Maria Zajkowski is an award-winning poet, lyricist and librettist based in Melbourne. A regular collaborator with composer Wally Gunn, her first collection The Ascendant features on the Grammy nominated album Render by Roomful of Teeth. In 2019, her first libretto, Moonlite, a true crime queer love story based on Captain Moonlite and his lover James Nesbitt, premiered in the US. Her next collection, What we have except when we are lost, was written with MTC Cronin and is published through Spuyten Duyvil in New York. www.mariazajkowski.com
Eleanor Jackson is a Filipino Australian poet, performer, arts producer and community radio broadcaster. Author of A Leaving (Vagabond Press), her live album, One Night Wonders, is produced by Going Down Swinging.
Homophonic! is supported by the City of Melbourne Arts Grants Program, and assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, it’s arts funding and advisory body.
We are thrilled to announce that Stephen de Filippo is the inaugural winner of the Homophonic! pride prize!
Stephen de Filippo is a new music composer from the regional South West of Western Australia. Now based in California, Stephen is currently undertaking graduate studies at The University of California – San Diego.
Stephen’s research explores the ideas of control and density in time-banned notation forms — exploring these interactions though a variety of chamber works that focus on unique instrumental pairings, contemporary performance practice as a central device.
“I am very excited to be accepted as the recipient of the inaugural Homophonic! Pride Prize, and to be working with Laila Engle to create a new work that will be premiered at the Midsumma Festival 2020.
In the past, I have had some difficulty reconciling what it means to be a queer artist. The movement itself is so multi-faceted, diverse, and intersectional. So, I am aware that perhaps I present a limited scope, directly related to my lived experience. Nonetheless, I hope that through this commission that I can create a work that explores some themes of ‘queerness’ in an art music context.
Most recently, I have been tutoring a course in punk music history at UC San Diego, in California – discussing punk’s influence on the queer and feminist movements, and vice versa. Not only has this given me a historical appreciation of the wider queer movement, but it has also helped me in honing in on aspects of queerness that I find personally important. Notably, its transgressive qualities, and the sense of otherness, which is diminishing with the mainstreaming of queer culture (a double-edge sword of awareness, but also appropriation and assimilation).
This prize provides me with the opportunity to explore identity through creative practice, to which I am so thankful for, and am very proud to be part of this opportunity.”
What a season! 3 shows sold out before opening night, and a rapturous crowd every night. Thanks again to all the amazing performers, our phenomenal tech team, and the always supportive and acoustically fabulous La Mama Courthouse Theatre.
All photos below taken on opening night by Agatha Yim at Polyphonic Pictures.
Stay tuned for news of Homophonic! 2020! We have big plans!
Team “Neon” getting into the spirit of this “urban and muscular” music by Tansy Davies!
Zac Johnston, Robin Henry, Emily Clarke, Thea Rossen, Jacob Abela, Katherine Philp, and Miranda Hill braving the heat, while raising the temperature in the rehearsal room!
Peter Wilson is an ex-dancer turned composer, based in London. After graduating from The Australian Ballet School with distinction in 2010, he made a sideways shuffle into music: eventually winning a full scholarship to the Royal College of Music. He now works in a variety of mediums, primarily composing music for concert hall, theatre, film, and dance.
As a composer for concert hall, Peter has worked with the Royal Northern Sinfonia, Loré Lixenberg, Ligeti Quartet, Norrbotten NEO, Tom Paewels, and Gildas Quartet. His music has been recorded and released by NMC Recordings.He was described recently as “having a willingness to engage in small, strange details” – a diagnosis Peter quite enjoyed.
As a composer for theatre, his work has been heard in many of London’s major theatres, including Soho Theatre, RADA, The Bunker, and VAULT Theatre. In 2017, he was nominated for an Off-West End Award (‘Offie’) for his work on ‘FCUK’D’. More recently, he has worked at The National Theatre and Donmar Warehouse, assisting composer Michael Bruce.
A few months ago, Peter’s world exploded when he plunged into the infinite whirlpool of electronic music. This is a new area of interest for Peter, and he intends to explore it more thoroughly over the coming months and years.
