Our Secondary & Tertiary Programs
Composer & Education Workshops
What are Ensemble Offspring Composer & Education Workshops?
Ensemble Offspring is dedicated to educating and fostering an understanding of Australian music, introducing the innovative work of today to listeners of all ages. We believe it is vital to support musical development from school age all the way through to emerging professional artists. Our composer workshops cater for high school and tertiary students.
Recently we have been involved in MLC’s Australian Music Days, Richard Gill Presents at the City Recital Hall, Santa Sabina’s Australian Composition Seminar as well as many workshops with tertiary students at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, ANU School of Music and WAAPA/University of Western Australia. Upcoming sessions are being planned with composers at Elder Conservatory, University of Tasmania and University of Melbourne. Over the years we have developed several composer kits with the Australian Music Centre and we are also currently developing high school workshops and composer sessions for the NSW curriculum, focusing on Australian music of the past 25 years – our speciality!

Recent Education Workshops

ANU Composer Workshops (2020)
Throughout Semester 1 2020, Ensemble Offspring along with the composition department at ANU (led by Frank Millwood) reimagined a project that was to be in person as part of the CIMF. Zoom workshops ensued and compositional instructional videos were created for clarinet, flute and percussion. The 20 composers wrote for the trio who recorded at home to a click track and the results were deemed a success by all.
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MLC Australian Music Days (2020)
MLC’s annual Australian Music Days was an online event in 2020 and featured Ensemble Offspring. The composers wrote for solo instruments (flute, clarinet and percussion) and the musicians gave detailed video feedback after recording their works on video for use in the students’ portfolios. Tristan Coelho and Holly Harrison created a high quality composition kit featuring Dissemble, the new work by Nicole Murphy and Holly Harrison’s Vibe Rant. Available soon via the AMC.

NOOSA ISAM (2019)
The International Summer Academy of Music (ISAM) is a prestigious summer institution founded in 2005. Since 2010 it has been located in the Landesmusikakademie Baden-Württemberg in Germany. In 2019 it was held in Noosa (Australia) and Ensemble Offspring was in residence. The two-week academy, aimed at selected composers from across the globe included high quality workshops, seminars, lectures, rehearsals, concerts and a final competition.
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Voyage of Musical Discovery (2018)
Legendary conductor and music educator Richard Gill AO and the Australian Romantic Classical Orchestra were on a Voyage of Musical Discovery before Richards’ passing at the end of 2018. Ensemble Offspring was honoured to be part of this new series and Richard was in his element breaking down works of classical and new music on stage at the CRH. In Texture & Timbre we presented new works commissioned by Ensemble Offspring by Holly Harrison, Cassie To and Bree van Reyk.
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Young & Emerging Composers Lab (2018)
Presented by TURA New Music with WAAPA and UWA
Ensemble Offspring workshopped four selected compositions by Olivia Bettina Davies (UWA), Ryan Burge (ECU), Nate Wood (UWA) and Annika Moses (ECU) who had their new works presented in an informal showing at the Subiaco Arts Centre at the end of the three day residency.

Three & Under Workshops (2014)
As part of our Three and Under regional trio tour, Ensemble Offspring presented community workshops in Coffs Harbour and Gosford hosted by the regional conservatoriums. Featuring John Cage inspired found-sound activities and an introduction to new ways of listening, these workshops were for inquisitive ears of all ages and all experience levels.