussy, Satie, Faure, Ravel, and Lili Boulanger. Across the Atlantic, Gerald Cohen in Variously Blue presents a different perspective of the same era, highlighting crossroads between jazz and concert music. Presented alongside are world premieres from three esteemed Australian composers.

PLEXUS: Perpendicular is co-presented with Melbourne Recital Centre as part of their 2018 Southbank Series.

MARY FINSTERER  Julian Suite No 1, Movement 1: Nobility (2015)
LUKE SPEEDY-HUTTON  New work (2018 - world premiere)
ROBERT COSSOM  Lux Aeterna  (2014/2018)

featuring PLEXUS
with guest artist Robert Cossom (percussion)

BOOK TICKETS

MSO Ensemble in Residence PLEXUS weaves a program of works by contemporary Melbourne composers in response to the iconic Roger Kemp tapestries that adorn the walls of NGV’s Great Hall.

This concert is presented by Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and the National Gallery of Victoria, as part of Melbourne Music Week.

CHEETHAM  Eumeralla, a war requiem for peace (world premiere)

featuring
Deborah Cheetham AO (Soprano) (Yorta Yorta)
Linda Barcan (Mezzo Soprano)
Don Bemrose (Baritone) (Gungarri)
Dhungala Children’s Choir (Gunditjmara, Wadawurrung, Yorta Yorta)
Consort of Melbourne
Port Fairy Spring Music Festival Community Choir
Jennifer Williams (Dancer) (Githabul – Ngarakbul)
Peter Barker Lovett (Dancer) (Gunditjmara)
Gary Lang (Choreographer) (Larrakia)
and PLEXUS COLLECTIVE +

Tickets: $35 adults / $28 concession

BOOK TICKETS 

In collaboration with Short Black Opera, the 2018 Port Fairy Spring Music Festival presents as its Closing Gala the world première of a major new work from indigenous composer Deborah Cheetham. She writes: “The name Eumeralla is unlikely to be among the theatres of war that you could name. I first walked on this battlefield on Gunditjmara country in 2013 – it woke something in me and my immediate response was music. A song, A Requiem. A War Requiem. It will be called Eumeralla and named in honour of one of the most brutal resistance wars fought on this continent. Sung entirely in the language of the Gunditjmara people, it is designed for non-Indigenous Australians to sing along-side Indigenous brothers and sisters. It is my hope that this song will help the spirits of those who fell – those who resisted and their aggressors, to find a lasting peace and that we their descendants might find our way to deeper understanding of the legacy of these battles.

“One day I hope to walk on that country and feel no restless spirit - just the strength of two thousand generations of lives lived and culture sustained." – DEBORAH CHEETHAM AO

This concert is presented by Port Fairy Spring Music Festival 2018 and Short Black Opera.
portfairyspringfest.com.au
shortblackopera.org.au

WELLS/BREEN/DARK  Ich Auch  (world premiere)

featuring 
Jacqui Dark (voice)
Kanen Breen (voice)
Cameron Menzies (director)
and PLEXUS

Tickets: $25 adults / $20 concession

BOOK TICKETS 

Resolutely confronting and provocative, the cabaret work of The Strange Bedfellows is set apart by the utter conviction and sheer talent of creators and stars Jacqui Dark and Kanen Breen. In a new “tour de fierce” collaboration between the Bedfellows, composer Jessica Wells, director Cameron Menzies and PLEXUS, Ich Auch draws on ancient stories of the female and examines how these depictions still echo in the contemporary world. Weaving myth with legend, past with present, this will be a highly theatrical and timely exploration of how “his” story has co-opted and contaminated hers.

"Where would cabaret be without them?" – THE AUSTRALIAN

This performance is presented as part of the Port Fairy Spring Music Festival 2018.
portfairyspringfest.com.au
thestrangebedfellows.com.au

SAMUEL BARBER  Knoxville: Summer of 1915  Op.24 (1947)
SEBASTIAN CURRIER  Verge (1997)
CONNOR D'NETTO  new work  (world premiere)
CATHERINE LIKHUTA  new work  (world premiere)
PEGGY POLIAS  new work  (world premiere)

featuring PLEXUS
with guest artist Merlyn Quaife (soprano)

Tickets: $50 adults / $40 concession
(Two-concert package: $85 adults / $68 Concession)

BOOK TICKETS   /   PURCHASE PACKAGE

PLEXUS traces the parallels between diverse reminiscences of youthful memories. Extraordinary soprano Merlyn Quaife collaborates in a performance of Stefan Cassomenos’ world premiere arrangement of Knoxville: Summer of 1915 by Samuel Barber. Drawing comparisons with this idyllic picture of childhood nostalgia, Sebastian Currier’s Verge takes its inspiration from one of Schumann’s Scenes from Childhood, “Almost too serious”, pushing at the edges of aesthetic boundaries. Presented alongside are three world premieres from the freshest new voices of Australian composition.

PLEXUS: Parallel is co-presented with Melbourne Recital Centre as part of their 2018 Southbank Series.

