Carriageworks and Ensemble Offspring present Lone Hemispheres, a one-night-only program of seminal works by revolutionary architect, mathematician and composer Iannis Xenakis, alongside newly commissioned solo compositions by Berlin-based Australian Cathy Milliken, and Sydney composers Elizabeth Younan and Michael Smetanin. The works will be performed on Tuesday 4 December by Véronique Serret (violin), Claire Edwardes (percussion) and Zubin Kanga (piano).

Ensemble Offspring founding member Claire Edwardes said, “The music of Iannis Xenakis is unashamedly bold, and Ensemble Offspring is also unashamedly bold. To champion Xenakis, we have programmed three new works written to complement three classics by Xenakis for piano, violin and percussion. Lone Hemispheres is a celebration of a 20th-century genius and master alongside the newest of the new sound worlds – all the while featuring Ensemble Offspring core members as virtuosic soloists. Xenakis composed hard-hitting music that is ecstatic and cathartic in its power and often deeply expressive. The performers of Xenakis’s music must be almost supernatural in their skills and a live performance allows listeners to witness a seismic musical event. It is summed up most succinctly by UK music writer and critic Tom Service who describes Xenakis’s work as – ‘a musical happening of cosmic intensity’.”

Image: Who Dreamed it, Ensemble Offspring 2017 at Carriageworks.