This week's super long Declassify welcomes pianist, vocalist, music educator and feminist ethnomusicologist, Lolita Emmanuel. Lolita is an Assyrian and Armenian musician, born on Cabrogal land and navigating many worlds. Lolita’s experience as a performer spans across venues such as AGNSW and Sydney Opera House, to The Metro Theatre and North Byron Parklands for Splendour in the Grass festival. Her work is actively inspired by her experience as a young woman in stateless diaspora. Guided by the tutelage of Dr. Natalia Andreeva and masterclasses with Armenian pianist Anahit Nercessian, Lolita is particularly drawn to expressions of cultural identity and is strong advocate for the continued preservation and reconstruction of Assyrian, and more broadly, at-risk culture through music. This week’s conversation goes through everything from social justice in music, unpacking the notion of performative action and the progressive orchestra and the power of critical thinking.

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Selected Resources (full list available in transcript):

Lolita Emmanuel: https://lolitaemmanuel.com/ 

Phillip Ewell’s talk and work on Schenker and the White Racial Frame:

https://musictheoryswhiteracialframe.wordpress.com/2020/05/08/music-theorys-future/  

National Arab Orchestra performance of Bayati Medley (Arranged by Michael Ibrahim)

https://youtu.be/9uD6x-Q983g

Edward Said, Orientalism. Downloadable at this link:  http://pages.pomona.edu/~vis04747/h124/readings/Said_Orientalism.pdf 

Documentary - What happened Miss Simone? https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/70308063 

The scope of many contemporary composers in the Australian landscape cannot be without musical visionary, Carl Vine AO. This week’s episode is in conversation with the composer and 19-year Artistic Director of world-renowned Australian chamber music organisation, Musica Viva. Talking through the significance of introducing youth to access, new repertoire and chamber music through education (primary school to university musical training), to descent in commissioning practices and performances of new or more recently composed works, and his thoughts about the restrictive economic model and its impact on music practitioners and audience experiences. We continue to wonder; will we ever get to a day where we can hear new works in the concert hall without needing them to be paired with the expected companion of (as beautiful and enjoyable as they are) Ravel’s Bolero or Holst’s The Planets? 

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Selected Resources (full list available in the transcript)

Carl Vine

http://www.carlvine.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi/

Musica Viva

https://musicaviva.com.au/

The Hildegard Project

https://musicaviva.com.au/about-us/hildegard-project/

Thinking about our past through the lens of music and art often brings to the fore, how can we understand the diversity of our history and of culture in order to represent it, to engage with it and to tell its stories? This weeks’ guest is Yuin Woman and First Nations contemporary classical composer, Brenda Gifford. Brenda has written and spoken extensively about how her culture is the basis of her music, having toured Australia and internationally for the last 20 years as a saxophonist and now as a composer. In this episode she talks about her experiences as a First Nations musician, the history of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art-making in the last 100 years, the significance of music education and access to such education is necessary in being able to set a path into the world of professional art-making, and how the groundswell of growing support with larger Australian institutions and funding bodies is creating more acknowledgement of the talent that has always been present across Australian Indigenous communities.

Declassify would like to acknowledge the Ngunnawal people who are the traditional custodians of this land, Canberra, on which we are meeting and speaking upon, and wishes to pay respect to the Elders of the Ngunnawal Nation both past and present. We extend this respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who are listening and are in attendance today.

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Selected Resources (a full list is made available via the episode transcript)

Brenda Gifford https://www.brendagifford.com/

Ensemble Offspring’s Inaugural First Nations Composer in Residence

http://ensembleoffspring.com/media/news/brenda-gifford-our-inagural-first-nations-composer-in-residence/

First Nations Contemporary Music Program

https://www.australiacouncil.gov.au/funding/funding-index/first-nations-contemporary-music-program/ 

Indigenous Australian Languages

https://aiatsis.gov.au/explore/articles/indigenous-australian-languages#:~:text=Indigenous%20Australian%20languages%20today&text=More%20than%20250%20Indigenous%20Australian,are%20still%20acquired%20by%20children.

