Emerging artist commission.

New North is pleased to announce that applications for the 2023 Emerging Artist Commission are now open! We invite any local musicians to apply who are exploring new territory in their musical practices. Applications will be accepted until midnight on Thursday, December 7th.

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The successful applicant will receive:

• A commission fee of $2000.

• A premiere performance at a New North’s concerts in 2024 and an opportunity to have the work presented by an ensemble of up to four performers. 

• Video documentation and professional recording of the premier performance.

• A fully funded studio recording of their work, including mixing and mastering.

• Mentoring sessions from a leading Australian artist.

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Eligibility and application requirements can be found in the application form below:

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2022 New North Emerging Artist: Aditya Ryan Bhat

The 2022 New North Emerging Artist Commission was awarded to Aditya Bhat's who created an evocative electroacoustic work called fixed/fleeting. It premiered at Concert 9: Apotropiac, in May 2023.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aditya wrote the following about the work.

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ADITYA RYAN BHAT: fixed/fleeting

(Electroacoustic music with rivers, plant matter, synthesiser, saxophones, and percussion ad lib.). Duration: approx. 28 minutes.

 

This music comes from my longstanding preoccupation with rivers. The title fixed/fleeting refers to the two timescales on which rivers exist. They flow and change constantly, every moment; but their courses are shaped over thousands of years. It also alludes to a paradox in the music presented tonight: the electroacoustic part has a ‘fixed’ form, though it consists almost exclusively of random-seeming, ephemeral sounds. The saxophone part strives to manifest this internal contradiction by emphasising instabilities and fragilities in otherwise ‘constant’ sound.

I hesitate to claim authorship for this music. Much of it features hydrophonic recordings of the Birrarung (Yarra), Brahmaputra, Derwent (timtumili minanya), and Melendiz (Uluırmak) Rivers. They are mostly responsible for what you hear. I have just tried to draw the threads together, most importantly the relationship between settler-colonialism and ecological crisis. Rivers are one of the main theatres in which this relationship manifests: e.g., right here in the Birrarung, which over the years has been polluted by industry, artificially deepened, and had its course altered. Part of the commission fee has been contributed to the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Aboriginal Corporation for the protection of the river.

Where possible, I have tried to tread carefully around the voices of other-than-human contributors; if there is any insensitivity in the composition, I will do my best to address it as I continue to dwell on musical-political-ecological entanglements.

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