Joseph Tabua

Art Gallery of New South Wales
22 Sep – 8 Oct 2023

Volume | Art Gallery of New South Wales presents an exciting program of live music, dance and art.

Volume’s free-to-enter concert series showcases the very best in emerging Australian talent. The program will feature a diverse range of music genres and styles, including classical, jazz, world fusion and contemporary.
For Volume, Joseph Tabua will perform as part of the Strings program on September 23. The concert commences at 2:30pm and will include five original works by Joseph Tabua. Also featured will be a live performance by Sampa The Great at 7pm.

https://volume.sydney/artists/joseph-tabua/

Juxta Jam premieres on Saturday 9 April, as part of NEXUS: Youth Arts Festival at Bankstown Arts Centre. NEXUS is an eclectic mix of installations, exhibitions, music, and workshops. NEXUS runs from 3pm to 8pm, with Juxta Jam featuring in the theatre from 5pm to 8pm. You can find out more about NEXUS here: cb.city/nexus

Juxta Jam is  club-style installation where V/Djs mix sound and images to create new narratives and emotional states. Juxta Jam features 45 video and sound works created by 44 artists. These works will be mixed live by our special guest V/DJs – Marlene Cummins and Isaiah Kennedy.

Juxta Jam showcases 45 original sound and video works that respond to the theme of FIRE and WATER.

Juxta FIRE artists are (in no particular order): Lucy Simpson, Arun Neelakandan, Chrysoulla Markoulli, Emma Harlock, Feras Shaheen, Isabella Rahme, Gabriela Green Olea, Nick Atkins, Joseph Tabua, Tala Issaoul, Kim Pham, Rhiannon Hopley, Mohammad Awad, Satiu Studios, Tamara Lee Bailey, Bruce Koussaba, Vincent Tay, and Liliana Occhiuto.

Juxta WATER artists are (in no particular order): Mohammad Awad, Joseph Brown, Grace Chow, Frank Dwyer, Fadle El-Harris, Bernadette Fam, Scarlett Gibson-Williams, Gabriela Green, Hal Goulding, Me-Lee Hay, Kittu Hoyne, Peter Kennard, Bedelia Lowrencev, Chrysoulla Markoulli, Laura McInnes, Pru Montin, Arun Neelakandan, Sheila Ngoc Pham, Sean O’Keeffe, Naomi Oliver, Audrey Ormella, Peggy Polias, Kailesh Reitmans, Jayden Selvakumaraswamy, My Le Thi and Kevin Tran.

Juxta Jam is the live version of Juxta, a digital project that allows audiences to overlay videos on soundtracks (and vice versa) to discover for themselves how art reflects and stimulates emotions. Play Juxta online at: https://juxta.studio/

Juxta is co-produced by Felix Cross and Katrina Douglas. Our Tech Guru is Fadle El-Harris, and WSU Intern is Nrupa Sangdhore is documenting the event.

Juxta Jam is proudly supported by Bankstown Arts Centre, Create NSW, The House That Dan Built and Canterbury Bankstown Council.

I am absolutely thrilled to share that I have been commissioned to write a new piece of music for NEXUS as part of Sydney Festival 2022. The world premier will take place at Bankstown Arts Centre.

Waterways is a comprovisation originally for gayageum and electric guitar. The term ‘comprovisation’ is used here to reflect unity of music, performance and a place where two parts become influential. Though, as the collaboration ventured out it dared to become something quite majestic. My sentiments about “comprovisation” put forward that cross-cultural collaboration is immensely rewarding. So, it is through this collaboration between Seoul National University and Western Sydney University that encourages discourse around notions of composition and performance. As a cross-cultural composer it is necessary to connect with the other. The other is everything to me, for I am the outsider. In fact, we have all been outsiders at some point in our lives. But, through cross-cultural collaboration we can work selflessly for the good of humanity, or at least create music to motivate the anxious amongst us.

