Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publisher

Edith Cowan University

Comments

Refereed paper from the Inaugural Totally Huge New Music Festival Conference

Abstract

One of the highlights of every New Music festival which we attend is the banter that goes on between artists and audiences about what we have experienced together. The Inaugural Totally Huge New Music Festival Conference was a way to formalize these discussions for the 7th Totally Huge New Music Festival of 2005, and it was a privilege to have been able to attend a conference about New Music in the midst of it actually happening. The Conference was opened by the Executive Dean of the Faculty of Communications and Creative Industries, Edith Cowan University, Professor Robyn Quin, and it provided an opportunity for conversation and debate on New Music practice as it is and as it can be to enjoy a gathering of diverse minds and music that provided a mixture of composers, academics, sound artists and performers alike. This collection of papers and artist presentations is a reflection of some of the wood used to stoke the fire that made up the three day Conference. The Festival hosted the first ever Ruined Piano Convergence, which provided a fascinating background to many of the presentations. The Conference was also fortunate to have two exciting keynote speakers, composers Liza Lim (Australia) and Annea Lockwood (USA / New Zealand). In recognition of these interactions between performances, papers and exhibitions, a list of the activities which were mounted as part of the Conference has been included at the end of this volume and, where appropriate, reference has been made to any direct links between these events and the published papers in our introduction below. 1 The Festival itself was a sixteen day exploration of New Music, and Sound Art. It featured hundreds of musicians from Western Australia and around the world, including materials as diverse as orchestral extravaganzas (Children's Voices), sound galleries (You Are Here Entangle), to burning pianos (Lockwood). The program offered a captivating showcase of research and new work in chamber music, electronica, installations, improvisation, radiophonics, multimedia and Sound Art, conducted in both metropolitan and regional Western Australia. In the midst of this, the Inaugural Totally Huge New Music Festival Conference brought together a diverse range of national and international presenters, as well as hosting the launch of Andrew Ford's latest book, In Defence of Classical Music, at the Perth Institute of Contemporary Art (PICA)

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