Taikoz Breath premiere performance 2022

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Elemental. Conscious, unconscious…beautiful, monotonous…a breeze, an utterance…the beginning, the end: breath in, breath out - our first and last act in this world.

The virtuosity and sensitivity of Synergy Percussion meets the dynamism and drama of Taikoz in Ian Cleworth's Breath -a 65-minute work for percussion, keyboard percussion, taiko of all sizes and sounds, synthesiser and voice, which will take you on a journey that explores notions of this most fundamental act of being.

Ian describes Breath as a new direction compositionally. Drawing on his extensive career in percussion as a long-term member of Synergy and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, plus his three-decade experience as a taiko player, Ian has for the first time brought his two aesthetic worlds together in a synthesis of rhythm, melody, harmony, movement, texture and sound.

Composed during the extended period of lockdown in 2021, Breath begins with gentle brush strokes on a deep bass drum, emulating the inhalation and exhalation of the breath, and extends through a series of thematically linked movements: A-Un - Rebellion - Breath & Shadows - Lion Dogs - Dew Point - Nuage - Breathless - Passing. Fittingly, Breath ends as it begins, but not without plenty of musical drama along the way!

Breath will be performed by internationally acclaimed ensembles Taikoz and Synergy Percussion.