Music for a Memory
for piano and dancer
In 2019 I worked with pianist Alex Raineri and dancer Katina Olsen in a project called bloodpaths (2019). This was a large-scale work comprising new works for solo piano and dancer by 25 Australian composers. My contribution was to be a short work that spoke to my identity as an Australian. In Music for a Memory (2019) I reflected on my relocation from the United States to Australia in 2013 during the Abbott Government’s “Stop the Boats” campaign. My disgust for this policy shadowed my initial conception of what was to be my new home, and the uncertainty I felt during this time in my life was heightened by the unequal treatment of those who attempted to seek asylum in Australia. This is perhaps the darkest theme of the unexpected in my portfolio. Rather than a literal display of this story, I decided to include a piece of small white fabric into the work that was to be revealed later in the piece. Other items, such as a tennis ball, were hidden inside the piano and included as aural elements out of view from the audience. The vague symbolism of these objects and their slow reveals added curiosity to an otherwise very serious topic of inspiration.
Music for a Memory (2019) was premiered by Alex Raineri and Katina Olsen in December 2019 at the Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts in Brisbane. Video footage is kindy provided by Alex Raineri.
