The Bowerbird Collective is excited to present our first recital series at UKARIA. Our three featured solo artists include our own cellist Anthony Albrecht, percussionist Claire Edwardes and harpist Emily Granger.

These three exceptional performances are an unmissable experience at one of our Australia's most stunning concert venues.

• April 11, 2:30pm - Anthony Albrecht | Bach to the Bush - Music for Solo cello

• May 17, 2:30pm - Claire Edwardes, percussion | Dual Attractor - ABC Classic Album Launch

• June 13, 2:30pm - Emily Granger, harp | A Thing of Beauty - ABC Classic Album Launch

Don't miss these stunning performances at UKARIA Cultural Centre!

Presented by the Bowerbird Collective

**********

Claire Edwardes - Percussion Sorceress at UKARIA - Solo Recital & Album Launch
May 17th, 2:30pm | BOOK NOW

Dubbed “the sorceress of percussion,” Claire Edwardes OAM has been a defining force in Australian new music for three decades. Since 2006 she has led Ensemble Offspring as Artistic Director, commissioning more than 80 new solo works and collaborating with leading composers worldwide. She maintains a busy solo career presenting recitals and concerto performances with symphony orchestras around Australia and the world.

Recently described in Limelight as a ‘unique treasure of Australia’s musical community’ and in The Age as ‘an invigorating musical life force’, Claire has hosted Play School, been an ARIA Award finalist twice and has performed as a soloist all over the world – from Vancouver to Amsterdam, the Gold Coast to Malta, and Huddersfield to Alice Springs. Widely known for her genre-spanning solo concerts, plus commissioning and premiering hundreds of new works for marimba, vibraphone, drums and more unusual instruments such as the waterphone, she passionately advocates for gender equity and diversity in all that she undertakes.

As a true trailblazer Claire breaks down barriers between art music and audiences with her famous on-stage infectious enthusiasm for bringing new music to new audiences.

This solo recital at UKARIA celebrates Claire's new album, 'Dual Attractor', her seventh solo album.

“As a follow-up to my 2021 album Rhythms of Change, Dual Attractor brings together bespoke new solos and collaborations that feel like an arrival point in my career,” says Edwardes. “Spanning marimba, vibraphone, drums and electronics, these works are all by female composers from around the world whom I deeply admire.” - Claire Edwardes

The album reveals the expressive breadth of Edwardes’ instruments, from the shimmering textures of Missy Mazzoli’s Orizzonte and the hymn-like stillness of Caroline Shaw’s in manus tuas, to the surging energy of Kate Moore’s Joyful Melodies and the darkly playful I Promise Not to Poison You xoxo by Gemma Peacocke.

**********

'A Thing of Beauty' | Emily Granger, solo harp at UKARIA
June 13th, 2:30pm | BOOK NOW

In a time that often feels fast, noisy, and unsettled, A Thing of Beauty is a return to something quieter.

This new album and tour from harpist Emily Granger brings together music that lingers — works by Australian women composers, alongside new commissions and a series of deeply personal transcriptions. These are pieces that don’t demand attention so much as invite it, unfolding at their own pace.

Threaded through the program are moments of poetry and reflection, offering a glimpse into the ideas and images that shaped the music. The result is an experience that moves between stillness and motion, simplicity and depth — a space to listen, and perhaps to breathe.

Created almost entirely by women, from composition through to visual realisation, A Thing of Beauty is both a celebration and a quiet act of focus: on sound, on presence, and on the small things that hold us.

What others are saying:

“Intoxicatingly beautiful” - The Australian

“brilliantly virtuosic” - ABC Classic

“Virtuosic and versatile” - Limelight

“beautiful… showcases the instrument’s versatility and depths of colour and timbre attainable.” - BBC Music Magazine