Cat Hope
Incubator Residency
Produced by Tura New Music
“I am tired of life. I cannot wait much longer. What will happen to us? What are we guilty of? What have we done to be imprisoned? I’m just a kid, I haven’t done anything wrong. They are putting me in jail. We can’t talk with Australian people.” -13 year old child, Blaydin Detention Centre, Darwin, 12 April 2014, as quoted in ‘The Forgotten Children: National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention, 2014‘.
Speechless is developing as an experimental opera homage to persons rendered speechless through political means.
Speechless draws its primary score and thematic material from Gillian Triggs’ 2014 Human Rights Commission report entitled ‘The Forgotten Children: National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention’. Using her techniques of digital graphic notation, new score reading technologies and experimental vocal and orchestral approaches, Cat Hope is composing an abstract examination of how wordless music – vocal and instrumental – can empower text that is hidden or suppressed.
Speechless will engage a thirty-piece choir and an Orchestra formed from bass guitars, bass brass, bass drums and electronics, to channel a new and personal Australian gothic representation of the silencing of children, the silencing of dissent and the seemingly ubiquitous compassion fatigue of many Australians.
You can read Cat in conversation with Jason Sweeney and Vitals to find out more about this project.
Supporters
Tura New Music: Now in its 30th year, Perth-based Tura New Music is a multi-award winning internationally recognised organisation which reaches out beyond traditional performance and geographical barriers. Through its eclectic urban and regional programs, Tura reaches thousands of people each year, enriching lives through music and sonic art experiences.
Tura New Music and Speechless are supported by The State Government of Western Australia through the Department of Culture and the Arts, in association with Lotterywest and The Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding advisory body.
Tura New Music: Now in its 30th year, Perth-based Tura New Music is a multi-award winning internationally recognised organisation which reaches out beyond traditional performance and geographical barriers. Through its eclectic urban and regional programs, Tura reaches thousands of people each year, enriching lives through music and sonic art experiences.
Tura New Music and Speechless are supported by The State Government of Western Australia through the Department of Culture and the Arts, in association with Lotterywest and The Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding advisory body.