Claire Edwardes

In our 30th anniversary season of groundbreaking new music we’re celebrating our beginnings – imaginative, resourceful and more than a bit audacious – while looking, as always, to the future. Our distinctive line-up is often referred to as a ‘Pierrot ensemble’ and Arnold Schoenberg’s Pierrot lunaire – perhaps the closest new music has to a ‘classic’ – has provided an anchor for our 2025 programming. Around this, we’ve curated a series of concerts that bring together powerful and joyful experiences: music that we’re excited to perform and share with you....

Cutting-edge technology meets extreme virtuosity when London based ‘cyborg pianist’ Zubin Kanga joins Ensemble Offspring at ACO on the Pier.

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In a thrilling collaboration with London-based ‘cyborg pianist’ Zubin Kanga, four new chamber concertos have been commissioned for world premiere this April in Sydney and Newcastle. This explosive concert combines Ensemble Offspring’s forces with Zubin as soloist performing on microtonal keyboard, motion-sensor ring, light-control sensors and an old-school synthesiser. 

"Stars and Planets"

Verbrugghen Hall
Sydney Conservatorium of Music

Program
Sally Greenaway: The Blue Mountains
Anne Cawrse: Dare to Declare with Marimba Soloist Claire Edwardes
Richard Strauss: Thus Sprach Zarathustra (Opening)
Gustav Holst: The Planets (Mars, Mercury, Jupiter)
John Williams: Star Wars Suite (Excerpts)
Conductor | Dr Joanna Drimatis

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Experience the chilling suite from Bernard Herrmann’s Psycho (in a concert hall not a shower) and the visual feast that is percussionist Claire Edwarde's Dances with Devils, driven concert filled with suspense and dark legends of the Australian bush.

Program

Grandage - Dances with Devils (Percussion Concerto)
Mozart - Don Giovanni, Overture
Sibelius - The Swan of Tuonela
Herrmann - Psycho Suite

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Performing solo works by Australian composers written and championed by Claire over her 30 year career:

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Ross Edwards

Martin Wesley Smith

Anne Cawrse

Elena Kats-Chernin

Michael Smetanin

Maria Grenfell 

Matthew Hindson.

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Performing solo works for marimba, vibraphone and waterphone.

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J.S. Bach - O Sacred Head, Sore Wounded

J.S. Bach  - Dances from Lute Suite in E minor

Ella Macens - Falling Embers 

Ross Edwards - Marimba Dances 

Kate Moore  - Joyful Melodies

Claire Edwardes - Ether Lines

Elena Kats-Chernin - Violet's Etude

Elena Kats-Chernin - Poppy’s Polka

Matthew Hindson - Flash

Kate Moore - New work (world premiere)*

​Ivan Vukosavljević - Dead in Love

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Two world premieres are the focal point of the opening of the Minimal Music Festival - a celebration of the strength and beauty of minimalist music. Kate Moore has written a concerto specifically for the virtuosity of Australian percussionist Claire Edwardes. 

Kate Moore’s new work is a loud, wild scream in the wilderness and explores the boundaries of rhythm and sound.