Waves
Transcendental Improvisations
Waves is a rare concert experience featuring master improvisers from diverse cultures and traditions exploring improvised sound-making through traditional and contemporary forms. The program will morph between solos, duos and larger group improvisations culminating in a transcendental cascade of sound that defies categorisation.
The concert will showcase the amazing sound artistry of Shenzo Gregorio (violin, guitar, bass), Chiho Kagawa (Armonica), Sandra Real (Latin Harp), Lachlan Hawkins (hand pan, drums), Hannah Macklin (voice) and Dr Anthony Garcia (guitars) who will work with a selection of emerging artists discovered through BEMAC’s new Improvisessions program.
Shenzo Gregorio
Award winning Composer, Improviser, Jazz, World and Classical styles musician, SG has been touring Australia and parts of the world consistently since graduating from the Queensland Conservatorium of Music in 1997. A 23 year continuous performing journey has seen him play in places like New Yorks ‘Carnegie Hall’ (with ‘FourPlay String Quartet and Author Neil Gaiman) to Circus festivals in Europe/Canada/USA or his own event creations like the 40 hour Jammin fundraising music festival.
As a Multi-instrumentalist Shenzo can adapt to many settings but one that’s wowed audiences of late is his ability to sound like a Jazz Quartet and take solo’s just like a real quartet on stage. WIth some impressive looping and instrument juggling
Chiho Kagawa
Chiho is a musician and qualified sound healer who translates the energy of the group into an improvised piece suitable for that very moment on the Crystal Armonica, crystal bowls and her voice. She has been leading sound healing and chanting internationally at festivals, wellness retreats and multicultural events. People have experienced automatic movement for healing physical, mental and spiritual blockages while pineal gland is stimulated by the Armonica and her voice. Chiho also plays ethnic instruments like Sanshin (Japanese banjo), Erhu (Chinese violin), and Lyre for meditative sound and tribal music.
The “Crystal Armonica” is a very precious and historical music instrument which was invented by Benjamin Franklin in 1761. (It is called “Glass Harmonica” in the classical music). It consists of 30 pure crystal bowls as one instrument and was extremely popular in the symphony orchestra in those days. Composers such as Beethoven and Mozart had written many music for the Armonica and Marie Antoinette also played it. German Doctor Franz Mesmer used it to relax his patients and cure some conditions, the English word ‘mesmerise” came from him using the Armonica in those days. Studies show that the Armonica’s overtones including inaudible range draws our brane wave into theta which is the deepest meditative state.
Sandra Real
Sandra Real is a professional Llanera harpist from Colombia.
The llanera Harp is a traditional instrument from the Plains of Colombia and Venezuela.
Sandra began her journey performing at festivals representing the Central University of Colombia across Latin America.
Now, she is based in Brisbane with her family introducing Cachicamo Latin Harp in which she had taken the risk of incorporating to her repertoire a variety of Latin rhythms and electric instruments to discover new music challenges and to have a great time.
Lachlan Hawkins
Lachlan Hawkins is an accomplished drummer, handpan artist and educator based in Brisbane. Since graduating from the Queensland Conservatorium in 2015, where he was awarded First Class Honours and the University Medal, Lachlan has continued a diverse and fulfilling career performing with a stellar collection of jazz, contemporary and folk artists including The Ten Tenors, James Morrison, Monique Clare, Jordan Brodie, and the QLD Pops Orchestra.
As a solo artist, Lachlan’s unique and thoughtful playing style combines the handpan and the voice, with his lyrics pressing deeper into themes of belonging, self-acceptance, perseverance and loss. Lachlan has shared his original music with audiences around Australia, in major hospitals through the monumental healing work of The Stairwell Project, and in 2019 celebrated his first handpan studio album No Enemy Within with two Highly Commended Awards at the Queensland Music Awards.
Hannah Macklin
Hannah Macklin is a vocalist, musician, composer and performer, with contemporary and classical training and a jazz degree from the Queensland Conservatorium of Music. For the past decade she has written, recorded and toured with a plethora of musicians spanning various genres and outfits, providing vocals, keys and bass duties, and straddling the crossover between street and academia. Always maintaining a keen focus on her own original creations, Hannah has used multiple aliases (including MKO Sun, Bastard Amber, Laik and Ha Na) to express her creativity. As an artist creating original work and incorporating electronic, visual, theatrical and dance elements into her live shows, Hannah has established a reputation for providing audiences with exciting and transcendent experiences.
Major performance highlights include CMJ Music Marathon in New York City (2014), Shanghai World Expo (2010), Sydney International Mardi Gras (2016) and Big Day Out (2014). Major support slots include Hiatus Kaiyote, Peaches, Ibeyi, Cody ChesnuTT and Fatima. More locally, she has continued to perform consistently at grassroots events in addition to facilitating song-writing workshops and mentoring younger singer- songwriters. Hannah has been a recipient of the Grant McLennan Fellowship and the National Live Music Awards “Best Live Voice” Award (both in 2016) and has won Queensland Music Awards for her original songs in the Electronic/Dance and Jazz Categories, in 2013 and 2010 respectively.
Dr Anthony Garcia
Dr Anthony Garcia is an acclaimed guitarist, composer and educator based in Brisbane. Born in the United States and raised and educated in South East Asia, Australia and Mexico, Dr Garcia has recorded, toured and performed extensively throughout the world collaborating with creatives across a diverse range of artistic disciplines. Dr Garcia’s exploratory philosophy of music-making and teaching has generated a highly personal creative approach that embraces both ancient and contemporary forms, world and ethnic musics and improvisational practice.
Dr Garcia’s PhD research into improvisation, conducted at University of Tasmania between 2012- 2015, has informed ongoing research into intercultural and collaborative learning, teaching artistry, interdisciplinary practice and mindfulness meditation and music. His passion for unifying the interlocking fields of musical performance, composition and education has informed ongoing pedagogical experimentation in schools, universities and the broader community and led to the establishment in 2014, in partnership with his wife Jennifer Garcia, of Sounds Across Oceans, a new music and arts organisation dedicated to exploring ‘the multidimensional capacity of music and the arts to create and share new ideas, uplift, heal, shift energies and ignite new perspectives.’
Through Sounds Across Oceans Dr Garcia has helped design and curate a diverse array of festival programs, community wellbeing initiatives and research partnerships. In 2019, with the support of BrisAsia Festival and QPAC he helped establish the pioneering intercultural art ensemble JADE New World Collective. Since its inception SAO has produced BrisAsia Festival Creative Sector Development Program for the Brisbane City Council, SunPAC Summerfest, Creative Fusions (QPAC), the Tree of Life: seniors music and movement initiative as well as workshops and concerts in Germany, Thailand, Brisbane and regional Queensland.
Support
Would you like to show your support for The Ground Beneath Us?
Tax deductible donations can be made via the festival’s Australian Cultural Fund platform. Your donation will assist with cost across a range of areas, including production, marketing & administration, and research & documentation.
In 2023, The Ground Beneath Us will:
- employ over 20 artists, 12 arts workers, an assistant producer & documentary film maker
- generate new music, musical forms & stories, multimode artworks, disseminate ancient wisdom & contemporary research
- link artists from across cultures & genres with researchers, community leaders & the public to develop & promote ideas & perspectives that will nurture our culture.
We are grateful for all contributions, small & large. 🙏