This week Declassify welcomes onboard polymath, the composer, artist, broadcaster and writer Julian Day. Yet another familiar voice as an experienced broadcaster for ABC Classic to BBC Radio 3, Julian is now living in New York pursuing a Masters in Fine Arts at the University of Columbia. So, if you catch any ambient honking, it will give you a sense of the adventure he’s on right now. His work has proactively and deeply considered the relationships between the social, spatial and the sonic, particularly his co-direction of Super Critical Mass (since 2007), an ongoing participatory sound project. In this episode, Julian and Victoria explore the questions of: is the regimented essence of the orchestra model affecting or too closely prescribing our experiences of music? Is the space of the concert hall prohibitive to an audience having a higher level of agency in their experience? And how can we think about working with a new or more dynamic social models in which art-making and music-making can be participated in and experienced?

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RESOURCES (selected; for a full list please visit the episode transcript)
Julian Day

http://www.julianday.com/

Super Critical Mass

 https://www.supercriticalmass.com/

Oliveros, Pauline. 1974. Sonic Meditations. Smither Publications: American Music. Downloadable at this link: https://monoskop.org/images/0/09/Oliveros_Pauline_Sonic_Meditations_1974.pdf

This week Declassify has invited a familiar voice from ABC Classic FM onto the episode – Stephen Adams. Stephen is a beloved voice on the radio waves having worked with ABC Classic FM since 2004. He has been instrumental in programming, commissioning and broadcasting Australian music and new music. He is also an inexhaustible composer and performer with a recently released album, who aside from all this work, also runs his own podcast ‘New Waves,’ This episode’s conversation revolves around the nuances of media and institutional responsibilities relating to programming. How can statistically gradual progress in broadening programming choices – from radio production through to concert halls – chance what audiences wish to or would like to engage with? Is there room for and a desire for more diverse voices and new music on a wider platform within the classical music industry? 

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Stephen Adams

https://www.australianmusiccentre.com.au/artist/adams-stephen

https://www.abc.net.au/classic/stephen-adams/8168144 

The New Waves Podcast: https://www.abc.net.au/classic/programs/new-waves/#:~:text=with%20Stephen%20Adams&text=For%20listeners%20interested%20in%20Australian,RSS%20and%20other%20podcast%20apps.

Adams, Stephens. 2020. Sunset inside the listening room. Harrigans Lane Collective. The album can be purchased at this link:

https://harriganslanecollective.bandcamp.com/album/sunset-inside-the-listening-room

In the first episode of Declassify, join host Victoria Pham in conversation with award-winning composer for screen and concert hall, Felicity Wilcox. Currently a lecturer at UTS, Australia, Felicity is a proactive advocate for gender equity and diversity in Australian Music and is a prolific researcher and speaker at international events concerning the representation of women and non-binary composers in the film and television industries. Listen to their conversation unpacking the nuances of sexism, the relationship between equality in the domestic sphere and a creative working life and professional environments and initiatives aimed towards diversity.

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Check out Felicity Wilcox at: https://www.felicitywilcox.com/

Edited book by Wilcox, Felicity. (upcoming in 2021). Women’s Music for the Screen -  Diverse Narratives in Sound. Routledge: New York. 

'Felicity Wilcox: Collected Concert Works'-(currently untitled)- upcoming CD of concert music, featuring the pieces I sent through and others commissioned by ensemble Offspring, Ironwood and the Australia Ensemble. Upcoming for release in 2021. Funded by the Australia Council.

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Selected Resources from the episode listed below: For a full list, please download the transcript for Episode 1. 

ASGC Gender Equity Committee: https://www.agsc.org.au/gender-equity

CIAM (the International Council of Music Creators): https://www.cisac.org/What-We-Do/Creators-Relations/CIAM 

Raising Films Australia: https://wiftaustralia.org.au/raisingfilmsau

Screen Australia Gender Matters: https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/sa/new-directions/gender-matters

10% for 50/50: https://10percentfor5050.com/

Welcome to the Declassify! I would like to welcome each of you to listen to and engage with the conversations that will follow throughout the Declassify series - featuring one guest per episode! The series is accessible via Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Transcripts for each episode are available for download at: https://www.victoriaavpham.com/declassify