Soundcloud link to Waterways
https://soundcloud.com/atomic-electric-275214430/waterways

In late October 2020 I was asked to write a piece for Gayageum (Korean plucked zither instrument) and Electric Guitar. The Gayageum was performed by Hayoung Yun of Seoul National University. The collaboration was realised over a number of weeks via email and a live feed to one recording session that took place in ”The Live Room” at Western Sydney University. ‘Waterways’ first premiered at Western Sydney University on November 10th and ‘Waterways’ was featured at Seoul National University’s Korean Music Camp Seminar in 2021. Below is a video of the conference as well as some other incredible pieces.

Seminar – New Creativity: Korea and Australia Music Collaboration Hyelim Kim (Taegum, Ph.D.) This session will explore the creative dialogue between Korean traditional musicians at Seoul National University and composers at Western Sydney University. The process of music making including composition, performance as well as the final product of recording the collaborated pieces will be explained by the students and faculty who participated in this project. The discussions will tackle the intercultural communication used for musical exchanges between Korea and Australia. Chair/ prof. Anna Yates-lu Panels/ Prof. Ji-young Yi, Dr. Bruce Crossman, Dr. Hyelim Kim Student Collaborations/ Jinju Yang, Robert Moss, Eon-hwa Lee, Joseph Tabua, Hayoung Yun
— 제작/ 서울대학교 국악과 (과장 김경아) Presented by SNU KOREAN MUSIC (Prof. Kim Kyeong Ah) 스탭/ 박진형, 김지원, 이은비 Staff/ Park Jinhyoung, Kim jiwon, Lee EunBee, 기술/ 김종록 Engineer/ Kim Jong-rock 디자인/ 성주혜 Design/ Sung Joohye 도움주신 분/ 김혜림 선생님 Special thanks to Hyelim Kim @서울대학교 관악캠퍼스 Seoul National University SNU KOREAN MUSIC CAMP 2021

During the Covid-19 pandemic I got to be on one of my favourite podcasts. I may have said too much to Matt Wakeling but it was smashing!

This was the first time I ever played the Guzheng live on stage. I had two days to rehearse so I focused, intently, and made sure I got what I needed. I began to explore the Guzheng’s limitations, its features and eventually solved the puzzle. The result is this moderately sufficient improvisation.

On Wednesday 27th November my colleague Dr Holly Harrison and I performed two new pieces at the annual Composers and Performers Out West concert series. It was a delightful evening of diverse music and performances.

So thrilled to announce that I will be presenting a lecture at the Altamira Hong Kong International Guitar Symposium in July 2019. Even more exciting is the theme of this years conference, this being, improvisation. Colleagues who know me well, understand how dear improvisation is to me. Both on a spiritual level and in my academic life. The wonderful thing about improvisation is the fleeting quality it presents. You can hold on to one single chord, one idea. Then you can play with the inversions, omit chord tones and run the gamut between diatonic and chromatic harmony. There’s so much that can be done, because the standard 32-64 measures doesn’t necessarily apply here. Sometimes, this is a mirror of life, where one takes risks, falls down and gets back up again. However, for me, as I get older I am becoming a lot more empathetic towards the audience. Previously, I had no desire to please the general public. Although, sincerely, I was only being true to my art and I achieved this by being dead serious. Both on stage and in the practice room. Some are fortunate to have had musical training and others are usually self taught. I began my musical journey as a self taught musician, but I have become even more stronger since studying composition at university. If we train ourselves (musically), even feed ourselves with musical concepts, this will give us the patience to investigate improvisation and pedagogies. Therefore enabling us the ability to communicate our intentions as well as creating a relevant dialogue with the audience and inner voice. Our musical voice.

So thrilled to announce that I’m a featured composer on this month’s Making Waves playlist.

Human Waves (October 2018)

Thank you so much to the the wonderful team at Making Waves New Music for your support. If it wasn’t for you my experiments would be left behind.

https://makingwavesnewmusic.com/composers/joseph-tabua/