Across the Western Australian coast, alarm horns blare as sharks cross into areas of ocean and river now considered human domains. Within our cities, bullhorns and megaphones amplify human voices calling for justice and improved relationships with Country.
Inspired by Black Lives Matter chants of protest and the collective energy and histories of procession, Bullhorn is a new work by composers Clint Bracknell and Callum G’Froerer, and choreographer Trevor Ryan. Amplified Nyoongar singers and dancers accompanied by a large brass ensemble will turn their collective attention to the bilya (river), the home and crossing point for the bull shark.
Drawing on the Nyoongar bull shark song performance developed by Bracknell and Ryan, and first presented in Perth Festival 2021 with the Mayakeniny dance group, Bullhorn is a powerful collaboration of Nyoongar and contemporary forms of music, dance, song and experimental performance to create an electric experience for audiences.
Join us at sunset on the Walyalup (Fremantle) riverbank, in a procession of Nyoongar performers and members of the Western Australia Youth Jazz Orchestra (WAYJO), as they accompany the bull shark’s crossing from salt to fresh water, from the wardan (ocean) up the bilya (river).
About the
artists
Callum G’Froerer
Callum G’Froerer (b. 1988) is an Australian trumpet player based in Melbourne and active in various improvised and notated musical settings. Originally from sunny Perth, he was based in Berlin from 2015–2018, and Melbourne from 2012–2014. Present and past projects include: The Sculpted Trumpet, an internationally-touring recital of new electro-acoustic works for double-bell trumpet; contemporary chamber ensemble Smallroom; bass/piano/trumpet trio, DRUM, with Andy Butler and Jonathan Heilbron; Marco Blaauw’s Monochrome multiple-trumpet project with performances of Anthony Braxton’s Composition No. 103; early and contemporary brass music with Brass Commons; improvising ensemble Phonetic Orchestra; new music quartet Cathexis; trumpet/double bass duo with Jonathan Heilbron. He has performed in the USA, Italy, UK, Japan, Portugal, Denmark, Norway, Turkey, Taiwan, Germany and Singapore, and has performed world and national premieres of works by Ann Cleare, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Liza Lim, James Rushford, Laure Hiendl, Cat Hope, Alice Humphries, Simon Charles, Iain Grandage and Eres Holz. Callum was long-listed for the 2014 Freedman Jazz Fellowship and the 2015 Freedman Classical Fellowship. His long-term composition project Charcoals spans electro-acoustic works, field recordings, performance pieces, and acoustic chamber music – all performance/site-specific. His jazz output includes: quintet album City Speaks, released in 2013 on the Listen/Hear Collective label; his quartet album Space Available, released independently in 2015. In 2020 he released his second quartet album on the Earshift label.
Clint Bracknell
Clint Bracknell is a musician and researcher from the south coast Noongar region of Western Australia, and Associate Professor at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts and Kurongkurl Katitjin Centre for Indigenous Australian Education and Research, Edith Cowan University. His stage credits as composer, sound designer and musical director include Hecate (Yirra Yaakin/Bell Shakespeare), The Cherry Orchard, Water and The Caucasian Chalk Circle (Black Swan), Skylab (Black Swan/Yirra Yaakin), Mission Songs Project: 1957 Palm Island Strike (Sydney Festival, Darwin Festival), King Hit (Yirra Yaakin), and The Red Tree (BGTC) which was nominated for best original score in the Helpmann Awards. Recent screen credits include Fist of Fury Noongar Daa (Fortune Star/Perth Festival/Boomerang and Spear) and H is for Happiness (Cyan Films/The Koop). Clint’s PhD in Music from UWA was awarded the 2016 Robert Street Prize for most outstanding thesis.
Trevor Ryan
Trevor Ryan is a gifted and versatile stage and screen performer, drama teacher, and NIDA graduate with a strong interest in Indigenous languages and cultures. His recent career highlights include performing as King Duncan in Hecate (Yirra Yaakin/Bell Shakespeare, 2020), a full Noongar-language adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth; voice acting as Yoshida in the Noongar-dubbed version of the classic Bruce Lee film, Fist of Fury Noongar Daa (Perth Festival with Boomerang and Spear, 2021); and touring in FIFO (Yirra Yaakin/Goolarri Media, 2021). In between teaching drama with Monkey Baa Theatre Company, Trevor also appeared in Sunday in the Park with Frank for Short + Sweet; Warengesda – a Place of Mercy; Series 2 of The Circuit; My Girragundji with Canute Productions; ABC Radio The JeDy; and The Heights by ABC Productions. On the stage, Trevor has completed a season of Shakespeare WA, playing the roles of Balthasar in Comedy of Errors and Caliban/Jailer in The Tempest. He has toured with Banuba Films’ production of Jandamarra around northern WA. As a constant member of the Wadumbah Aboriginal Dance Group, Trevor performed for the Queen upon her arrival in Perth, and at the opening of CHOGM 2011. Amongst his busy performance schedule, Trevor is also researching the links between Noongar performance and Country through a Masters of Performing Arts degree at the Western Australia Academy of Performing Arts.
