Past Events

“It began with all three musicians playing Tibetan singing bowls, a sound that did not just fill the air, but seemed to make each molecule glisten.” – THE MUSIC Australia’s most influential saxophonist, Dr Sandy Evans joins Master koto player Satsuki Odamura and ARIA-Award winning bassist Steve Elphick for a breath-taking performance at the Sydney Opera House. Having paved the way for female jazz musicians here at home and abroad, Sandy Evans’s work exploring intercultural music is impressive. Satsuki Odamura…

Information source: Australian National Botanic Gardens website Bimblebox 153 Birds surrounds you with the sights and sounds of birdlife found on the Bimblebox Nature Refuge.  This unique installation combines artist prints, poetry, prose and musical interpretations of birdcalls contributed by over 450 people worldwide. Each bird species found on Bimblebox is explored by a writer, an artist and a musician. Bird call inspired compositions and recordings of writers’ poetry and prose form a soundscape, while artists’ representations of the many and…

Riverside welcomes the world premiere of Zashto? in March as part of SIMA’s Jazz Now Summer 22 Festival. The theme of the Mara! Big Band’s new 60-minute musical suite “Zashto?” (“Why?” in Bulgarian language) is the experience of migration to Australia and the spectre of incarceration (physical and psychological) that has hovered over each wave of migration in the past 230 years. Through the stories of three women who arrived in Australia at very different times in our history, we investigate the fact that deprivation of liberty or trauma has scarred the migration experience of many in our community and we pose the question “Zashto?”

Formed in 1991, the catholics are one of Australia’s most distinct contemporary ensembles. Over three decades, they have formed a unique body of beautifully crafted music that takes in various African, Caribbean, Latin, and Eastern influences.