Autumn of the Arts
- Diary of events
- Music & Festivity
- Exhibitions
- Workshops
- Kids' Activities
- Talks and walks
- Autumn Vibes
Autumn VibesSunday 4 March 2012, 10 am to 4 pmLaunching The Sydney Morning Herald Autumn of the ArtsThis year’s The Sydney Morning Herald Autumn of the Arts will be launched with a free day of music, art, dance, special garden tours and children’s activities - all linking plants to their countries of origin. Come into the Garden and immerse yourself in performances that inspire and excite. Allow yourself to be transported to the countries from where our botanical displays originate. |
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What's on, Where & When
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Autumn Vibes Event Village
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MusicTaikOz - Shakuhachi (Japanese bamboo flute) by Riley Lee Didjeridu played by Matthew Doyle Sydney Youth Jazz Orchestra Traditional Chinese instruments - Ying Liu (erhu) & Tony Wheeler (ruan) Macquarie University Gamelan Ensemble Saxophone Quartets Piano Recitals featuring Gerard Willems Sydney Conservatorium of Music |
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DanceUrban Island Chicks Lion Dance - Chinese Youth League of Australia Lingalayam Dance Company Duavata Fiji Dance |
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Guided WalksWater Wind Wood - Music in Nature |
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Children's FunDrawing Competition - My Garden Lantern Painting Boomerang Painting Palm Frond Weaving |
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Tea CeremonyJapanese Tea Ceremony - Urasenke Sydney Association |
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ExhibitionsSogetsu School of Ikebana Gardens in Focus banner exhibition
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Plant SalesAutumn Vibes Event Village Growing Friends Nursery open - entry near the Maiden Theatre or from Mrs Macquaries Rd |
Autumn Vibes eventsAutumn Vibes Event Village Visit the Autumn Vibes village and enjoy the buzz of musicians, performers, stalls and children’s activities. Don’t miss the chance to savour the delicious flavours of food, coffee and Chinese tea available for purchase at our specialty stalls. A diverse range of native plants propagated by Friends of the Botanic Gardens will be available to purchase. Also the Garden Shop will have a stall with an enticing range of botanically themed and eclectic gifts that you won’t find anywhere else. Discover what wonderful pleasures lie ahead from March - May in The Sydney Morning Herald Autumn of the Arts, celebrating gardens and plants as inspiration for the arts. Hear about the range of work undertaken by the Royal Botanic Gardens & Domain Trust including sustainability and conservation programs, scientific discovery and new projects to mark the Trust’s bicentenary in 2016. Wood carvings by Vic Simms will be on display and also for purchase including shields, boomerangs, clapsticks and coolamons. Vic is a skilled craftsman and artist, his large wood carvings are exhibited in public spaces around Sydney, including the CadiBirong tree carving here in the Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney. Vic Simms is a Bidjigal man from the La Perouse community. He is an internationally acclaimed recording artist with a long and distinguished career as a singer/songwriter. As a descendant of the local Sydney Aboriginal community he is passionate about culture and sharing his knowledge and skills with the younger generation.
