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TOWARDS THE SUMMERS NIGHT: A MENTORING PROJECT FOR AUSTRALIAN COMPOSERS IDENTIFYING AS WOMEN

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2020

Cat Hope ,
Nat Grant ,
Gabriella Smart  and
Tristen Parr
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Abstract

The Summers Night Project is an ongoing composer-mentoring programme established in 2018 by musicians Cat Hope and Gabriella Smart, with the support of the Perth-based new music organisation Tura New Music. The project aims to support and mentor emerging Australian female and gender minority composers to create new compositions for performance, with the aim of growing the gender diversity of composers in music programmes across Australia. Three composers were chosen from a national call for submissions, and works were performed by an ensemble consisting of members from the Decibel and Soundstream new music ensembles. Three new works were workshopped, recorded then performed on a short tour of Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne, Australia in July 2018. The project takes its name and inspiration from Australian feminist Anne Summers, author of the ground-breaking examination of women in Australia's history Damned Whores and God's Police (1975) and was inspired by her 2017 Women's Manifesto. This article examines the rationale for such a project, the processes and results of the project itself, and plans for its future.

Type
RESEARCH ARTICLES
Information
Tempo , Volume 74 , Issue 292 , April 2020 , pp. 49 - 55
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2020

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Footnotes

The Summers Night team would like to acknowledge that the work undertaken for this project has taken place on the lands of the Wajuk Noongar, Kaurna, and Kulin Nations people. We acknowledge these Traditional Owners and recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and culture. We pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging, as well as to the incredible ongoing contribution they have made and continue to make to music culture in Australia. We would also like to thank the teams at Tura new music, the Australian Music Centre, APRA AMCOS, the members of Decibel and Soundsteam, our venue partners and technical support teams.

References

1 Leah Blankendaal, ‘Soundstream Emerging Composers Forum – Five Composers, Five Different Experiences’, Resonate Magazine, www.australianmusiccentre.com.au/article/soundstream-emerging-composers-forum-five-composers-five-different-experiences (accessed 10 September 2019).

2 Strong, Catherine and Cannizzo, Fabian, Australian Women Screen Composers: Career Barriers and Pathways (Melbourne: RMIT, 2017)Google Scholar.

3 Strong and Cannizzo, Australian Women Screen Composers, p. 58. See also ‘APRA AMCOS leads music industry toward gender parity, aims to double new female members within three years’, APRA AMCOS, http://apraamcos.com.au/news/2017/july/apra-amcos-leads-music-industry-toward-gender-parity-aims-to-double-new-female-members-within-three-years/ (accessed 11 September 2019).

4 Strong and Fbian Cannizzo, Australian Women Screen Composers. A comprehensive list of this research can be found in Cat Hope, ‘Stepping Aside: Gender Equality and Privilege in Recent Australian Music Culture’, Keynote speech at the Women in Creative Arts conference, Canberra 2017, available at www.australianmusiccentre.com.au/article/stepping-aside-gender-equality-and-privilege-in-recent-australian-music-culture (accessed 10 September 2019). See also Ange McCormack, ‘By the Numbers 2018: The Gender Gap in the Australian Music Industry’, www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/by-the-numbers-2018/9524084 (accessed 10 September 2019).

5 Bennett, Dawn, Macarthur, Sally, Hope, Cat, Goh, Talisha, and Hennekam, Sophie, ‘Creating a Career as a Woman Composer: Implications for Music in Higher Education’, British Journal of Music Education 35/3 (2018), pp. 237–53CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

6 APRA AMCOS Australia, ‘Gender Diversity’, http://apraamcos.com.au/about-us/gender-diversity/ (accessed 10 September 2019).

7 Macarthur, Sally, Bennett, Dawn, Goh, Talisha, Hennekam, Sophie, and Hope, Cat, ‘The Rise and Fall, and the Rise (Again) of Feminist Research in Music: “What Goes Around Comes Around”’, Musicology Australia 39/2 (2017), pp. 73–95CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

8 Bennett, Dawn, Hennekam, Sophie, Macarthur, Sally, Hope, Cat, and Goh, Talisha, ‘Hiding Gender: How Female Composers Manage Gender Identity’, Journal of Vocational Behavior 113 (2019), 20–32CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

9 Hennekam, Sophie, Bennett, Dawn, Macarthur, Sally, Hope, Cat, and Goh, Talisha, ‘An International Perspective on Managing a Career as a Woman Composer’, International Journal of Arts Management 21/3 (2019) pp. 4–13Google Scholar.

10 Dawn Bennett, et al., ‘Creating a Career as a Woman Composer’, 252.

11 Decibel New Music, www.decibelnewmusic.com/ (accessed 10 September 2019).

12 Soundstream Collective, ‘About Soundstream Collective’, http://soundstream.org.au/about/soundstream-collective/ (accessed 10 September 2019).

13 The results of these tutorials are elaborated on in Olivia Davies’ piece about the Summers Night Project, ‘Imposter Syndrome: Finding a Cure’, Resonate Magazine, www.australianmusiccentre.com.au/article/impostor-syndrome-finding-a-cure (accessed 10 September 2019).

14 Anne Summers, The Women's Manifesto: A Blueprint for How to Get Equality for Women in Australia, 2017, http://legacy.annesummers.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Womens-Manifesto.pdf (accessed 10 September 2019).

15 New Waves – ABC Classic, The Summers Night Project, www.abc.net.au/classic/programs/new-waves/the-summers-night-project/10568188 (accessed 10 September 2019).

16 Cat Hope, Shadow of Mill. Music Composition, 2016–2018, DOI: 10.26180/5d78fcbed80e1.

17 The programme for the concert, with details on each of the works performed, can be found at www.decibelnewmusic.com/uploads/1/7/7/0/17709781/the_summers_night_project_program_notes_edit.pdf (accessed 10 September 2019).

18 Monash University, The Gender Diversity in Music Making Conference www.monash.edu/muma/events/2018/The-Gender-Diversity-in-Music-Making-Conference (accessed 10 September 2019).

19 TURA New Music, The Summers Night Project Call Out, www.tura.com.au/tura-program/the-summers-night-project/summers-night-project-call-out/ (accessed 10 September 2019).

20 University of Western Australia, Gender Diversity in Music and Art, www.uwa.edu.au/able/schools/conservatorium-of-music/conservatorium-of-music-events/gender-diversity-conference (accessed 11 September 2019).

21 ABC Classic, Metropolis: Decibel New Music Ensemble, www.abc.net.au/classic/programs/evenings/11427940 (accessed 10 September 2019).