Presenting a classical music show for this year’s Fringe World came with a twofold mission from its creators.
By Ara Jansen
While percussionist Paul Tanner and guitarist Jonathan Fitzgerald wanted to draw a new audience into their musical world and hopefully find some new converts, they also had a bigger plan.
Ascendent Messages at Callaway Auditorium on 8 February is an immersive concert featuring new works for classical guitar, percussion and electronics. What’s special is that the evening will be the world premiere of four works by award-winning female Australian composers Maria Grenfell, Alice Humphries, Kate Milligan and Kathy Potter.
“Fringe dips into and attracts a totally different audience and we hope to draw in some of those people,” says Jonathan, who is also a lecturer and the chair of strings and guitar at UWA. “What better way to show off four fantastic composers in a way that’s accessible to people who might have otherwise never seen a classical concert.”
Each piece ranges from 10 to 15 minutes in length, making it a perfect classical tasting plate for those who are unfamiliar with the genre but curious to dip their toes in.
Paul, the principal percussionist of the Perth Symphony Orchestra and a frequent performer with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, has collaborated musically with Jonathan in the past, but this time they wanted to do a bigger, more substantial work.
Ascendent Messages is the name of Alice Humphries’ piece and the pair felt it served well as a collective name for the first performances.
When Jonathan and Paul took part in a collaboration between the UWA percussion and guitar students in 2023, it became clear that the number of new works by female composers was very low.
“In this canon and in a number of others, female composers are under-represented and this genre is particularly affected,” says Jonathan. “We thought what better way to take a positive step to rectify this than by commissioning a series of new works.”
The four composers – three who hail from Perth and one from Tasmania – had no brief and total artistic freedom while writing for percussion and guitar.
Jonathan says they were familiar with the composers’ previous works and knew each of the pieces would be very different. Apart from the instruments they are performed on, the pieces share nothing in common thematically or stylistically.
Expect a diverse program on the night. For example, Promenade by Maria Grenfell explores the idea of instruments moving along together at several different speeds, while Kate Milligan’s Red Earth Mine is a soundscape for the iron ore industry, including an archival recording of a mining blast, while reflecting on mining’s impact on the landscape.
Across the four pieces, Jonathan says the work is a mix of solid playing and some challenging sections which will definitely make him sweat a little.
“Part of the goal of commissioning new work is so that other people can play them in the future as well.”
The pair also plan to record the works later in the year.
Ascendent Messages at Fringe World is at Callaway Auditorium at UWA on 8 February at 7pm. Tickets from www.fringeworld.com.au