Hear the thunderous rhythms of Australia’s premier taiko (Japanese drum) ensemble playing a range of drums including the giant 2.5-metre-high odaiko drum. Not only will you be able to listen to the drums but members of the audience will be invited to participate in a workshop to try their hand at playing the drums! Since 1997 TaikOz has developed a reputation for dramatic performances that couple explosive energy and extreme dynamism with refinement and grace. Combining the visceral power of the taiko with the ethereal sound of the bamboo shakuhachi, TaikOz is exploring a synthesis of East and West, old and new. TaikOz has collaborated with some of the world's finest artists, including world-renowned taiko greats Eitetsu Hayashi, Eitetsu Fuun no Kai and Kodo, percussion group Synergy, didgeridoo virtuosi Matthew Doyle and William Barton, theatre director John Bell and The Bell Shakespeare Company, choreographer Meryl Tankard, composers Andrea Molino, Gerard Brophy, David Pye and Graeme Koehne, and the Sydney, Melbourne, West Australian and Queensland Symphony Orchestras. TaikOz has also collaborated with major festivals in Sydney, Brisbane, Tasmania, Adelaide and Perth. For the Autumn Vibes performance TaikOz will be using the full range of taiko from the smallest which is the high-pitched shimedaiko to the odaiko (grand drum). They will also be playing medium sized slung drums which are called okedo. These allow for a high-energy/mobile style of playing. Most of the taiko are made from the Japanese elm called Keyaki (Zelkova serrata), which can be seen in the Garden on the lawn just below the Vista Pavilion. When thinking of Autumn the colour of deep red is what comes to mind. The tone of the deeper drums that TaikOz will be playing at the Autumn Vibes festival reflects that colour. Riley Lee's shakuhachi (end-blown bamboo flute) compliments this and together, the ensemble will perform beautiful music. For centuries Taiko have been performed outside in nature. The sounds blend so that the performance becomes part of the garden and there is no discernible difference. Shakuhachi (Japanese bamboo flute) played by Riley Lee Shakuhachi Grand Master Riley Lee has been instrumental in creating a professional presence of traditional Japanese music in Australia and introduced the shakuhachi to a diverse audience as both a soloist and with other performers of such instruments as harp, cello, saxophone, tabla, guitar, didjeridu, and symphony orchestra. In 1980, he became the first ever non-Japanese shakuhachi dai shihan (Grand Master). Over 50 of his recordings have been released on international labels. In 1997, he co-founded TaikOz with Ian Cleworth and the Australian Shakuhachi Society with Patricia Lee. Riley performs regularly in Australia and abroad, both as a soloist and in collaboration with other musicians, notably harpist Marshall McGuire, Trikaya, Synergy and TaikOz. The shakuhachi bamboo plant (Phyllostachys bambusoides), can be seen in the Garden (bed 141a) just above the sculpture by Chris Booth, not far from the Vista Pavilion.
Didjeridu played by Matthew Doyle Hear the resonant sound of the didjeridu played by Matthew Doyle - a musician, dancer, and man of culture. Matthew is a descendant of the Muruwari people from the Lightning Ridge area of NSW who grew up in Southern Sydney on Dharawal land. On 1 January 2000, Matthew was seen, with five other musicians including Riley Lee, ushering in the new millennium playing atop the 'sails' of the Opera House. Sydney Youth Jazz Orchestra (SYJO) Be delighted by 17 of Sydney’s finest young jazz players all under the age of 25. Following in the tradition of other youth jazz orchestras around the world, SYJO is set to become Australia’s foremost youth jazz orchestra. Enjoy music by composers inspired by nature including ‘Early Autumn’ by Ralph Burns & Woody Herman; Golden Palm by Jeff Jarvis, along with much loved jazz tunes. Traditional Chinese instruments Experience traditional Chinese instruments played by some of Australia’s most gifted musicians Ying Liu playing the erhu (Chinese violin) and Tony Wheeler, ruan (Chinese guitar). The erhu is a two-stringed bowed musical instrument can be traced back to the Tang dynasty from the 7th to 10th century AD. Ying Liu was born in Shenyang, in north-east China, beginning erhu lessons when she was six and graduating from the Shenyang Conservatory of Music in 1994. She came to Australia in 1998 to study business at UTS and received an MBA in 2001. She has given recitals and performed as a soloist nationally and internationally as well as recording a number of soundtracks for TV. Currently, Ying is studying for a Master of Music (musicology) at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. The ruan is an ancient four-stringed moon-shaped lute with a long straight fretted neck and a history of over 2,000 years. It was named after the grand master of this instrument, Ruan Xian in the 3rd century. Tony Wheeler is a performer (clarinet, saxophone, guqin and ruan), composer and teacher. Tony composes in a wide variety of musical genres and styles, and his compositions have been performed and broadcast in Australia, Japan, China and Hong Kong.
