Australian Music

A proud Murrawarri and Filipino rapper, drummer and composer, Rhyan Clapham isn’t afraid to push creative boundaries and draw together diverse influences, from classical to hip hop.

The Canberra Symphony Orchestra’s (CSO) Chamber Ensemble returns to the National Museum of Australia on 28 July for Collective Memory, an incisive program of contemporary classical music exploring history, memory and power.

In the lyrics of this piece with the CSO Chamber Ensemble, I am resurfacing old journal entries of Cook and fellow colonists who first invaded, to ultimately challenge listeners on the idea of truth. What is truth? Who can tell it?

Ora was an extremely gifted bass player who performed with great talent and finesse. She was my best friend and we performed together for about 15 years. This composition was an opportunity for me to memorialise and remember her, through this unaccompanied, beautiful composition, Lament.

Bungaree, or Boongaree, (1775 – 24 November 1830) was an Aboriginal Australian from the Kuringgai people of the Broken Bay area north of Sydney, who was known as an explorer, entertainer, and Aboriginal community leader.

Bardju is about the footsteps we each take, and to tell us that we need to tread lightly on Mother Earth and take care of her.

Speak is cast in three distinct movements. Conceptually, each movement describes a different domain of language and communication.

Of Cantilena Pacifica, Richard Meale wrote, “…it became clear that the work could not be based on any artifice. Its existence had to lie in its emotional truth.”

Guest artist Courtenay Cleary describes Margaret Sutherland’s Violin Concerto as a ‘hidden gem…intense, lush and whimsical.’

“If one of the main reasons we listen to music is to be moved on some level, and we know something about the composer’s life, we will inevitably hear elements of it in their music, and this enriches our listening experience.”