LUMEN MACHINE
Launching our 30th birthday season, Lumen Machine will take you to the bleeding edge of musical technology. In a thrilling collaboration with London-based ‘cyborg pianist’ Zubin Kanga, four new chamber concertos have been commissioned for world premiere this April in Sydney and Newcastle. This explosive concert combines Ensemble Offspring’s forces with Zubin as soloist performing on microtonal keyboard, motion-sensor ring, light-control sensors and an old-school synthesiser. Experience a virtuosic dance with the future, a joyous and exhilarating journey into sound worlds of tomorrow!
DETAILS
Saturday 12 April 7:30pm, The Neilson ACO On The PierPre Concert Talk 6:45pmSunday 13 APRIL 3:30pm, Newcastle Conservatorium of Music
PROGRAM
BRIGITTA MUNTENDORF Weight and Load* (2025)
ZUBIN KANGA From the Machine* (2025)
AMANDA COLE Dream Garden* (2025)
ANNA MEREDITH Bumps Per Minute – selections from 18 Studies for Dodgems (2021, arr. Jessica Wells 2023)
TRISTAN COELHO Hot Take* (2025)
* World premiere
The new works by Brigitta Muntendorf, Amanda Cole and Tristan Coelho were commissioned by Zubin Kanga as part of Cyborg Soloists, supported by a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship and Royal Holloway, University of London.
PERFORMERS
Zubin Kanga (piano, keyboard soloist)
Claire Edwardes (Artistic Director, percussion)
Lamorna Nightingale (flute)
Jason Noble (clarinet)
Véronique Serret (violin)
Blair Harris (cello)
Benjamin Carey (sound)
Pre Concert Talk Host
Vanessa Hughes
DESCRIPTION
Lumen Machine will take you to the bleeding edge of musical technology. In a thrilling collaboration with ‘cyborg pianist’ and Ensemble Offspring alumnus Zubin Kanga, four new chamber concertos four new concertos featuring Zubin will bring everything we find exciting about music – its drama, its personality, its virtuosity – into a futuristic sound world.
What’s in store? Wielding special powers through a motion-sensor ring, the protagonist in Hot Take – initially a force for good – turns ‘increasingly villainous’. Dream Garden employs the game-changing Lumatone keyboard and Amanda Cole’s own 48-note scale (Cube Tuning) in a mesmerising contemporary chaconne. Renowned German-Austrian composer Brigitta Muntendorf uses light-control sensors to transform the pianist into an alien-like soloist, a ‘monstrous techno-social hallucination’. Meanwhile, our soloist Zubin Kanga turns to the rhythmic arpeggiations of an old-school analogue synthesizer to spin a vibrant, whirling dance in From the Machine. And we’ll leave you smiling with an original arrangement of Anna Meredith’s Bumps Per Minute, an exhilarating sound experience that has been likened to ‘drinking several very strong cups of coffee in fast succession’.
Photography by Raphael Neal
“Kanga is an equally exciting pianist, effortlessly virtuosic and in complete command of this (quite literally) electrifying modern repertoire”
“A fearless pianist, composer and technologist, Zubin Kanga is a true advocate for the new and unknown.”
“Discovering new music is made an accessible and enjoyably open-minded experience in Ensemble Offspring’s capable hands”
“For Kanga, electronics are clearly not an addition, but a fundamental part of working with his instrument, and the physicality of his performance a keystone rather than an afterthought.”
“Immersive: tick. Interactive: tick. Innovative: tick. Collaborative: tick. Fortunately, it never takes itself too seriously”
“Discovering new music is made an accessible and enjoyably open-minded experience in Ensemble Offspring’s capable hands.”
DOWNLOAD THE PROGRAM
SUPPORTED BY
Accessibility Information
Newcastle Conservatorium of Music, Harold Lobb Concert Hall
The entire venue is wheelchair accessible with limited number of wheelchair spaces. The Harold Lobb Concert Hall can be accessed via a ramp to the left once you enter the foyer. If you have accessibility requirements, please reach out to the friendly Ensemble Offspring team by emailing admin@ensembleoffspring.com.