LILIJANA MATICEVSKA Mit den Augen Kirchners (2018 – world premiere)
TERRY RILEY In C (1964)
TOM JOHNSON Composition With Descending Chromatic Scales In Eight-Voice Canon Played In Three Ways, Separated By Two Piano Interludes, Which Bring The Music Back Up To Its Starting Position (1993)

featuring PLEXUS
with speakers Monica Curro (violinist, PLEXUS), Lilijana Maticevska (composer), and Dr Ted Gott (Senior Curator, International Art, NGV International)

Tickets: $48 Member / $60 Adult / $55 Concession

BOOK TICKETS (2 shows only: 6:30pm-7:30pm, and 8:00pm-9:00pm)

Be taken on an intimate journey through the development of modern music and art as Melbourne Symphony Orchestra musicians perform a repertoire inspired by the periods represented in MoMA at NGV.

PLEXUS presents works by Christine McCombe, Nat Bartsch, Robert Davidson, Allan Zavod, Richard Grantham, and Ludwig van Beethoven. For ticket information, please visit brunswickbeethovenfestival.com

BRENTON BROADSTOCK  new work  (world premiere)
CHRISTINE McCOMBE  new work  (world premiere)
CHRISTIAN O’BRIEN  new work  (world premiere)
BRIGHT SHENG  Tibetan Dance  (2001)
RICHARD STRAUSS  Four Last Songs  (1948, arr. Cassomenos)

featuring PLEXUS
with guest artists Deborah Cheetham (soprano), Michelle Wood (cello), and Damien Eckersley (double bass)

Tickets: $39 adults / $29 concession
(Three-concert package: $99 adults / $72 Concession)

BOOK TICKETS

PLEXUS continues its celebration of wonderful Melbourne artists with a program which includes three world premieres by three esteemed and very diverse composers – Brenton Broadstock, Christine McCombe, and Christian O’Brien. PLEXUS continues on its mission to perform works commissioned by the Verdehr Trio, with the Tibetan Dance (2001) by Chinese-American composer Bright Sheng. The composer writes: “The first two movements of the work are in reminiscence, as if one is hearing songs from a distant memory. The work is anchored on the last movement, when the music gradually becomes real. Here, the music is based on a Tibetan folk dance motive from Qinghai, a Chinese province bordered with Tibet.” PLEXUS joins forces with extraordinary guest artists Deborah Cheetham (soprano), Michelle Wood (cello), and Damien Eckersley (double bass), in Stefan Cassomenos’ intimate arrangement of the exquisite Four Last Songs of Richard Strauss.

PLEXUS: Prophecy is co-presented with Melbourne Recital Centre as part of their 2017 Southbank Series.

Victorian Opera presents a live-streamed event, continuing its exploration of the digital sphere with a rare glimpse into the process of developing a new opera. In this unique event, the audience is invited into the rehearsal room as highlights of three new Australian works are performed after a week long workshop.

Based on Flaubert’s Trois Contes or Three Tales, leading Australian composers Stefan Cassomenos, Dermot Tutty, and Katie Noonan and Zac Hurren will each interpret one tale as the basis for a short new work. Lauded ensemble PLEXUS provide accompaniment to specialist singers.

These three chamber operas are to be staged in Victorian Opera’s 2018 Season. This is an exclusive insight into the creative process of Australia’s leading commissioner and producer of new opera and your chance to offer feedback that directly contributes to Victorian Opera’s 2018 Season.

A Simple Heart
Composers  Katie Noonan and Zac Hurren

The Legend of Saint Julian the Hospitalier
Composer  Dermot Tutty

Hérodias
Composer  Stefan Cassomenos

MICHAEL BAKRNČEV  new work  (world premiere)
STEPHEN CHATMAN  Trio  (2001)
ELLIOTT GYGER  new work  (world premiere)
PAUL HINDEMITH  Clarinet Quartet  (1938)
LINDA KOUVARAS  new work  (world premiere)

featuring PLEXUS
with guest artist Michelle Wood (cello)

Tickets: $39 adults / $29 concession
(Three-concert package: $99 adults / $72 Concession)

BOOK TICKETS

PLEXUS celebrates the artistic richness and depth of our amazing city by offering three world premieres from three stellar Melbourne composers. Michael Bakrnčev, Elliott Gyger and Linda Kouvaras will share their compositional wonders, and take us on their three very distinct musical journeys. PLEXUS continues to pay homage to the Verdehr Trio by presenting another of their commissions Trio (2001) by the eminent Canadian composer Stephen Chatman. The provenance of this piece is the fragrant world of jazz as shown in his exuberant offering of three movements titled Scales, Blues and Dance. For the grand finale, PLEXUS is joined by the exquisite cellist Michelle Wood as we unearth a rare gem – the Hindemith Clarinet Quartet from 1938. This gorgeous piece clearly crowns Hindemith as the natural successor to the throne of great German compositional tradition, following Bach, Beethoven and Brahms.

