East meets West: Cross-cultural imaginings
Author Identifier (ORCID)
Jonathan Paget's ORCID record 
Nick Abbey's ORCID record Jamie Oehlers’s ORCID record Stewart Smith’s ORCID record
Research Statement
Research Background
This project comprises a series of new works created and realised in collaboration with staff (and students) from the WA Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) and Nanjing University of the Arts (NUA). Notions of distributed creativity in music have been rife in recent literature (Whittall, 2017; Cook, 2018), including the negotiated contribution of performers and improvisers to the substance and delivery of outcomes. East meets West aimed to explore three different co-creation models, investigating the success of each in fostering tangible cross-cultural content.
Research Contribution
Firstly, Oehlers and Abbey wrote originals and reworked standards with ample improvisatory space to allow the differing expressive voice of both nationalities to emerge. This highlighted two different yet complimentary visions of Jazz artistry, from which emerged something distinctly new. Secondly, three NUA student composers wrote original songs on iconic Tang dynasty poems, to which Paget negotiated idiomatic amendments. In collaboration with NUA singers, performance nuances were manipulated to enhance Chinese characteristics in imitation of Chinese traditional idioms (though on Western instruments). Thirdly, Smith et.al. led a cohort of NUA students (on classical and Chinese instruments) in workshops on group improvisation, leading to the devising of programmatic scena (mini operas) on Chinese ideas. Named “Ballades of Four Seasons” (with text from the 300 Tang poems), this was a spectacular demonstration of the power of collective improvisation for facilitating cross-cultural understanding.
Research Significance
This project was funded by a $65k grant from the National Foundation for Australia-China Relations and involved a series of performances completed in Nanjing in November 2023. These concerts were very well received by staff, students, and supporters of NUA, and broadly publicised on Chinese social media platforms.
Non-Traditional Research Output
Original Creative Work
Document Type
Non-Traditional Research Output
Date of Publication
2023
Publisher
Nanjing University of the Arts
School
Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts
RAS ID
70303
Event Dates
November 13-15, 2024
Event Venue
Nanjing University of the Arts: Popular Music Theatre (13th), Recital Hall (14th), Experimental Theatre (15th)
Comments
Paget, J., Abbey, N., Oehlers, J., Smith, S., Ding, S., Filipe, L., Li, S., Ye, T., Yang, T. (2023). East meets West: Cross-cultural imaginings. [scores, video files, audio files].