Sydney percussionist and leader of Ensemble Offspring Claire Edwardes is a nominee for the 2021 Limelight Australian Artist of the Year, and if you have seen her in action you will understand why.

The Ensemble’s latest outing is, unfortunately, confined to YouTube as part of their new digital series Offspring for All. Originally it was to have been performed live at Sydney’s Seymour Centre but Edwardes recorded it at her home instead when concert halls closed yet again. The light and airy room with its pot plants, bookshelf, armoire with bottles and a spectacular leaf-shaped wall ceramic make for a bright and welcoming ‘stage’ for the trio of unlikely instruments – Edwardes’ marimba, Jason Noble’s bass clarinet and guest artist Emily Granger’s beautiful concert harp.

Blue Silence Ensemble OffSpring

Blue Silence. Image courtesy of Ensemble Offspring

All the works are new – including a world premiere of a work by Gerard Brophy written for Ensemble Offspring – or newly reworked and have a fresh off the page feel. In fact, US percussionist-composer Nathan Daughtrey’s work Verve for bass clarinet and marimba is so new that this was the first time Edwardes and...