Guitar Perspectives

I’ve been commissioned to write a new piece of music for solo guitar as part of the University of Melbourne’s Guitar Perspectives award. It’s very exciting to get this opportunity, and even better is that it’s got me dusting off my classical nylon string guitar to help write it. This guitar is very special, as it was made specifically for me by luthier Simon Ramsey back in 2010 thanks to a generous grant from Anita and Mark Ramsey. I’m trying out some different tunings too, to see if we can come up with something different - I’m usually a standard tuning kind of guy, so this will be interesting.

Simon Ramsey Acoustic Guitar, made for CP in 2010.

The piece will be premiered later this year, so I’ll update when there’s date set for the performance, which will likely be in Melbourne.

Refracted

For those of you wondering if I’ve been writing any new music, well, I have. Some of it is getting premiered this week at a concert in Naarm/Melbourne in The Hanson-Dyer Hall within the Ian Potter Southbank Centre at University of Melbourne. It’s on Wednesday May 3rd at 7:00pm, and the new piece is something I’ve written for Piano Trio format called ‘Looking Out From A Glass Forest’. Piano Trio is Piano, Violin, and Cello, by the way.

It’s free admission for this one, but you’ve got to register: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/conservatorium-graduate-composers-concert-refracted-terrain-tickets-529918288867

Fuzzy Trios

Got a couple of events coming up, one of which will feature the premiere of some new music.

The Experiment are playing a set on Sunday April 30th as part of the Fuzzy Sunday festival series at Coburg RSL. Tickets are $30 and available via https://events.humanitix.com/fuzzy-sunday-30-april-2023. Ben can’t make this one, so we’ll be performing with former experimenter Steve Pope. Should be fun.

Then, on Wednesday May 3rd at 7:00pm, one of my pieces that I’ve written for Piano Trio (piano, violin, and cello) will be having its world premiere at Hanson-Dyer Hall in the Ian Potter Southbank Centre on Sturt St, South Melbourne. It’s free to come along but you need to register and book, which you can do so here: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/conservatorium-graduate-composers-concert-refracted-terrain-tickets-529918288867

Fuzzy

Next show for the Experiment will be joining the lineup of Fuzzy Sunday at the Coburg RSL on Sunday April 30th, 2023. It’ll be great to play for a like-minded audience and join a bunch of other great bands too.

Shortly after that on Wednesday May 3rd 2023, a piece I’ve composed for Piano Trio will also be performed in concert at the Hanson-Dyer Hall in the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music Ian Potter Centre, Southbank. It will be performed by Trio Jojomi, and this will also be the world premiere.

There’ll be ticket details up for both of these soon!

Twice

The Experiment is kicking off 2023 with a couple of gigs:

Friday February 10th at Coburg RSL, Coburg - two sets from 8:30pm, free entry.

Saturday February 25th at Edinburgh Castle Hotel, Brunswick - two sets from 6:00pm, free entry.

Kicking and screaming and wailing and feeling. That’s us.

Services

The Experiment have a gig - we’re getting match-fit to play Coburg RSL on Friday November 4th, 2022. There’ll be two sets of gems from the back catalogue and maybe some newer stuff you’ve never heard before. Who knows. It all kicks off at 8:30pm.

Premiere

My friends and supremely talented musicians Bush Gothic are premiering a new song of mine at their concert at Melbourne Recital Centre this Saturday June 18th. The song is arranged for them and string quartet, and the Gothos (as I call them) will be joined at the concert by The Lonely String Quartet to pull off the full thing. It’ll be wild.

Get your tickets here at https://www.melbournerecital.com.au/events/2022/the-terrible-truth-where-beautiful-lies/

Gothic is as Gothic does.

Artists

OK, so the Experiment has a gig. We’re getting back into it. You can come and see us unpack our new musical identities (it has been two years after all) at The Brunswick Artist’s Bar in Melbourne on Friday May 27th. We’ll be supporting our friend Al Carr and his new album release, and also playing will be our other good friend Rohan Nichol. We have good friends.

You can get your tickets to the show here via moshtix: https://www.moshtix.com.au/v2/event/al-carr-chris-pickering-experiment-rohan-nichol/139193. Brunswick Artists Bar isn’t the biggest venue, so I’d recommend getting tickets beforehand, if you can.

There’s also other musical projects in the works, so stay tuned, if you care to.

Eventually

It’s been a little bit quiet here lately. I’ve been doing stuff though, even if the Experiment hasn’t been venturing out to play live at all since, well, lockdowns and viruses and things like that. However, we might well be back in action soon, so keep an eye peeled for us out there in Melbourne gig land.

I’ve also been given an opportunity to write a piece as part of Melbourne Recital Centre’s 2022 season, and to collaborate with one of their ‘Local Heroes’ groups. So I’ve been working myself up to do that - it’s a daunting task.

Looking forward to getting some more music out to you soon, whenever that may be.