We’ve just wrapped up our very first shows in the USA as part of the Long Play Festival (run by our friends at Bang on a Can) over in Brooklyn, and what a ride it’s been!

As the iconic Sinatra song goes, “If you can make it there, you’ll make it anywhere” – and we gave it a red-hot go in New York! From 1–4 May 2025, we spent four jam-packed days rehearsing, performing, and soaking up the local vibes. Each day, one of our awesome musicians kept a blog to share the behind-the-scenes moments, highlights, and little surprises along the way. Check out what we got up to below!

Day 1: Jason

Just finished our first full day in Brooklyn – we are starting to get used to the constant police sirens, ambulance and also the pervading smells that we don’t have so much in Sydney. We are staying in Crown Heights, a little rough around the edges, but lots to look at and certainly a cultural shift from Bondi! So far we have survived the epic flight and attempting to get over the jet lag and the 3am body clock wake up call.

Véronique and I spent the afternoon rehearsing with local guest cellist Amanda Gookin today. Rehearsals are in downtown Brooklyn in the ICE (International Contemporary Ensemble) rehearsal space, which is an office block very conveniently located in the heart of the Long Play Festival venue hub in Brooklyn. We feel very fortunate to be able to rehearse there and meeting the ICE crew again brought back memories of our Sydney Festival and Berlin 2017 collaboration with ICE and Ensemble Adapter!

The best thing about touring is meeting local musicians and artists and that’s one of the reasons why it’s been awesome to collaborate with Amanda on two classic Xenakis duos for our second concert in Brooklyn on Sunday. Dhypli Zyia (which Vero and Blair are actually performing at Avant Gardens soon) is one of Xenakis’s early works (1951) and it’s almost tribal rhythms are markedly different from the sliding siren calls of Charisma (the work for clarinet and cello) which was written in 1971. It’s been super satisfying to revisit Xenakis as part of our New York debut!

Meanwhile Claire & Lamorna took a day trip to Washington Heights (in upper Manhattan) via Central Park and the Guggenheim to visit Julian Day who has been resident in NYC for almost 10 years. Julian is doing a documentary on Jon Rose and wanted to interview Claire about our experience working with Jon so it was serendipitous that we were in NYC for an in person on-camera interview. Julian became a mainstay for the rest of the festival and it was fabulous to hang out with him again!

Day 2: Lamorna

Friday was another day of rehearsals mixed in with getting to know Brooklyn a little bit better. It was great to meet and play with the incredible percussionist Clara Warnaar at ICE (our second local collaborator) on Fern, the first piece Kate Moore ever wrote for Ensemble Offspring back in 2012. It’s a beautiful piece and a good challenge for Jason and I to work on our long notes!

After a productive day of rehearsals, the fun continued with a delicious Mexican dinner in downtown Brooklyn with composer David T. Little and his partner the Aussie clarinettist, Eileen Mack. We’re super excited to be performing one of his ensemble works, Ghostlight, at our upcoming Divine Darkness how in July so it was great to catch up and chat about the work and just get to know each other. David and Eileen are coming to Sydney for the Australian premiere of his work and I find it makes a big difference to the performance of a new work when you actually personally know the composer!

After dinner, we made our way to a cool venue called Public Records where London based percussionist, Valentina Magaletti, was performing a solo set. This was drummer number 5 for the day after Claire, Clara, Matt (our Bang on a Can producer) and David (who was also a percussionist) – they’re everywhere - so there’s been quite a lot of percussion talk that I’ve had to endure! Valentina’s set combined an amazingly produced backing track which she played some very cool sounds over. It was loud and dancey and the crowds (and especially Jason) loved it!

All in all, a day packed with creativity, good vibes, tacos and drumming!

EO with David Little (for Divine Darkness press).jpeg

peter wise, eileen and david t little.jpeg

Day 3: Véronique

Another beautiful sunny spring day in Brooklyn, New York and the day of our first concert at Bang on a Can’s Long Play Festival. Always in need of a morning coffee, I began my day at Hungry Ghost, just around the corner from the venue as it serves Stumptown, one of my favourite American coffee roasters.

Then on to a morning soundcheck at the beautiful Irondale Theatre in Fort Greene Brooklyn. This is a beautifully converted old church with raked seating and an open warehouse vibe. We are performing a full program of Kate Moore’s music for concert #1 including my first performance of her epic Synaesthesia Suite for solo violin and backing track as well as the world premiere of Rose of Roses, Flowers of Flowers commissioned for Ensemble Offspring by Mark Wakeley for this special occasion (and his 70th Birthday – it will receive its Australian premiere next year to celebrate the big occasion!).

The other works on the program are Blackbird Song, Joyful Melodies and finally Fern. We are absolutely delighted that composer Kate Moore has made the trip from Amsterdam to hear this program. It means a lot to perform these works in the presence of the composer and especially one like Kate who we have such a long relationship with. Kate surprised us all with a lovely bouquet of roses that we scattered around the stage.

It’s an afternoon concert and the warm crowd loves it! Beautiful to see some familiar friendly faces and a few Aussies in the audience too! A perfect New York debut for Ensemble Offspring.

Day 4: Claire

Our final day in New York brings our final concert – this time at the open plan foyer venue BRIC Stoop which is somewhat of the festival hub for Long Play Festival. This is a free concert (the rest of the festival works on day passes) so there were lines out the door to come and hear Ensemble Offspring’s renditions of Xenakis which was heartening to see! As the Artistic Director and the one who puts all these programs together, I was a little worried that while the Moore concert yesterday was complete perfection in terms of the flow and the work choices, the concert today, on paper at least, was a little ad hoc. But as soon as we started performing at 3pm to the packed-out crowd (with a little help from introductions by myself and Jason) the warmth in the room was palpable and I knew we’d gotten it just right.

We began with Brenda Gifford’s Mungala, a work Lamorna and I have played many times at home. It was our Acknowledgement of Country and I felt it set the scene for the rest of the show perfectly. Along with many Xenakis classic solos and duos, Jason performed Felicity Wilcox’s People of this Place which also felt like an important Australian connection to this program. Véronique and Amanda Gookin played phenomenally also and I was so proud to watch everyone shine in their solos and duos.

I ended the program with Rebonds by Xenakis (B then A). In the knowledge of the sheer number of percussionists and ex-percussionists at this festival I was quite nervous to bring my interpretation of this classic work to such an audience but the feedback was unbelievably positive and I even had people walking up to me till late that night telling me how much they enjoyed it. Phew!

Audiences in New York are amazingly vocal and supportive and standing ovations are a big thing too. As a touring performer it’s so heartening to feel those warm vibes from audiences who no doubt have never heard of us before and honestly it does make one want to come back again soon to continue sharing and being inspired by the hugely vital and active music scene in New York.

What an experience attending shows, catching up with so many composers face to face (and giving them our new tote bags) as well as meeting so many performers who specialise in the same music as us (including Blackbox, Ensemble Talea, Bang on a Can and Lorelei Ensemble). We will return home feeling energised and excited for the future of new music in a global context – it certainly feels alive and well in all of our capable hands!