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Switchboard Arts (Emerge Series) & Judith Wright Centre present

V O Y A G E S A N D R E V E L A T I O N S

A M U S I C A L O D Y S S E Y

Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts (Brisbane)

October 11, 12 & 13 2007

Doors open 7:30PM

	Brisbane composers Jeremy Picknell and Bernard Houston have joined forces to create three musical narratives. Join them, singer Kate Schirmer, the Aardvark Earring String Quintet and a host of virtuosic musicians for an evening where world rhythms intersect European orchestration and theatre collides with popular song. It’s a musical platypus, unique, made of many parts and completely home-grown.
	Links to musical Samples win a signed album!
	The Stories
	The Composers
	The Performers
	Tickets Click here to book
	The Emerge Series

Musical Samples

Prester John – Bernard Houston

Al Andalous	Named for Moorish Spain this piece begins the journey to Prester John
Caminada	(Walking) Part of the Argentine Tango the piece describes a sea voyage
The Traveller	This piece introduces the idea of North Africa with its subtle cross rhythms and additive time
Darbuka	The classic vase drum is a feature of much Egyptian music. This piece is influenced by Cairo film music
Prester John	Based around M’bira melodies with this piece we reach true Africa.

Doreen’s Dog - Jeremy Picknell

House on the Hill

The Bridge

One Hour to Santiago- Jeremy Picknell

Dreaming

Going East

Win one of five signed copies of the Voyages and Revelations album by sending us an email telling us what you think about the music or about the show.

Send email to Bernard@cappuccinocowgirl.net

The Stories

Prester John

Medieval and renaissance Europe was entranced by the story of Prester John a fabulous land filled with strange creature located in North Africa. This country was thought to lie “beyond India”. However, geography was only in its infancy and writers of this time often referred to the "Three Indias" and were completely unaware of the Indian Ocean!

In 1165 copies of the “Letter of Prester John” spread through Europe. Its stories of riches and magic captured the imagination of war weary Europeans. By now this mythical land had become closely associated with Ethiopia. So much so that when emissaries from Ethiopia first visited Europe in the late Middle Ages their hosts insisted that they came from a land they had never heard of.

To this day Ethiopia is a mysterious country where cathedrals are carved from solid stone. A cultural melting pot, it is home to the ancient Coptic Church and an even more ancient branch of Judaism. Refugees escaping persecution in Mecca brought Islam to the country in 615. Bilal, the first muezzin to call to prayer was Ethiopian.

Combining elements of Spanish, Arabic and African music Prester John brings together a host of talents featuring Geoff Ahmet on guitar, Jai Farrell on oboe, The Aardvark Earring String Quintet and (of course) the talents of Bernard Houston and Jeremy Picknell.

Doreen’s Dog

Doreen’s Dog is a comic take on a woman who crosses dark boundaries after her sleep is continuously frustrated by a neighbour’s dog. Sometimes frustrations, if repeated often enough, can grow ever larger in our own minds, until we lose all sense of perspective. Doreen’s Dog explores this loss of perspective and how, if we cross boundaries that until then we operated within, we then become changed forever by actions we would never have dreamed of doing before.

One Hour to Santiago

The movement of refugees and asylum seekers across the globe is tipped to become an increasingly major issue of the future. Nobody knows for sure how future power relations and events may reshape the global economic and political landscape, anymore than the Ancient Romans could foresee their empire’s collapse. Jeremy, who has previously organised projects for refugees, has used the following question to inspire this piece of music theatre: What if sometime in the future, we in the ‘lucky country’ have to seek sanctuary in a more stable part of the world, such as a future South America?

One Hour to Santiago is about an Australian woman in 2098 seeking sanctuary. With a backdrop of dramatic music, we hear her songs as she remains stowed away on board a ship, waiting to get into Santiago.

The Composers

Bernard first met Jeremy in 1994 through an advertisement stuck on the wall of a second hand CD shop off Queen Street Mall in Brisbane. Jeremy was looking for musicians interested in joining his band “Alchemy’s Virtue”. His aim for this band was to create a new type of act that combined music and theatrical performance. At that time Bernard was playing in a variety of bands and ensembles as well as performing as a street entertainer. This production brings them together once more.

Bernard Houston

Bernard Houston is a musician/ composer interested in story telling. His music features in many Emerge projects. (“Batavia”; “Getting Betterer”; “Con’s Spire”) His film credits include; “Bad Yoghurt” a Tropfest 2006/7 finalist; “Widows Cure” and “Beneath” which was highly commended at Brisbane’s 2006 Liquid Lens film competition.

He has also produced music for one feature “Half Lit” that received strong reviews at the Hong Kong Arts Festival in 2004. He has collaborated with other artists for numerous performances at the Queensland Writers’, Queensland Poetry, Woodford Folk and “Too High” Festivals.

Jeremy Picknell

Jeremy graduated with an honours degree in composition from Latrobe University in 1983. Since then Jeremy has written, composed and produced many arts projects in both Melbourne and Brisbane.

In Brisbane during the 90’s Jeremy wrote and produced the shows Swimming in Pandora’s Box, Songs of Love and lead the music group Alchemy’s Virtue.

In 1998 Jeremy moved to Melbourne where he wrote and produced the show Cycles and the successful ongoing music cabaret Bizarre Bazaar. On return to Brisbane, his “Tilting at Windmills” was part of the 2006 Emerge series.

In his spare time Jeremy enjoys nude fishing on the bitumen outside his Bardon house. He says his neighbours are cool about this.

The Performers

Kate Schirmer - voice

A talented singer-song writer Kate Schirmer completed music with honours at the University of Queensland where she performed the operatic roles of 3^rd lady in The Magic Flute (2002) and Despina in Cosi Fan Tutte (2004). A multitalented performer she has been a finalist in Triple J’s raw comedy competition in 2004 and 2005. Kate has performed in other “Emerge” series productions including The Fool’s Journey and Tilting at Windmills (by Jeremy Picknell).

Geoff Ahmet – classical guitar

An accomplished musician, Geoff completed post-graduate studies in guitar at the Royal College of Music in London. He has been a finalist in the Australian Classical Guitar competition and has had his work aired on JJJ, Radio National and Channel 9. A past member of art-rock outfit “Jezebel Dinosaur” Geoff is also a veteran of the Brisbane independent music scene. He blends strong classical technique with an intuitive feel for popular and folk music styles.

Sarah Landis - piano

Sarah Landis is a music teacher, specialising in classroom music. Sarah has studied piano for over twenty years. She has been performing as an accompanist for several years and was repetiteur and musician for several productions, including Les Miserables, Evita and The Fool's Journey, which premiered in 2003. Sarah has also undertaken major roles in Carmen, Cosi

Fan Tutte and the title role in Dido and Aeneas. She played piano, cello and sang harmonies for Jeremy Picknell's 2006 show, Tilting at Windmills. Sarah currently resides in Red Hill.

Jai Farrell - oboe

Nedda Cecchinato - violin

Born in Italy Nedda studied violin at I the Conservatorium C. Pollini in Padua. A true renaissance woman Nedda is currently completing her PhD in statistics through QUT’s School of Economics and Finance. She has toured with the Europe Philharmonie through Yemen, Oman, Emirates, Cyprus, Italy and Germany. Nedda has also performed in Batavia (Emerge Series), Oliver (Arts Theatre) and on the sound track of Widow’s Cure ().

Kate Thompson - violin

Chloe Williamson – double bass

Steven Cadell - viola

Alex Jamieson – ‘cello