Louise Devenish

Produced for Speak Percussion's Sounds Unheard experimental music program for secondary students, this online masterclass focuses on preparing a solo recital for assessment. How to choose repertoire, what recital panels look for, practice strategies and tips on how to avoid common mistakes in programming are discussed. Although primarily aimed at secondary school students, this online masterclass contains information relevant for tertiary students planning recitals. The masterclass can be viewed online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ps_bLcrp0_4. The free Sounds Unheard program can be explored at http://soundsunheard.com/.

Over the past forty years, contemporary percussion music has taken up an increasingly prominent role in Australian classical music performance and composition.  Very limited research into this percussion activity has been undertaken, thus the current project aims to fill a gap in Australian musical history by addressing how and why this music emerged to occupy such a significant place. As will be explored, ‘contemporary percussion’ - defined here as solo or ensemble percussion music composed since 1930 - draws on influences from world music, improvisation and visual arts from a Western classical perspective.  Free of the traditions maintained by other Western instruments such as violin and piano, contemporary percussion is characterised by the exploration of all sounds, objects and textures through a process of experimentation.  Contemporary music including contemporary percussion, is described by many as ‘music of our time’.  The historical contexts that fostered the birth of an Australian percussion scene will be the focus of this presentation.  Specifically, how and why percussion activity emerged during this time, with an emphasis being placed on significant events, individuals, ensembles and educators in the field that affected change. An understanding of the genre’s origin will enable current and future generations of Australian composers and percussionists to create new work from an informed perspective.

With the emergence of contemporary percussion practices in the 1970s came the first Australian compositions for percussion ensemble. As the sonic capabilities of percussion instruments began to be explored in greater depth by both composers and performers, the Australian percussion repertoire began to grow, and it has continued at an exponential rate since this time. This presentation will examine some of the influences on composers, performers and curators in the creation of new percussion music in the last quarter of the twentieth century.

In 2015, it may seem obvious that an investigation of contemporary music in Western Australia would include discussions surrounding the numerous performers, pedagogues, ensembles and composer-performers whose practice explores various facets of contemporary percussion music. Over the past forty-five years Australian percussion practices have developed in cities around the country and now occupy a place at the forefront of Australian contemporary music. In Western Australia, contemporary percussion practices first emerged in the 1980s, led by the Nova Ensemble (1982-present), AC/PVC (1985-1987) and Tetrafide Percussion (1996-2014). This presentation investigates how contemporary percussion activity emerged in Western Australia in the 1980s, and – given that rise of the percussion ensemble as a standard chamber ensemble was arguably a major development in international contemporary music in the twentieth century - will specifically focus on the repertoire, projects, instruments and performers who contributed to the aforementioned professional ensembles.

Over the past forty years, contemporary percussion music has assumed an increasingly prominent role in Australian classical music performance and composition; however, no research has been undertaken to record how or why this prolific field of Australian music emerged in the 1970s. This paper closes a gap in Australian contemporary music history by examining the historical contexts that fostered the emergence of an Australian percussion scene in the 1960s and 1970s. An examination of significant events and individuals in the field that effected change is offered, using Australia’s first professional percussion ensemble, the Australian Percussion Ensemble, as a case study.
Available here:
http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rmus20/current

Over the past forty-five years, contemporary percussion has taken up an increasingly prominent role in Australian music performance and composition. Since it first emerged in Australia in the early 1970s, a relatively rapid period of development has seen percussion become established as a stylistically diverse and continually evolving discipline. Percussion music, once existing at the fringes of Australian contemporary music, now occupies a place at the forefront of Australian contemporary music activity. Very limited research into this percussion activity has been undertaken during this time, thus this study fills a gap in Australian musical history by exploring how and why percussion activity emerged during the 1970s. The historical contexts that encouraged the formation of professional percussion ensembles will be the focus of this thesis, with an emphasis on significant performers, percussion ensembles, educators and events in the field that affected change. Documentation of the activities of a number of professional percussion ensembles active in Australia between 1970 and 2000, including the Australian Percussion Ensemble, Synergy Percussion, Adelaide Percussions and Nova Ensemble, is supported with repertoire lists of Australian commissions for these ensembles. The thesis concludes with an examination of various influences present in Australian contemporary percussion music. It is hoped that this study will go some way towards an understanding of the genre’s origin and identity in Australia and will consequently inform the platform from which new Australian contemporary percussion work is created.
Full thesis available at:
http://research-repository.uwa.edu.au/en/publications/and-now-for-the-noise-contemporary-percussion-in-australia-19702000%28bfcc8c85-23e9-4d60-8b19-7f2027c3c4f1%29/export.html

There is growing interest in examining the gendered nature of music practices worldwide. Recent investigations of access to and equity in the music industry have included studies of gender discrimination in classical music, popular music, film music, and within the structure of colonization. This article contributes to this work by reporting the findings of a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) of research that addresses the gendered nature of jazz and improvised music practices in education settings, ensembles, and professional performance environments. Our purpose was to generate an understanding of the phenomenon of gendered jazz and improvised music practices through the following research questions: (1) what is the scope and focus of existing empirical research on gender in jazz and improvised music? (2) where has this research been undertaken, by whom, and to what purpose? (3) what methodological approaches have been employed? (4) how has gender been understood in this research...

Performance: The Sound Collectors (percussionists Louise Devenish and Leah Scholes, with guest artist Vanessa Tomlinson).<br>10 and 11 April, 2017, at Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts. <br>Commissioned by The Sound Collectors,<i> Never Tilt Your Chair </i>(2017) by Kate Neal was part of a show representative of current explorations in instrumental theatre and instrumentality. <i>Never Tilt</i> uses the history of western dining table etiquette as a point of departure for instrumentation, performance practices and compositional material, and takes its title from <i>Beeton's Book of Household Management </i>(1861). <br><br>This work was partnered with Mauricio Kagel's seminal work of instrumental theatre, <i>Dressur</i>, which received its Australian premiere in this performance, 40 years after it was composed.<br><br>

This is a live performance synchronised to the score, the world premiere of the piece performed by Decibel with Cissi Tsang (guitar) and Nicole Canham (teragato) at the State Library of Western Australia in October 2016. Decibel members in this performance are Cat Hope (bass flute), Lindsay Vickery (bass clarinet), Tristen Parr (cello) and Louise Devenish (percussion). The work was supported by the Difficult Commission project

This paper provides an outline of the collaborative approach taken in the creation of electroacoustic percussion work Kinabuhi | Kamatayon (2015) by Stuart James for performance by Louise Devenish. Written for eleven Indonesian bossed gongs and electronics, the work involved creative and systematic exploration of various percussive and electronic techniques with the primary aim of recontextualising these instruments. This paper offers an overview of the collaboration process with percussionist Louise Devenish and how these techniques were used in the work. This includes discussion of the performance practices developed and a suitable notation system for effectively executing these compositional ideas.

Over the past two decades significant changes in approaches to gender equity have taken place in the fields of contemporary music and music research. However, women in music are still disadvantaged in terms of income, inclusion and professional opportunities. In Australia a national approach to improving gender equity in music has begun to emerge as once-controversial strategies trialled by four tertiary institutions have become established practices. This article discusses successful inclusion strategies for women in music, including the commitment to gender-balanced programming across all concerts at Queensland Conservatorium of Music by 2025, the introduction of mandatory quotas in recital programmes at Monash University, mentoring programmes for women composers at Sydney Conservatorium of Music, and the development of coursework devoted to women in music at The University of Western Australia, as well as other initiatives that have emerged from them, both within and beyond the i...