ELISION 40th Birthday Concert Series

To celebrate its 40th anniversary, ELISION presents a concert series highlighting major composers. The program includes the world premiere of elsewhen, a work by Richard Barrett from his PSYCHE cycle; the Australian premiere of Liza Lim’s oboe and harp concerto The Tailor of Time; and a new piece by First Nations Yuin composer Brenda Gifford.

With the central theme of “Ghosts,” the series explores ancestry, human-animal connection, and emotional ties shaped by love, devotion, or conflict.

Liza Lim’s The Tailor of Time, written for 30 musicians, takes its title from the poetry of Sufi mystic Rumi and explores time as a “tailor”—a shaping force. Lim’s compositional approach focuses on recurrence, repetition, and interpolation to investigate musical time. Brenda Gifford’s new work introduces graphic notation based on Indigenous symbolic mark-making. Her collaboration with ELISION features guided improvisation and the physical act of score-making, treating nature as an active presence rather than a subject. Richard Barrett’s elsewhen is a 20-minute octet reflecting on prehistoric artefacts. Its four movements are inspired by early tools and images—flint axes, handprints, figurines, and cave drawings. The piece builds around the double bass, reflecting early creative ideas. Barrett views these artistic origins as part of an ongoing process: “We renew them for each new age—and for an envisioned future.”

This concert series is made possible by the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation.

Further Information:
elision.org.au

Dates

July 16, 2026
EM Hall, Melbourne recital Centre