Featured artists
Louise Devenish, Coordinator of Percussion
Dr Louise Devenish is a percussionist whose creative practice blends performance, collaboration and artistic research. As a soloist and with ensembles including acclaimed electroacoustic sextet Decibel, The Sound Collectors Lab and Intercurrent, she performs internationally, including appearances at MONA FOMA, Nagoya and Shanghai World Expos, Ojai Music Festival, Tage für Neue Musik, Darmstädter Ferienkurse, Perth Festival, and Tongyeong International Music Festival. Louise has commissioned over 50 works, and her performances are acknowledged for their ‘interpretive flair and technical brilliance’. She has collaborated on internationally distributed recordings with her ensembles and others, released on Hat[now]art, Listen/Hear, Immediata, Innova and room40, as well as her debut solo album music for percussion and electronics.Louise is Senior Research Fellow and Coordinator of Percussion at the Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music and Performance, where she is undertaking a prestigious Australian Research Council DECRA. She is a Churchill Fellow, and her academic writing focuses on Australian music, gender and music, notation and performance practices in new music, including her book Global Percussion Innovations: An Australian Perspective. www.louisedevenish.com.au.
Matt Stonehouse
Matt Stonehouse is a musician and instrument maker based in St Andrews, Victoria. Matt specialises in Middle Eastern and Turkish styles of percussion and has performed/ recorded with a wide range of artists including Ross Daly and Kelly Thoma (Crete/Greece), Alwan, Latitude 37, The Reefers, and Van Diemen's Band. In 2016 Matt released ‘Rosie’s point of view’, a vinyl release of instrumental music featuring his mandocello and mandolin playing. He has made various music study trips to Turkey, Iran, Egypt, Greece and Syria. In addition to performing and teaching, Matt handcrafts frame drums of the Middle East and surrounding regions. These drums are crafted using traditional steam-bending methods, hand-hammered zills and using Australian tone woods. Matt was an artist-in-residence at Dunmoochin artist colony and Montsalvat before relocating to his current studio in St Andrews where he runs frame drum making programs.
Speak Percussion
Speak Percussion takes percussive art to its physical and conceptual extremes, shaping the sounds of 21st century Australian percussion music through the creation and presentation of ambitious arts projects. Internationally recognised as a leader in the fields of experimental and contemporary classical music, Speak redefines the potential of percussion. From solo concerts to massed sound events, interdisciplinary projects to sound installations, participatory work to album releases, Speak’s “breathtakingly impressive” (The West Australian) work is presented locally and globally in concert halls, theatres, galleries and site-specific locations.
Maria Moles
Maria Moles is a drummer, composer and producer based in Narrm/Melbourne. Her solo percussion performances draw on ideas from the Kulintang music of the Philippines and contemporary electronic production to weave hypnotic webs from layers of unmetered pulse that slowly undergo subtle textural transformations. In collaborative contexts ranging from free improvisation, jazz and contemporary composition to experimental pop, Maria contributes an acute sense of touch, placement and timbre, and a powerful rhythmic drive.
Brae Grimes and Yamaha
Yamaha's concert percussion instruments embody precision and innovation, delivering a harmonious blend of expert artistry and cutting-edge technology. Renowned for their exceptional tone and durability, Yamaha’s percussion is at home on the stage, in the classroom, and in the community. Crafted with meticulous attention to detail, these instruments empower musicians to unleash their artistic expression with clarity and depth. Whether in orchestral settings or contemporary ensembles, Yamaha's concert percussion instruments consistently elevate musical performances to new heights, making them the preferred choice for all musicians.
Hadyn Buxton
Hadyn Buxton, an ARIA and APRA award-winning producer and sound engineer, is a renowned figure in Australia’s music industry, with over 25 years of experience crafting over 100 albums. Specialising in music for alternative genres to classical and jazz, Hadyn is celebrated for his exceptional work with innovative artists who explore new territories in music. At Monash University, he brings his extensive experience to aspiring composers and audio professionals, teaching a broad spectrum of skills from traditional recording techniques to advanced digital and analog technologies. His expertise extends to immersive and surround audio engineering in both studio and live settings. As a music producer, Hadyn’s collaborations with a diverse array of artists, both in Australia and internationally, showcase his blend of technical proficiency and creative intuition.
Monash Percussion Ensemble
Monash Percussion’s projects champion the music of our time and place via the presentation of Australian percussion repertoire alongside collaborative projects and significant works of the international percussion canon. Students develop professional skills in interpretation of notated repertoire, improvisation, arranging and recording, and regularly engage with a host of musical luminaries such as Sammy J, Eric Whitacre, Kuniko Kato, Thomas Meadowcroft, Claire Edwardes, Aiyun Huang, and Speak Percussion in performances, workshops and special events. Monash Percussion ensemble was founded in 2021 by Dr Louise Devenish, and features advanced undergraduate percussion students from Monash University. This concert program will include works by Ivan Treviño, Julia Wolfe, Jude Traxler, Cameron Sinclair and more.