Musical meetings between Australia and China
6-9 May 2010
Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University
South Bank Campus, Brisbane, Australia
The Encounters committee would like to thank all the presenters, musicians and artists who made the festival and symposium such a great success.
Held at Queensland Conservatorium in Brisbane’s South Bank Parklands, Encounters: Musical meetings between Australia and China explored the rich but relatively unknown history of intercultural encounters, confrontations and exchange between Australia and China.
The four-day festival and symposium traced nearly two centuries of these interactions through a series of exciting concerts, theatre, photography, and film events, as well as lively panel discussions, lecture-demonstrations and academic papers.
Encounters celebrated creativity on diverse levels, from local Chinese community acts to rarely experienced traditional-classical and operatic ensembles from China. Collaboration between local and international artists is a key focus in the programmed orchestral and chamber concerts.
Encounters also featured a theatrical dinner event A Night in Shanghai, transporting guests back to 1932 at the Maison Shanghai. Hosted at Rydges hotel South Bank, the night elaborately weaved music, theatre and dance throughout the dinner itself, and closed with a captivating concert of 'Shanghai Jazz' performed by the West End Composers' Collective.
Aimed at fostering ties of goodwill and cultural development with China, Encounters closed with a special highlight: the world premiere of the Harvest of Endurance, a multi-dimensional performance of music, visual art, and the spoken word.
Watch this space for updates! Over the coming weeks this site will come to host video, audio, and textual material from the festival and symposium, becoming an online resource for scholars and musicians interested in the musical and cultural connections between the two nations.
Download Encounters flyer (PDF 0.7MB)
Footage courtesy of National Film and Sound Archive