
GLASS GARDENS
This work was created on unceded lands across the Eora Nation. UNSW Kensington rests on the lands of the Bidjigal people. We acknowledge and appreciate continuing connection to culture and country.
UNSW New Music Collective
Emma Korell
Jenni Murphy
Rebecca Mathews
Kit Spencer
Megan Amos
Blaize Cavalera Sivis
John Napier
Gabrielle Goodman
Sonya Lifschitz // Ensemble Director
With thanks to Alice Chance for the inspiration and impetus behind this work.
UNSW Creative Practice Lab
Paul Matthews // Website Design & Build
Mark Mitchell // Technical Support
Contact us at sam@unsw.edu.au
Program Note
It’s February 2022 and we have just witnessed two years of unimaginable disruption through Covid-19. Our communities have suffered, many lost livelihoods, some…their lives or lives of dear ones. And now, as I sit here reflecting, my birth-town Kiev in my home-country Ukraine is invaded and bombed.
In times of deep heartache, where do we turn? Where do we shelter? For me – in art, music, poetry, nature. In Glass Gardens, created lovingly by the wonderful students of UNSW New Music collective, we’ve done exactly that. Like a bowerbird, we’ve collected objects, sounds, words, poems, and images to create a world, a refuge, a place to shelter – a Glass Garden.
It's a world of shimmering insects and buzzing bugs, glistening dew and quivering leaves, lonesome birds and distant bells. It’s a world where mysterious critters dwell.
And you, beloved audience, get to be the architect of that world, curating your own, unique, and singular choose-your-own-adventure Garden.
Created during Sydney’s 2021 lockdown and made in isolation, this is a homage to our times, our precious world, our power of collective imagination.
Sonya Lifschitz
Ensemble Director
Lecturer in Music
Produced by the UNSW Creative Practice Lab
School of the Arts & Media
UNSW Sydney
CRICOS Provider Code: 00098G