Bendigo International Festival of Exploratory Music (BIFEM) strutted onto the international music scene in September 2013, winning critical praise from around the world and delivering festival and broadcast audiences a visceral experience. BIFEM is a platform for virtuosity in musicianship and innovation in composition, with an emphasis on premiere or rarely performed long-form works. BIFEM has quickly become one of Australia’s peak events for truly progressive music.
Highlights include:
ELISION:
Three appearances at 2016 BIFEM by the legendary Australian diaspora ensemble ELISION as part of the ensembles’ 30th year celebrations:
• Speicher – Australian premier of Ennio Poppe’s Speicher – a major achievement of large ensemble writing by one of Germany’s most prominent living composers.
• How Forests Think – Liza Lim’s and Aaron Cassidy’s new works for ELISION featuring the debut appearances of Sheng virtuoso Wi Wei in Lim’s How Forests Think and Trumpeter Peter Evans in Cassidy’s The Wreck of Former Boundaries.
• Machine For Contacting the Dead – Liza Lim teams up with students from the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) to present a work inspired by Chinese archaeological treasures of the excavation of the 433 BCE tomb of Marquis Yi of Zheng. Originally premiered in Paris in 2000 – this will be its well overdue Victorian debut and exclusive to BIFEM.
Argonaut:
BIFEM’s lauded ensemble Argonaut is drawn from a flexible roster of virtuosi from across Australia and from visiting international guests, playing together exclusively in Bendigo. Performances include:
• Seeing Double – David Chisholm (BIFEM festival director) and Jack Symonds (Syd) open the festival with two new Australian works. Symonds’ new work Decadent Purity and the hyper flamboyant Harp Guitar double concerto.
• Diptych – Parisian composers Lara Morciano and Jose Miguel Fernandez with a portrait concert of two recent electronic-saturated quintets.
• XXX_Live_Nude_Girls!! – Irish composer Jennifer Walshe’s iconoclastic work, originally premiered in Dresden Germany – a work of sex, violence, found objects, live video and 17 Barbie dolls.
Argonaut Quartet:
A fixed feature of the festival Argonaut String Quartent returns with a premier-packed program including Pedro Alvarez’s Etude Oblique, Sergio Luque’s Through Empty Space, David Chisholm’s South Bound and Glossolalia by Erkki Veltheim.
PHO:TON
Cod.Act (Swiss brothers Andre and Michael Decosterd on Musical and Technical Design and Direction), Peter Dumsday on Piano and Bendigo Symphony Orchestra team up for PHO:TON, an extraordinary audio and visual concert experience. The 40 piece orchestra comes to life by triggering lights and musical patterns that completely reframe the traditional orchestra concert experience. A powerful, bold close to the 2016 BIFEM and not to be missed!
And so much more including workshops, solo performer recitals, Sound Gallery (including a collaboration with industrial designer Christopher Boots), Performance Lectures, Composer Workshops with Monash University, Composer Colloquium open table conversation, the family friendly Cushion Concert and the Festival Hub running Friday and Saturday nights at Rocks On Rosalind where you can unwind after the shows.
BENDIGO INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF EXPLORATORY MUSIC (BIFEM)
September 2-4
in venues in and around Bendigo, Victoria
Download the FULL PROGRAM here www.bifem.com.au
Proudly presented by PBS 106.7 FM
