APRA AMCOS > News > 2015 > July > APRAP – ARTOLOGY

Artology at the Sydney Opera House

Monday, 06 Jul 2015

Fanfare is an Artology program run in partnership with the Sydney Opera House, the Australian Youth Orchestra and Australian Theatre for Young People. Simply speaking, Fanfare’s goal is to encourage creativity in young people. It’s a competition to replace the ‘ding dong’ ‘cue (time-to-take-your-seats) bell’ at Sydney Opera House with short and original fanfares crafted by these talented young people.

Since March this year the exhilarating sounds of the 30-second fanfares usher patrons to their seats when attending any event at the Sydney Opera House – with a different fanfare played every six weeks.

Now in it’s second year, the 2015 competition’s next round of eight are currently undergoing a series of workshops with renowned Australian composer Nicholas Vines, the Australian Youth Orchestra and leading conductor Daniel Carter to refine their compositions.

These young composers whose fanfare will ring out in foyers across the Sydney Opera House from February next year are:

Hamish Ander (Age 19), Parkville VIC
Sam Weller (Age 17), Dulwich Hill NSW
Elise Bergman (Age 13), Hampton VIC
Glenn Bussey (Age 19), Point Cook VIC
Jordan Halaseh (Age 17), East Keilor VIC
Cordelia Olivia To (Age 20), Canberra ACT
Alexander Voltz (Age 16), Everton Park QLD
Alexander Lau (Age 14), Castlecrag NSW
Year 7 student from Melbourne, Elise Bergman, said, “It has been fun for me to put together some things I have learnt in my music studies … when I think of the Sydney Opera House, I always think of glimmering white sails and blue skies. I tried to capture that image in my fanfare with some of my favourite instruments.”

With her Fanfare composition ‘Sails of Sydney Harbour’ she wanted the audience “to listen for more… (and) create (an) image of sailboats moving in formation when returning to the marina,” she said.

Composer and Fanfare mentor Nicholas Vines said, “The first group of wonderful Fanfare winners got enormous joy from participating in the creative process, hearing their vision come to life and bonding with other like-minded young people. I’m sure our new participants will have at least as much fun.”

“The competition is less about finding young people who already have sophisticated technical accomplishments and abilities and more about finding promise,” Vines explains.

“This is particularly relevant for the younger applicants – to find someone with strong ideas who’d get the most out of this learning experience, take that gift and do something with it.”

Artology Managing Director, Anna Cerneaz says, “Creativity is our most valuable human resource. Creative thinking is under-valued; fostering creativity in all people, especially young people and is essential to enrich their lives as well as society at large.”