Throughout this long and vivacious evening, one thought preoccupied me: what is the collective noun for percussionists?  Read on.

More a jamboree than an actual concert, this performance marked the opening of Boom!, a week-long International Festival of Percussion, which now proceeds in the Seymour Centre and its courtyards. It brought together many of the leading percussionists in Sydney; about 20 musicians and their instruments crowded the Sydney Town Hall in a program that celebrated successive generations of Synergy, Taikoz and their offshoots.

The opening concert of the Boom! International Festival of Percussion, 2022. Photo supplied

Taking their name from the Greek word synergos, meaning ‘working together’, a band of (then) young musicians from the Sydney Symphony Orchestra got together in 1974 to perform works for percussion ensemble. Doubtless inspired by Michael Askill’s experiences of working in Europe with the celebrated sextet, Les Percussions de Strasbourg, this extraordinary group, Synergy, has had a remarkable impact on the evolution of a vibrant new music scene in Sydney over nearly five decades.

Askill was its Artistic Director and benign guiding spirit for the first 35 years of the ensemble’s life, followed by Timothy Constable...