Following the success of the two residencies offered in its inaugural year, UKARIA has extended its partnership with the Australia Council to support three new residencies. Composers Thomas Meadowcroft, Hilary Kleinig and Andrew Schultz will each receive $10,000 to support the creation of new work, and will have exclusive access to UKARIA’s state-of-the-art facilities in Adelaide Hills.

Thomas Meadowcroft will work with Speak Percussion (pictured) in Assembly Operation. Image © Bryony Jackson

Composer Thomas Meadowcroft’s proposed work will explore a combination of instruments and ensembles from traditional Balinese, Javanese and Malaysian gamelan to instruments associated with country and western music – such as pedal/lap steel guitars, keyboards and drum kits – alongside tape machines, home organs and transistor radios. For this project, which will result in a world premiere in 2020, Meadowcroft will be working with an international team featuring Speak Percussion, from Australia, Senyawa from Indonesia, Bani Haykai from Singapore and Kamrui Hussin from Malaysia.

Hilary Kleinig’s major project, The Lost Art of Listening, will use technology to investigate how people experience and value music in an age of 24-hour connectedness and distraction. The proposed work is for prepared piano, to be played by Queensland’s Erik...