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2023 GATHERS NO MOSS...
SWEDEN MEETS NENW NSW 2023
It's almost release time for our upcoming tour in May!
We'll be travelling throughout New England North West NSW collating community stories & sounds, developing new music & performing, plus getting to know our diverse communities through workshops & outreach.
While we're waiting on the last few details, our preliminary website is ready & waiting for its launch online this week...
We're very fortunate for assistance from the Swedish Arts Council & The Swedish Arts Grants Committee, which has enabled us to get the ball rolling. Fundraising for our recording with award-winning producer, Bob Scott in Sydney, is underway. A little taster of some live sound until the duo is on your doorstep. More soon!
LAND & LYRIC 2023
Super exciting! LAND & LYRIC takes shape in 2023.
Our natural environment is where we meet on common ground. The one thing we all share. Land & Lyric examines our human connection to the environment, combining multifaceted perspectives & genres. In 2023, musicians ANNA FÄLT & MARYANNE PIPER explore more specifically the connection between women & the natural environment.
Anna Fält brings a unique perspective from her Finnish upbringing & Swedish home performing Scandinavian & Finno-Ugric vocal traditions. She provides an almost instrumental approach to text & voice, combining herding calls, lullabies, yoik (Sámi indigenous music), nature-inspired sounds, stories from the Nordic landscape, plus a variety of vocal traditions, languages & singing aesthetics. Foiled by the versatility of Maryanne Piper on clarinets, soprano saxophone, live electroacoustic treatments & global winds, the duo paves way for a distinctive approach that provides ample room for interdisciplinary collaboration with artists from Australia, Scandinavia & beyond.
EUROPEAN SHORES 2023
"Music is a ticket somewhere else."
February spontaneously found me in Europe again. 2023 has become a busy year. We're back on the road. New directions await.
Reconnecting with colleagues in the Northern Hemisphere again has been a pleasure. Those earth-moving, tree-shaking creatives had been missed! A busy European summer awaits, however, until then...
sooo looking forward to welcoming fabulous Swedish/Finnish colleague ANNA FÄLT (Nordic Voice) to Australia in May for a full month of new music. Details soon!
REGIONAL OUTREACH 2022
2022 finished with a bang, quite literally! After 6 months of continual illness & natural disasters, we had a very busy project week including performances at Dungowan Primary School, St. Edward's Infants School & Music on the Hill, Tamworth. WORD.PLAY brought the fantasy-filled imagery of Korky Paul & whimsical text of Valerie Thomas to life through music. Featuring esteemed colleagues Dominic Goodwin-Hauk (dramatised narration & sound wizardry) & Flamenco/Contemporary guitarist Damian Wright. With thanks to Music Region NENW & Gunnedah Conservatorium.
MUSIC ON THE HILL +
WORLD JAZZ IN GUNNEDAH 2022
December 2022 finally saw the relaunch of Music on the Hill after two years of cancellations due to Covid-19 & flooding! Our Tamworth audience loved the global fusion of sounds & we were just as excited to see happy faces once again. I so look forward to the first mini-subscription series in 2023. The only venue for quality, independent contemporary jazz & art music from around our own region in Tamworth, NSW! Can you believe it? More info soon! With thanks to Gunnedah Conservatorium.
SOUND WORDS:
THE MUSIC OF LANGUAGE
During my summer German trip, I was pleased to reconnect with some great experimental colleagues & old friends of mine. Some of the most ingenious musical minds I've come across. Particular fun was had with Kili Siefahrt & Volkmar Mueller in their Aladdin's Cave of sound creations. I finished off a professional development phase by completing the music for SOUND WORDS: THE MUSIC OF LANGUAGE, a project I had just completed with a local school in Tamworth, NSW specialising in education for kids with special needs.
We explored the sound & music of Australia's combined language heritage. European & Indigenous literacy was explored through sampling, recording, improvisatory & compositional processes, instrument building & cultural exchange. Language was practised & recorded (indigenous Gamilaraay words, phonological rhythms, rhymes & speech patterns) & collated with samples of our self-made instruments (rhythms & sound patterns), field sounds, plus a variety of acoustic instruments were later mixed in to create language soundscapes & final compositions showcasing the breadth of our region's language culture. Final film presentations will be shared after parental permission has been granted for all students involved.
Thank you to Regional Arts NSW for their professional development grant in lieu of a Quick Response Grant that was issued for festival performances in 2020 & 2021 (twice cancelled due to Covid-19). This enabled the purchase of home studio equipment, which was instrumental in facilitating this project.
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BORDERS REOPEN!
EUROPEAN RETURN 2022
Life was a breath of fresh air again as Australian national borders finally reopened in 2022! My first flight since touching down in Oz, in March 2020, just before the global pancake. Hard to believe!
A nostalgic re-entry into a previous life & what a great summer it was.
Reconnecting with old, trusted colleagues once again was a pleasure. In a short 4-week period, I touched base with my dear colleague, Ralf Grobel (a refined actor with various German state theatre companies). We performed our German duo format 'musikalische Lesung' with one of my favourite texts we've interpreted & reinvented sound-wise together during the last decade, "Burning Patience" by Antonio Skármeta. Yes, a belated anniversary was celebrated with a summer evening performance In Wuppertal, Germany.