PLEXUS: Provenance is co-presented with Melbourne Recital Centre as part of their 2017 Southbank Series.

JULIAN YU  A Phonecall to Mozart from Classical Stories (2014)
JENNIFER HIGDON  DASH (2001)
RICHARD GRANTHAM   Debugeti from The Lyrebird in my Piano (2014)
ANDREW FORD  Never (2017)
IGOR STRAVINSKY  Tango/Waltz/Ragtime from The Soldier's Tale (1920)
SALLY WHITWELL  The Web (2015)
ROBERT DAVIDSON  Lost in Light (2014)
HARRY SDRAULIG  Evocations (2016)
ALLAN ZAVOD  Flurry (2015)

featuring PLEXUS

Tickets: $44

BOOK TICKETS

Acclaimed new music Melbourne ensemble PLEXUS makes their Sydney debut with a program of contemporary music by Australian composers they have recently commissioned.

BRIGID BURKE  A Voice is Life   (world premiere)
ANDREW FORD  Never   (world premiere)
GUSTAV MAHLER  Kindertotenlieder  (1901-04, arr. Cassomenos)
ANDRIAN PERTOUT  Voyage à la terre de l’enchantement  (world premiere)
GERNOT WOLFGANG  Reflections  (1999)

featuring PLEXUS
with guest artist Liane Keegan (contralto)

Tickets: $39 adults / $29 concession
(Three-concert package: $99 adults / $72 Concession)

BOOK TICKETS

PLEXUS plunges into a world of phantoms and phantasy, dreams and dramas. Guest artist and legendary Victorian contralto Liane Keegan sings Gustav Mahler’s epic song cycle Kindertotenlieder, after Friedrich Rückert’s poems of inconsolable grief yet ultimately transcendent resignation after the death of two of the poet’s children. Gernot Wolfgang’s Reflections (1999), commissioned by the Verdehr Trio, ponders what it is to be human and how significant events and the realisations that follow them affect and inform our lives as individuals, and as an evolving species. PLEXUS also presents three world premieres – Andrew Ford’s Never is a taste of his Peter Pan opera to come in 2018; Andrian Pertout invites us on his Voyage à la terre de l’enchantement; and Brigid Burke uses her cinematic landscape of coastal Victoria as a backdrop to her fantastical soundscape in A Voice is Life.

PLEXUS: Phantasms is co-presented with Melbourne Recital Centre as part of their 2017 Southbank Series.

PLEXUS presents three world premieres by Australian composers, alongside other works commissioned by the ensemble, and welcomes esteemed soprano Merlyn Quaife as special guest artist. Featured composers include Gordon Kerry, Stefan Cassomenos, and the 2017 recipient of the New Music Network LAB Plexus Commission, Lilijana Maticevska.

For ticket information, please visit brunswickbeethovenfestival.org.au

For information about the New Music Network LAB Plexus Commission, click here

PLEXUS presents a dynamic premiere performance of the works of four cutting edge figures from the jazz starship, whose unique voices propel the clarinet trio genre into the stratosphere and beyond. These superstars, whilst inhabiting the same constellation, shine brightly in their own individual ways. Join us all as we make the jump to light speed in this high-octane finale to another year of frontier-busting compositional exploration.

Click on the event title for programme information.

BOOK TICKETS

Macedon Music is the musical centre of the Macedon Ranges, providing a high standard of live music to residents and visitors in a unique rural setting. Internationally acclaimed ensembles and soloists perform regularly at Lowland Farm in the intimacy of a room which seats 90 people, overlooking the surrounding countryside. PLEXUS looks forward to performing works by Robert Davidson, Tony Gould, Ian Munro, Julian Yu, Allan Zavod, and Eli Simic-Prosic. Click on the event title for more information.

PLEXUS returns to Beleura to perform Stravinsky's epic Soldier's Tale, alongside works by Prokofiev, Shostakovich, John Tallis, Thomas Reiner, and a world premiere by featured Australian composer Kitty Xiao. Click on the event title for programme information.

PLEXUS celebrates the prodigious talent of five significant emerging composers from around the world in this joyful concert which unites youthful exuberance with the glory of the human voice. Together with three instrumental world premieres, this event also features two brand new choral works commissioned especially for the combined forces of PLEXUS and the Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School Chamber Choir.

Click on the event title for programme information.

BOOK TICKETS

PLEXUS presents five world premieres by composers hailing from five diverse cities in a celebration of the pulsating energy that courses through the veins of modern urban life. These inspired artists, from five very different backgrounds and stylistic visions, represent a fascinating cross section of today’s compositional landscape.

Click on the event title for programme information.

BOOK TICKETS

PLEXUS presents a panoramic picture of the contemporary compositional landscape, spanning two hemispheres and traversing a variety of individual stylistic terrains. Join the ensemble as they set out on an epic expedition to rediscover the vibrancy and creativity of these five celebrated composers, for this grand finale to a year of cutting edge musical exploration.

Click on the event title for programme information.

BOOK TICKETS