Fête de la Musique 2022 –
Hop on French-Australian Chris Cody’s enthralling musical voyage: Astrolabe
To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Fête de la Musique, French-Australian international pianist and composer Chris Cody will perform his splendid jazz suite Astrolabe on June 21 at 6:30PM and 8:15PM.
The Phoenix Central Park will generously host this memorable performance in partnership with the French Embassy in Australia.
About the artist
Four stars: fascinating…an exotic soundscape…exceedingly gifted
– The Australian
Enthralling tribute to French explorer…startlingly effective music
– Sydney Morning Herald
Internationally renowned pianist and composer Chris Cody has headlined at many international festivals including Paris Quartiers d’Eté, London, Rome, Brussels Jazz Marathon, Stockholm, Geneva, Munich, and Derry, and at a vast array of major concert venues throughout the USA, Europe, Africa and Australasia.
With eleven CDs of his music released on international labels he has received glowing reviews and featured on radio and television around the world, and has collaborated on over forty other international albums.
His compositions include commissions for the Australian Music Centre Paris, the Sydney Theatre Company, American Academy of Dance, Pillow Book Dance Company Pittsburg, National French and American theatre companies. He has also composed the music for eight films, winning prizes at Toronto, Pau and Sydney festivals, as well as several TV and Radio documentaries.
About the performance
Lapérouse arrived here just six days after the First Fleet in 1788. After he left these shores a few weeks later he was never seen again, his two ships being shipwrecked near the Solomon Islands.
The incredible voyage and disappearance at sea of this French navigator has been an inspiration for Cody to write this work that explores different times and places, identity and the meetings of cultures.
The powerful and moving music draws upon jazz, classical and diverse world music influences inspired by the voyage. There is plenty of space for the musicians to open up and improvise over the different moods, textures and styles, ranging from calm meditation to exuberant joy.
“When I first read about La Pérouse while living in France and before my return to Australia I was struck by some of the resonances of his story. The idea of mounting an expedition to further human knowledge and science, to learn about other peoples and cultures, to journey around the world, and then disappear at sea, against the backdrop of the French revolution all seemed glorious and admirable to me…
“When I first read about La Pérouse while living in France and before my return to Australia I was struck by some of the resonances of his story. The idea of mounting an expedition to further human knowledge and science, to learn about other peoples and cultures, to journey around the world, and then disappear at sea, against the backdrop of the French revolution all seemed glorious and admirable to me…
About the venue
Australian philanthropist Judith Neilson envisioned Phoenix Central Park as a space in which architecture and interior design as well as the visual and performing arts would each enhance and embrace the other for an immersive total experience – a ‘gesamtkunstwerk’, or ‘total work of art’.
Why is it named ‘Phoenix’? The building occupies the site of a warehouse that was fire-damaged and vacant – but the name also symbolises the renaissance of a previously gritty, semi-industrial inner-city suburb to become a cultural hub. Phoenix Central Park rises from the ashes like the legendary bird.
The performance space is a singular bell-shaped clearing, made by stepped and contoured timber ribs, embedded in a fabric of lobbies and circulation.
Like an Elizabethan theatre, the action is in the round, seen from many vantage points. A projecting balcony loops into the volume, creating an alternate stage or viewing box. The circulation is direct or via a gracious set of stepped landings, scaled for arresting movement and inviting overview.
More details
Link to video of Chris Cody’s Astrolabe here.
Link to the artist’s website here.
Link to the ticket Ballot here.
TUES 21 June 2022
6:30pm & 8:15pm
Phoenix Central Park
37-49 O’Connor St, Chippendale NSW 2008
