Joséphine Markovits, in memoriam
This is how I remember her: laughing freely and delighting in the vibrant deep-orange landscape the colour of her hair. In 2008 I travelled together with ...
once around the room (work-in-progress), *& now complete
15 June 2020 I’m quite deep into composing an orchestral work now and it’s like this whole other reality that’s going on continuously and simultaneously with everything else at uni and more generally. An odd feeling because that other ‘room’ is held in focus even whilst having conversations, doing emails, teaching etc, so the other ...
Questions for the new year 2020
I quit Facebook [update: for awhile…] and consequently had muuuch more time to read for pleasure – books given as Christmas presents where you can buzz through the pages in a couple of days: Terry Pratchet/Neil Gaiman’s classic Good Omens & Gaiman’s How the Marquis got his Coat Back and a rather psychedelic book called Path Notes of an ...
Current projects – Sappho & Squid
Excerpt from Sappho #94 from Anne Carson’s ‘If Not, Winter. Fragments of Sappho’, New York, Vintage Books, 2002. I’m currently working on several projects that celebrate ideas of spirituality bound together with feminine energy and erotics. There’s a 3-part work for orchestra called Annunciation Triptych and the somewhat provocatively titled Sex Magic, a big work for Claire Chase ...
CD release | radio portrait, March 2019
New CD – Speak, be Silent 15 March 2019: new CD release from the Riot Ensemble on HCR/NMC with works by Chaya Czernowin, Rebecca Saunders, Anna Thorvaldsdóttir, Mirela Ivičević and myself. Violin soloist Sarah Saviet and the Riot Ensemble conducted by Aaron Holloway-Nahum give a very passionate account of Speak, Be Silent. CD launch concert: ...
The deep time of language
Back in 2005, I wrote a work called ‘Mother Tongue’ for soprano Piia Komsi & ensemble commissioned by the Festival d’Automne à Paris, Ensemble Intercontemporain and ELISION. The work sets poems by Patricia Sykes about the ecology of languages and knowledge, and the fragility of particular knowings in the face of language loss. There is ...
Latest news – April-June 2018
I’ve had an exciting few months with the world and national premieres of a number of large works and the privilege of working with extraordinary musicians and inspiring human beings. The most recent work to come to fruition was Atlas of the Sky (2018), a 75-minute staged work premiered 3 days ago at the Melbourne Recital Centre, ...
Extinction Events & Dawn Chorus
[sketches fr. Extinction Events & Dawn Chorus] Liza Lim: Extinction Events and Dawn Chorus (2017/18) Work commissioned for Klangforum Wien by Wittenertage für Neue Kammermusik & with the support of the APRA AMCOS Art Music Fund (Australia).Premiere: 29 April 2018, Witten & 7 May 2018, Vienna for flute/piccolo, oboe, clarinet/bass clarinet, bassoon/contrabassoon, trumpet, horn, tenor-bass trombone, piano, ...
Miscellany: recent music & talks
I gave a keynote talk for a conference at Sydney Conservatorium of Music in September called ‘How to make a woodblock sing (using composition to experiment with thought)’. Eugene Ughetti performed the said woodblock piece, a 15 minute solo called ‘An Elemental Thing’ (2017) and the video is set to start at that point in ...
On gender disparity, structural luck and other things people have been saying for a very long time
I had the privilege of being invited by Dr Natalie Williams to give a keynote at the Women in the Creative Arts conference held at ANU’s School of Music during 10-12 August 2017. My fellow keynote speaker was Prof. Cat Hope, Head of Music at Monash University whose talk, ‘Stepping Aside: Gender equality and privilege ...
Time, possession & ventriloquism in my operas
I recently participated in a very stimulating workshop on opera, ‘Sound & Story’, convened by the composer Hans Thomalla and held at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, 28-29 June 2017. Here’s my talk text (long read – who knew that the scroll format would come back into vogue after all these centuries…) The Future-present-past voice: possession ...
The Spinning World
2016 Tree of Codes How Forests Think An ocean beyond earth the turning dance of the bee ~ Ronda – The Spinning World ~ ** ** **** just finished: the last piece for the year, Ronda – The Spinning World, premieres on 25 February 2017 in Frankfurt, performed by Ensemble Modern with a big trumpet part ...
My exhale is your inhale
It’s been a lovely harvest September with two premieres of my music. What a privilege to hear and see Séverine Ballon weave her magic in An ocean beyond earth and to work with the equally magical Wu Wei and ELISION on How Forests think. I’m hearing a music which I think has a different approach to form than in ...
Travels in hyper-reality
I have criss-crossed multiple time zones in the last 6 weeks: Melbourne-Shanghai-Melbourne-Beijing-Melbourne-Salvador da Bahia-Melbourne – the constant bead in this roaming necklace is home in Australia, with each contrasting pendant ever more distant, strange and colourful. It’s a privilege to be invited to travel for one’s work and if there’s one thing I’ve learnt as ...
Tree of Codes trailer, images, press
[photos (c) Paul Leclaire] Also see previous post for detailed information about the opera, libretto etc. * Articles Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim, Vanishing Languages, Reincarnated as Music The New York Times, March 30, 2016. [+ related teaching & learning resource + radio broadcast] Raoul Mörchen, Wie bleibt von der Strasse der Krokodile, Kölnischer Rundschau, 6.04.16 [pdf scan] Programme book_Tree-of-Codes_2016 ...
Tree of Codes, ‘cut-outs in time’ an opera
Tree of Codes (2013-15), ‘cut-outs in time’, an opera Premiere season: 9, 12, 14, 18, 20 April, 2016, Staatenhaus, Cologne Opera Liza Lim – Tree of Codes information and libretto (read-only downloadable doc) new info: Tree of Codes – programme notes Field recordings as ‘cut-outs of the real’ in Tree of Codes Text about the opera: Michael ...
my desk, several worlds
My desk today I’m sitting at a fulcrum between several large projects – I finally printed out the compiled score of my opera, Tree of Codes (2013-15) which will be premiered on 9th April 2016 at the Staatenhaus Cologne, performed by MusikFabrik & Numero23.Prod with singers from Oper Koeln conducted by Clement Power, directed by Massimo ...
revisiting ‘Moon Spirit Feasting’
Yuè Ling Jié (Moon Spirit Feasting), a Chinese ritual street opera This trailer is from the 2000 Adelaide Festival premiere when the opera was performed outdoors on a barge floating on the Torrens River. One of my many collaborations with, and fabulous productions of, the ELISION Ensemble. Music by Liza Lim Libretto by Beth Yahp ...
Winding bodies: 3 knots shortlisted for 2015 BASCA Award
Winding Bodies: 3 knots has been shortlisted in the large chamber music category of this year’s BASCA awards. Here’s what I wrote about the piece: A knot is the magical image of time turned back on itself – think of a knot and you start thinking of the actions and process of tying it! The ...
Liza Lim 