Biography

Ensemble Offspring is dedicated to the performance of innovative new music.  The Sydney-based ensemble is committed to a living classical music tradition combining the music of today with iconic works of the 20th and 21st centuries.  The ensemble embraces a wide variety of progressive repertoire from wild improvisation to meticulous complexity and has a particular focus on experimental and interdisciplinary presentations.

Ensemble Offspring is the voice of new music in Sydney, and over its 12-year history has emerged as one of the most successful contemporary music groups in Australia.  The ensemble has developed a reputation for its original programming, quality of performance and successful audience engagement.

Past highlights have included - a European tour as guests of the prestigious Warsaw Autumn International Festival of Contemporary Music; 'Partch's Bastards', a microtonal instrument-building project; 'Spectral Guises' and 'Whirlwind of Time', concerts that focused on the new ‘spectral' movement in classical composition; and numerous programs, 'Flexible Eclectic' and 'Plastic Noise', that featured open form music.

Ensemble Offspring is noted for its development of interdisciplinary projects.  The ensemble has been featured twice as part of the Sydney Film Festival where they presented new music to accompany classic experimental films, while in programs such as 'The Imaginary Opera Project' and 'Light is Calling' the ensemble produced new works in collaboration with video artists.

Recent projects have included: 'Eggs and Baskets', a concert of conceptual music; 'Tehillim', a collaboration with Synergy Percussion and Halcyon featuring the seminal work of Steve Reich; 'Crippled Symmetry', a profile of Morton Feldman; and, 'Cage Uncaged' a mini festival presented with The Song Company celebrating the music, words and ideas of John Cage (listed by the Sydney Morning Herald as one of the Top 5 Sydney performances of 2007).

In 2008, the ensemble has developed a unique multimedia project 'Waiting to turn into puzzles' with film-maker Louise Curham and composer David Young and worked with the renowned Australian poet Christopher Wallace-Crabbe with the large-scale 'A Line Has Two' with music composed by Damien Ricketson.