A TASTE OF SPAIN 2021
A Taste of Spain with NEIC, April 2021. Crosswinds trio provided an evening of Renaissance to Flamenco via eastern European routes & more. A great evening with so many international people from around the New England region in attendance. Fabulous performances by my two esteemed colleagues Damian Wright & Alana Blackburn. With sincere thanks to Dr. Peter Wetshofen via the Australian Cultural Fund for his kind assistance in making independent regional events a reality.
WORD.PLAY AUSTRALIA 2021
WORD.PLAY - After many lockdowns, we were finally able to realise several regional NSW school performances in April 2021, primarily in Uralla, Armidale & Rocky River. The students & teachers were enthusiastic, joyful & brimming with ideas. It was a pleasure to visit both tiny rural and larger regional schools. Children's literature is brought to life as an almost cinematic concert experience for kids of all ages as part of Word.Play. Live dramatised narration, music (composed & improvised), projected jigsaw illustrations & film imagery combine in a complete experience for the students' senses.
Thank you to St. Joseph's Primary School Uralla, Rocky River Public School, Armidale City Public School & Drummond Memorial Public School. Our sincere thanks also to Regional Arts NSW & their Quick Response Grants for their generous support of this project.
More info: www.wordplay.net.au
WORD.PLAY AUSTRALIA 2021
WORD.PLAY - Live dramatised narration, music (composed & improvised), projected jigsaw illustrations & imagery all combine in a complete experience for children's senses. First performances @ Bellingen Shire Arts Week January 11th. 10:30 am @ Dorrigo Community Centre, 1pm & 3pm @ Bellingen Shire Library. A great collaboration with the New England Writers' Centre & their partner Creative NSW. More info: www.wordplay.net.au
CROSSWINDS 2021
CROSSWINDS - a fine cross-regional, cross-genre ensemble featuring music spanning 500 years across continents, from Marais to Paco Lara & beyond. Melding tradition with improvisation & contemporary approaches for today, we explore migration & travels afar, identity & the concept of place. The first performance takes place @ Bellingen Shire Arts Week, January 12th at 5 pm @ Bellingen Memorial Hall. Feat.:
Maryanne Piper (clarinets), Alana Blackburn (Recorders, Electroacoustic Sounds), Damian Wright (Flamenco Guitar), Bobby Singh (Tabla) & Daniel Pliner (Piano).
Check Bellingen Arts Week's site for more info: www.bellingenahireartsweek.com
SYDNEY INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S JAZZ FESTIVAL 2020/21
Pleased to share that LILITH NIGHT is performing LIVE as part of SYDNEY INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S JAZZ FESTIVAL 2020, organised by SIMA. LILITH NIGHT has morphed into various line-ups in its international existence. It's great to be able to share a night of fantastic music by women composers from around the world, plus our own, with audiences in Sydney @ Foundry 616 Ultimo on November 7th. Come hear music by Sunna Gunnlaugs (Iceland), Christina Fuchs (Germany), Issie Barratt (UK), Tania Giannouli (Greece), Elisa Thorn (Canada), Tomeka Reid (US), Sian Lindsay (Sydney), Jenna Cave (Sydney), Keyna Wilkins (Sydney). Line-up featuring: Maryanne Piper (clarinets), Rachel Drubetsky (Trumpet), Keyna Wilkins (Piano) & Chloe Kim (Drums). Many Thanks to Regional Arts NSW for their Quick Response Grant in support of this project. Tickets & info: https://siwjf.wordpress.com/
More info about LILITH NIGHT @ www.lilithnight.net
SBS RADIO GERMAN PODCAST
#2 WORLDWIDE 2020
Just received pleasant news. MY Podcast interview on SBS Radio aired a couple of weeks ago in the lead-up to LILITH NIGHT @ SIWJF has reached #2 worldwide on their download charts for the month. Amazing that so many took the time to listen. A full-hour interview with well-researched questions - many thanks to Trudi Latour for her excellent interview, I had fun chatting!
SBS Radio German reaches an audience of millions worldwide every week. The podcast is available for download here:
https://www.sbs.com.au/language/english/audio/women-in-jazz-maryanne-piper
Many Thanks to ABC Classic for their kind permission to use tracks recorded at ABC Centre Ultimo 2019 as part of the LILITH NIGHT broadcast.
"SOUNDS LIKE NEW ENGLAND NORTH WEST" // TRAVEl SOUNDS OF HOME 2020
It's been fun exploring my home region once again. New ears/old ears. Funded through Arts North West's second micro-grants round in 2020, SOUNDS LIKE NEW ENGLAND NORTH WEST brings a range of natural recordings from around the region together, intertwined with improvised & written instrumental pieces for clarinets, soprano saxophone, percussion, voice & electroacoustic sounds in a series of "Postcards from Home." A solo pandemic project exploring my home region and its sound world, it's provided valuable insight into the concept of home & the changes witnessed, both personally & around the landscape, during my many years away.
Appreciation goes to ARTS NORTH WEST for their regional assistance during 2020 and the pandemic.
