Monash University Residency

We are just about to finish up our residency with the music students from Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music at Monash University. The residency was scheduled to start just as the Covid-19 pandemic unleashed, so with some quick thinking and wonderful assistance from the Monash University staff, we were able to adapt this residency to an online format. Being we knew it, ZOOM meetings were the way to go!

Tamara and Kaylie in conversation with the composition students, discussing Rubiks commissions, instrumental techniques and collaboration.

Kaylie and Tamara presented two lectures, discussing the ins and outs of directing an ensemble, sharing some tips on how to get the most out of study and setting a few long-term challenges for the students during their degrees.

We have been working with the performance students in the Contemporary Classical Ensemble, teaching them a favourite work from the Rubiks repertoire, ‘NO one To kNOW One’ by Andy Akiho. As we weren’t able to rehearse in a room altogether, the students gained a special insight into what it’s like to rehearse/perform with a click track. This is often a necessity in cross-collaborative work and was an interesting skill to develop with the students.

The composition students have been busy writing new works specifically for the Rubiks instrumentation. In total, 13 new works were composed and we really enjoyed helping the students in their approach to instrumentation, specific techniques, creation of click tracks and score formatting.

Rubiks then worked alongside the performance students to bring these new compositions to life through various recording sessions.

We are very proud to celebrate the students’ hard work throughout semester one in the Monash Day of Play! Join us on Friday 26 June from 12.30pm on Facebook, InstagramLive and Vimeo to hear the world premiere of these new compositions and an exciting performance of Andy Akiho’s ‘NO one To kNOW One’. You might even see a couple of Rubiks faces pop up along the way!

The full program and links to viewing platforms are available at monash.edu/arts/DayOfPlay.