Up the Creek

Description

“Up the creek” is Australian slang for “on great distress, lost, bewildered, wrong-headed” — an apt term for our national attitudes to water and the state of our abused river systems.

This six-part suite reflects on the devastation wreaked by two hundred years of white settlement. It also seeks to encapsulate the special qualities, the living spirit, in each of the waterways.

Dindy Vaughan

Dindy Vaughan has been involved in a practical way in many ecological issues — conservation, preservation and restoration.

Her involvement has included organising and taking part in field trips, study of scientific data and reports, attending seminars and countless public meetings, political lobbying, practical programs raising public awareness, and many hundreds of days’ weed clearing, seed collecting, regenerating and replanting.

She is also a composer.

Anne Norman

Anne Norman was originally trained in flute, taking up shakuhachi in 1986 in Kobe under Nakamura Shindo. She later studied under Tajima Tadashi in Osaka, receiving a grant from the Japanese Government in 1990 to study shakuhachi with Yamaguchi Goro at Tokyo University of the Arts.

Anne performs contemporary Australian music and collaborative fusions in ensemble with a variety of other artists.

Her duo Questing Spirit (with harpsichordist Peter Hagen) performed at the International Shakuhachi Festival in New York in 2004.

Peter Hagen

Peter Hagen majored in piano and harpsichord at Melbourne University. He furthered his studies in the Netherlands, learning from Bob Van Asperan, Jacques Ogg, and Ton Koopman.

Peter has given recitals overseas and in Australia, performing in capital cities and regional centres as well as appearing in a number of Early Music Festivals. He has performed with, and directed, numerous chamber ensembles, and toured Queensland with Netherlands Baroque Ensemble.