SATURDAY 9 MAY 4PM, WOOLLAHRA, SYDNEY

SUNDAY 10 MAY 4PM, HURLSTONE PARK, SYDNEY

SOFIA GUBAIDULINA Eight Etudes for Double Bass Solo (2007)

NIKI JOHNSON Under Ocean’s Skin from Shimmer Suite (2024)

ANTHONY BRAXTON Composition No. 152 (1991)

JANE STANLEY Desert Rose from Four Desert Flowers (2010)

KAIJA SAARIAHO Ciel étoilé (Starry Sky) (1999)

JACK SYMONDS Releasing the Marble*▴ (2026)

PAULINE OLIVEROS Wind Horse - An Improvisation Chart (1989)

* World Premiere
▴ Ensemble Offspring Commission with generous support from Peter Wise

Concert Duration: 70 minutes followed by complimentary drinks and canapes

Lamorna Nightingale (flutes)

Niki Johnson (percussion)

Benjamin Ward (double bass)

This is a program founded on love and affection, with new friends and old. We’ve played music by Kaija Saariaho nearly every season, and this year it’s her vision of a ‘starry sky’ – mining the normally earthbound voice of the double bass for shimmering jewel-like sounds and placing them in the gleaming setting of metallic percussion. Sofia Gubaidulina and Pauline Oliveros are two more international icons but, surprisingly, women who are new to our repertoire. They take us from solo virtuosity to jamming for the whole trio.

Anthony Braxton’s experimental music was a discovery from Ensemble Offspring’s 2025 visit to New York, when Lamorna heard his Composition No.19 for 100 tubas! Equally fascinating is his ‘garden-scaled’ Composition No.152. From closer to home, we’ve commissioned something new from Jack Symonds, and we’re delighted to reprise Jane Stanley’s gorgeous Desert Rose. And Niki herself will perform a movement from her Shimmer Suite – vibrant and sensuous music dedicated to the memory of her mother.

Join us in the Avant Gardens and find beauty in polarities: sound and silence, wood and metal, strict and free, earthy and celestial.

What can you expect from an Avant Gardens concert experience?

These social salon concerts take place in the lovely private homes of generous Ensemble Offspring supporters, so we only share the exact address with concert-goers the week of the event in our pre-concert information email. When you arrive you will be warmly welcomed by the Ensemble Offspring team. Throughout the concert you’ll learn more about the music as the musicians and composers share stories and background on the works. After the concert, we invite you to join the musicians, composers and our wonderful hosts for a chat, a glass or two of wine and a selection of delectables.