Piano Recitals The Maiden Theatre will be filled with the magnificent sounds of renowned pianist Gerard Willems. Gerard is one of Australia’s finest concert pianist and leading Beethoven scholars. His recordings of the complete Beethoven sonata cycle won successive ARIA Music Awards in 1999 and 2000. In 1981 he joined the staff of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, where he served as Chair of the Keyboard Unit until 2008. He has performed with all the major orchestras, toured for the ABC nationally and for Musica Viva. He has appeared at the Sydney and Adelaide festivals, with ensembles such as the Australia Ensemble. In 2001, as the inaugural Queen Elizabeth II Music Scholar, awarded by the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust, he researched Early Music training throughout the USA and Europe. In 2003 he was awarded a Centenary Medal for Services to Music. In 2004, he appeared at the Adelaide Festival in recitals of Beethoven Sonata’s and works by Andrew Ford and Mary Finsterer. In 2005, his DVD of Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto won the World Music DVD prize in New York. He is in constant demand to give recitals, masterclasses and adjudications throughout the world. Also performing in the Maiden Theatre at Autumn Vibes will be Sydney Conservatorium of Music students James Guan and Jeremy So. Both students will be playing their audition pieces for the upcoming Sydney International Piano Competition. James will play Liszt Ballade No. 2 and Rachmaninov Moments Musicaux. Macquarie University Gamelan Ensemble Relax on the lawn and enjoy the sounds of bronze instruments drifting across the landscape creating a beautiful sound scape for viewing the Tropical Centre. The ensemble plays on a West Javanese (Sundanese) set of instruments comprising a variety of bronze xylophones and suspended gongs. Gamelan music has a lengthy association with the courts of Indonesia, particularly those on the islands of Java and Bali. It is traditionally used in performances to accompany dance and shadow puppet plays. However, in present-day Indonesia, gamelans are used for weddings, dedication ceremonies, temple rituals and even pop concerts. Ensembles can vary in size from between 8 and 15 members depending on the repertoire and style being performed. All ensembles comprise a core set of bronze gongs, kettles, keys and clappers that are tuned to a particular set of scale pitches. The music is structured around complex interlocking patterns produced by the whole of the ensemble. The Macquarie University Gamelan Ensemble was established in 2011 by Dr Andrew Alter to explore both contemporary and traditional music of Indonesia. The group includes staff members, undergraduate and postgraduate students from the Discipline of Music. Many of the plants in the Tropical Centre come from the shaded rainforests of Indonesia including the rare and threatened Titum Arum (Amorphophallus titanium) which has the largest and smelliest flowering structure in the world. Other fascinating plants that can be seen are the carnivorous Pitcher Plants (Nepenthes sp.). The Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust plays an important role in the conservation of threatened species such as the Titan Arum where its place of origin is impacted by habitat destruction and ecosystem breakdown.
Saxophone Quartets The Rose Garden Pavilion will resound with saxophone ensembles from the Australian Army Band and Mosaic Saxophone. The Mosaic Saxophone Quartet formed in May 2011 and currently perform regularly around Sydney. The group consists of Tegan McWilliam (soprano), Dylan Brown (alto), Emma Cheung (tenor) and Louise Peake (baritone) who are developing a diverse repertoire featuring both new and standard works. They are pro-active in performing and collaborating with upcoming composers, both international and Australian. The quartet is looking forward to a vibrant future with a collaborative concert in April with Melbourne quartet, Khasm, plans for travel and further exploration of new works. Urban Island Chicks Hear the lumut (bamboo log drum) and warup drum accompany the Urban Island Chicks. The dynamic group is made up of two Torres Strait Islander ‘cousin-sisters’ who began at the same performing arts college and have danced in numerous productions around the world. Now with families of their own, they intend to pass down their knowledge and culture to the younger generation. The ‘Warup’ or bass drum is made from a hollowed out carved log which has a dried goanna (or eel or snake) skin stretched over the mouth of the drum followed by bees wax deposited in the middle of the drum. The lumut (pronounced ‘loo-moot’) is a bamboo log drum found in the Pacific islands as well as the Torres Straits and Papua New Guinea. It consists of several holes in the top to give different tones and played with two sticks hitting the top of the drum.
