an incomplete history of the art of the solo violinAugust 08, 2025
It was surreal to have this work premiered by the phenomenal violinist Miranda Cuckson at Rose Hall in Philadelphia. Commissioned by the Australian National Academy of Music for their ANAM Set 2025, the piece continues my interest in transferring and transposing materials from bodies to bodies, instruments to instruments, and situations to situations.
Here, the music draws upon my solo contrabass practice, translated to the violin via the cello — a process developed in close collaboration with David Moran. The title comes from Rohan Kriwaczek’s eccentric book An Incomplete History of The Art of The Funerary Violin.
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#composition
#score
#studiorecording
#liveperformance
australian music
July 02, 2025
In April, NYC-based vocal ensemble Ekmeles premiered a new composition called australian music, at Rose Hall in Philadelphia. The text and inspiration for the piece comes from a poem by South Australian poet Tadhg Porter-Cameron.
Link to the score can be found HERE.
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#composition
#score
#studiorecording
#liveperformance
Solo Album: A Thousand Tiny Mutinies
March 05, 2024
I’m very happy announce the release of my new album, a thousand tiny mutinies for solo contrabass guitar and artefacts, via Nice Music label. It was recorded and mixed with Timothy Harvey, mastered by Magnus Lindberg, cover design by Design Rows, with an accompanying essay by Andrew Goodman.
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#studiorecording
#liveperformance
#solo
#album
#contrabassguitar
You Can’t See Speed
December 23, 2024
From
4 April–9 June 2025, Tina Stefanou’s solo exhibition at
Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA) will be open in Narrm/Melbourne. I’ve
had the privilege of collaborating with Tina on many projects and artworks — some that will feature in this exhibition. I’m having huge amounts of fun making
the sounds for her major film/sculpture/installation, You Can’t See Speed.
You can find the exhibition details here: https://acca.melbourne/exhibition/tina-stefanou-you-cant-see-speed/
And the online catalogue can be found here: https://youcantseespeed.acca.melbourne/
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#studiorecording
#liveperformance
#installation
#creativedevelopment
#video
#composition
#film
Tina Stefanou, You Can’t See Speed (still) 2025.
Guewel / Senegal
December 22, 2024
In Jan-Feb of 2024, I travelled
to Senegal to collaborate with Lamine Sonko on his interdisciplinary theatre
work Guéwel. After several weeks of development — many days of which were interrupted due to civil unrest — we premiered the work-in-progress at the Daniel Sorana National
Theatre of Senegal.
Here’s a track by called Taamo (2023), which features in the Guéwel, albeit in an altered form. Credits: Lamine Sonko (kora, voice, composition), Xani Colac (violin) Anita Quayle (cello), Joseph Franklin (double bass):
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#creativedevelopment
#liveperformance
#dance
2024 MSA Conference
December 01, 2024
Here’s a LINK to my abstract for a paper I presented at the 47th National Conference of the Musicological Society of Australia 2024, titled THE HORROR OF THE AVANT-GARDE(S) - composing with an ethics of affirmation.
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#contrabassguitar#writing
#composition
#theory
Solo Set at New North
October 03, 2024
Thanks to the New North crew in Naarm/Melbourne for this footage from a concert at Brunswick Mechanics Institute, back in December 2023. This was my second-ever solo performance and it’s very nice to have it beautifully recorded by Theo Carbo and filmed/edited by Callum G’Froerer.
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#liveperformance#solo#contrabassguitar#composition#video
Soundtrack and Premiere: Left Write Hook
August 08, 2024
In 2023, I created the soundtrack for the feature-length documentary film Left Write Hook. The film, directed by Shannon Owen, is a heart-wrenching but ultimately empowering story about survivors of child sexual abuse. It was an incredible opportunity to use my musical skills to amplify the voices of survivors, and I am so happy to have played a small part in telling their stories. The soundtrack was made entirely with acoustic instruments, with the help of Constantine Stefanou (guitar) and Maria Moles (drums/percussion), and additional engineering by Timothy Harvey.
The film is premiering at the Melbourne International Film Festival on 14 August 2024 at ACMI, with additional screenings around Victoria throughout August.
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#soundtrack#composition#studiorecording#film
Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra
June 24, 2024
Earlier this month, I had the privilege of developing and recording two new orchestral works with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra as part of the 2024-25 Australian Composer's School. Under the mentorship of Matthew Hindson, Maria Grenfell, and conductor Luke Dollman, we spent the week developing, experimenting and recording at Federation Hall, nipaluna/Hobart.
<mutinies>, is an orchestral adaptation of a solo contrabass guitar work that I released in early 2024 titled, a thousand tiny mutinies. This work is part of an ongoing project of translating my solo bass practice across other bodies, instruments, and ensembles.
The orchestral version draws its narrative thread from 1829 Cyprus Mutiny at Recherche Bay, where convicts took control of the brig Cyprus, and set sail. The mutineers passed through New Zealand and the Chatham Islands before landing in the hostile Japanese waters, and on to China where the Cyprus was abandoned. The mutineers found their way back to London, where two of them were hanged — the last men to be hanged for piracy in Britain. The infamous captain, William Swallow and one other, were returned to Hobart.
Links to the work can be found here:
SCORE // AUDIO
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#composition
#score
#liveperformance
#creativedevelopment