LIMELIGHT Fish, Chips & Warm Beer (Ensemble Q) A celebration of music both Great and British, Fish, Chips & Warm Beer was brilliantly played and passionately delivered. Concert Hall, QPAC, Brisbane Reviewed on 16 July, 2023 by Suzannah Conway on 17 July, 2023 Read full review here
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We are so excited to be partnering with the Indigenous arts centre Ikunjti Artists for a range of stagewear for Ensemble Q.
Ikuntji Artists is a member-based, not-for-profit, Aboriginal art centre. It is situated in the community of Haasts Bluff and has a board of five Indigenous directors who live and work locally. Ikuntji Artists was first established in 1992 under the influence of the then community president, the late Esther Jugadai. The art centre was initially set up as a women’s centre providing catering for old people and children. After beginning in T-shirt prints, the artists began producing acrylic paintings on linen and hand-made paper, quickly gaining the attention of the art world. The focus changed from a women’s centre to an art centre in 2005. Drawing their inspiration from their personal country and dreaming, the artists today work in painting, printmaking, textiles, jewellery, and photography. The Ikuntji Artists art centre is the cultural hub of the community, maintaining, reinforcing and reinvigorating cultural practices through art-making. Over the last 4 years Ikuntji Artists has been experimenting with textiles designs, reimagining the established Dreaming stories into fabric designs. These fabrics have been rapidly growing and receiving national and international recognition. Working closely with designers and makers from around Australia, Ikuntji Artists has been combining these fabrics with hand-made one-off high-end fashion garments. The growing success of these fabrics and garments can be seen through the recognition by the National Indigenous Fashion Awards, First Nations Fashion and Design, London Pacific Fashion Week and numerous celebrity endorsements. The national and international success of these textiles and garments is most recently celebrated with our acceptance into the New York Fashion Week 2023. We are incredibly grateful to one of our most generous sponsors, Di Haskell, for funding the majority of the purchase of our handpicked selection of beautiful hand printed silks. Our own Trish Dean is a dressmaker when she's not playing the cello or running Ensemble Q (yes, she is one of the lucky few to have been blessed with 48 hours in every day, haha). Not afraid of a challenge, Trish is currently in the process of making two outfits each for all the women in Ensemble Q, along with some ties, pocket squares and maybe a waistcoat for the gents. The first batch were premiered at Septet, here are the photos! they were, naturally, performing at their usual extraordinarily high level. This was also their debut performance as the new Company in Residence at QPAC, following a similar residency at the nearby Queensland Conservatorium, and it was a showcase of just why they continue to impress. We had a fantastic time in our first concert as Company in Residence at QPAC on Sunday 11th September. Our new outfits made with Ikunjti Artists fabric were a hit, as was the Beethoven and Paul Dean's new Septet. Read the full Limelight review here
Ensemble Q gives a thoughtful examination of early 20th-century chamber rarities. I have to take a moment here to mention just how refreshing it was to hear clarinettist and Ensemble Q co-founder Paul Dean’s comment at the start of this concert: “we try and play music that no-one ever plays”. As this concert showed, this left-of-centre approach really does pay off, for both performers and audience. " Fantasias (Ensemble Q) (limelightmagazine.com.au) A lovely review from Limelight for our first series concert, Fantasias! Ensemble Q’s extraordinary Fantasias soothed the soul, making a mockery of musical timelines by mixing styles and periods into a meditative, melodious whirl. 2022 is a new year full of excitement and activity for Ensemble Q, so we have started this blog and welcome your comments and feedback.
So to kick it all off, let's get the year launched! Tickets are currently on sale for our Conservatorium Theatre Series and City Workshop concerts, and our QPAC series goes on sale on January 19. Check out the season here |
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July 2023
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