2008 OzAsia Festival
2008 OzAsia Festival program announced
Adelaide Festival Centre is pleased to announce its program for the 2008 OzAsia Festival, which will run from 14 - 28 September. The program includes an eclectic mix of music, dance, theatre, visual art, food and free events, involving a wide variety of Australian and Asian artists and a number of Australian premieres. For the first time, in 2008 the OzAsia Festival also includes a film component: OzAsia On Screen, and Prime Minister of Australia, the Hon. Kevin Rudd MP, will deliver the keynote address at the Festival's Symposium, exploring the challenges and opportunities for closer cultural engagement with Asia in the 21st Century.
Premier and Arts Minister Mike Rann said, “I am delighted that the Prime Minister will be playing a key role in the evolving and increasingly important OzAsia Festival, which is reflecting a national move to further our engagement and links with Asia.”
As per the Festival tradition, the OzAsia Festival will open with the free Moon Lantern Festival. Elder Park will come alive with community dance and music performances and workshops, and a parade by hundreds of South Australian school children with beautiful hand-made lanterns. Guest artists from the 2008 OzAsia Festival program will also perform, and a delicious selection of Asian cuisine and moon cakes, and traditional lanterns, will be available for purchase. The festivities will commence from 4pm. Friday 14 September, Elder Park (adjacent to the Festival Centre)
One music highlight of the festival is an event by well-known local musician and Artistic Director of Soundstream Contemporary Music Ensemble, Gabriella Smart, who has fashioned an evening of new classical music that is poised between the ancient traditions of Asian and the West with Ecstatic Dancers. The concert features the music of Australian composers Peter Sculthorpe, Ann Boyd, Ross Edwards and Barry Conyngham, all of whom have been strongly influenced by Asian cultures, performed by Satsuki Odamura (koto) Gabriella Smart (piano) Geoffrey Collins and Rebecca Johnson (flutes), Vanessa Tomlinson (percussion) and Peter Handsworth (clarinet). Tuesday 23 September, Dunstan Playhouse
Sitar star Purbayan Chatterjee (seen as part of the Festival Centre’s trans:mission program during 2007) leads some of the greatest Indian music masters of their generation in the Shastriya Syndicate, which draws on the rich cultural heritage from both the North and South of the Indian subcontinent, presenting the music which has captured audiences for thousands of years in an exciting new format. Featuring Purbayan Chatterjee (sitar), Veenai Jayanthi (veena), Yogesh Shamsi (tabla), Murad Ali (sarangi), Ravichandra Kular (flute), Satish Kumar Patri (mridangam), Pramath Kiran (percussion). Wednesday 24 September, Dunstan Playhouse
Part classical and part folk music, pansori is an astounding musical theatre style of epic storytelling in song steeped in Korean tradition. Drawing on selections from the pansori classics, music ensemble Daorum (meaning “together we lift energy”) incorporates Korean traditional rhythms, contemporary jazz improvisation and electronica to create an exciting high-energy cultural exchange. Daorum features Australian jazz musicians Simon Barker, Phil Slater, Carl Dewhust, and Matt McMahon, with Korean pansori singer Bae il Tong. Simon Barker began travelling to Korea in 1997 to perform, teach and study Korean traditional music, meeting Bae il Tong on his travels and forming Daorum together. Friday 26 September, Space Theatre
For the full program (including visual arts, film, food, theatre and more), please visit the official website .
Booking for ticketed performances may be made at all BASS outlets or through BASS Dial’n’ Charge on 131 246 or online at www.ozasiafestival.com.au