Lion Dance - Chinese Youth League and Dragon Dance Australia Experience the exciting and energetic Lion Dance by the Chinese Youth League Lion and Dragon Dance Australia. The Lion and Dragon Dance embraces the beauty, art, culture, traditions and history of China. Gestures and movements that closely mimic the emotion of the mystical animal tell the story behind the performance. Practitioners must undergo rigorous training to develop these skills and to learn the many movements used to make the lion appear alive and strong. They must also learn to play the instruments used to accompany the lion and to direct its movements during the dance. Founded in 1976 and based in Sydney the group practices both Northern and Southern (Traditional and Free-style) lion dance and have been performing in New South Wales for nearly 30 years now. The objective of the troupe is to educate the public about lion and dragon dance through performances, presentations, and interaction. Lingalayam Dance Company Engage with the classical Indian dance ‘Rhythms of Ganesha’ performed by Nivedha Thiru and Ritika Ramaswamy. This popular lyrical composition ‘Gajavathana’ has been musically reconstructed and sung very innovatively by the renowned carnatic vocalist O.S. Arun. The choreography by Anandavalli, inspired by the rhythmical rendering of the piece, is structured using the lyrical movement vocabulary of the Kuchipudi style of dance. The narrative describes Lord Ganesha as - the son of Goddess Parvathi, who is worshipped by the inhabitants of all three worlds. He who holds the symbols of protection, has as His vehicle the mouse. The piece also pays homage to Saint Purandara Dasa the composer. Lingalayam will also be presenting 'Bahu Ranga'. This dance highlights two main areas of Sri Lanka Dance styles. It's beauty through vibrant costumes and accessories, it's richness through traditional drums and melodies and its elegance through sophisticated body movements and foot work. All these combined present the 'Bahu Ranga', a unique dance form in Sri Lanka performed on Sunday 4th March by Vidusha Surige, Paneetha Hettiarachchi and Oshadi Welegama. Duavata Fiji Dance Connect with Fijian heritage expressed through the dance known as ‘Meke’, proudly performed by Duavata Fiji Dance Group. Duavata meaning ‘coming together to unite as one’ respectfully strives to maintain this time honoured and exciting tradition. Guided Walks Join Volunteer Guides, who have designed a special ‘Music in Nature’ themed walk revealing the sounds of plants nestled in the beds of the Garden. ‘Water Wind Wood - Music in Nature’ will take you past the Main Pond, Oriental Garden, Palm Grove and Cadi Jam Ora: First Encounters. On this walk you will discover and hear some of the many ways nature has influenced music from classical to modern and in different cultures.
Children's Fun Children of all ages are invited to the lantern painting, palm frond weaving, boomerang painting and a drawing competition. Sign up on the day with a gold coin donation. Highly skilled Fijian palm frond weavers will be helping children create their own woven fans and baskets. As well as the opportunity to paint boomerangs, children will be able to hear Vic Simms explain the meanings of traditional symbols and motifs. Enter the drawing competition - My Garden for a chance to win TWIGZ package of kids gardening tools ($75 value) for the most creative entry in each category 5 yrs & Under & 6 -10 yrs. Winning entries will be displayed in the Garden Shop for two weeks after Autumn Vibes. Japanese Tea Ceremony Experience a traditional Japanese Tea ceremony in the beautiful setting of the Herb Garden Pavilion conducted by the Urasenke Sydney Association, established in Sydney over 35 years ago. Tea in Japan dates back to the 9th century when it was taken by a Buddhist monk on his return from China. The fundamental principles of Japanese Tea Ceremony are harmony, respect, purity and tranquillity and very similar to the Chinese of peace, quiet, enjoyment and truth. Discover the splendour of an 8-metre-long wave inspired split bamboo Ikebana installation, created by the renowned Sogetsu School of Ikebana, the Japanese art of floral arrangement. As you walk through the Garden enjoy the Gardens in Focus banner exhibition situated throughout the Garden portraying the winning images from the 2010 photography competition.
Food stalls Savour the delicious flavours of food available for purchase at our specialty stalls. Enjoy culinary treats from Asia and other regions as reflected by the plant collections. Taste a range of Chinese teas with Raymond Mao from My Tea House. He will also be demonstrating traditional Chinese calligraphy, the art of writing. Wet weather contingencyAutumn Vibes will go ahead rain, hail or shine. For wet weather program see details in the Garden or visit this page on Friday 2 March. Program may be subject to change. SponsorsThe Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust wishes to thank the generous support of The Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney Conservatorium of Music - University of Sydney and the Japan Foundation. |
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