Beijing in the year 2008, a large international gathering of specialised practitioners who have trained for years, pushing mind, body and soul to their utmost and devoted to their respective disciplines- what else but the Olympics and Paralympics? Well, the Congress ofthe International Association of Women in Music (IAWM), that's what!

In April of this year a sizeable contingent of composers, performers and musicologists from every continent bar Africa assembled at the China Conservatory of Music (and co-incidentally a stone's throw from the Bird's Nest and Water Cube) for this event, held every two or three years, bringing together women (along with a few male supporters and musicians) for five days of exuberant music-making, discussion, cross-cultural tete-a-tete, unusual musical accessories purchases, reflexology sessions and photo ops at the Great Wall and the new National Theatre (although those last three were maybe specific to this particular event - note I didn't say photo-ops at the Bird's Nest, but more of that later).

Warming Up To The Amazing Race

My involvement with this gathering started a year earlier in April 2007, when, receiving one of my regular email updates from the Centre for New Zealand Music, I spied a brief ad asking for volunteer participants interested in participating in the IAWM's upcoming congress.

As I had already quite a number of piano pieces by women composers in my repertoire, it seemed like a logical thing to do, and, as well, the slogan "Beijing 2008" seemed to affect me in strange and unpredictable ways - whether it was the presence of that other Beijing 2008 event floating into my consciousness, or an old story of desiring to escape to somewhere different - at that point I was living in a small town in the central west of new South Wales, Australia, badly affected by drought, and possibly the thought was more strident than usual, fearing that I too would end up a bleached shell of my former self. (In the end that didn't happen, and the drought broke too, although for how long and with what results no-one is really sure).

In any case, I launched into the project with gusto, with emails to the organisers, to composers asking for scores, and frequent visits to the piano studio of the small music school where I was teaching, for some proper practice. The last-mentioned was definitely required, with scores received from the organisers and various composers sending me into variously small and not-so-small panics ("this one was written for Ursula Oppens! Why do they want ME to play it!!").

However, with some application and study, and a few run-though performances to friend, local writer Merrill Findlay, by the end of the school year I had the program sorted, and, in addition, quite a large pile of other interesting pieces, by composers of both sexes, that could fit into other programs.

Packing Bags, And Scores

Thus it was by the time the Congress rolled around I was feeling quite satisfied with my efforts, and happy too with uncovering various compositional gems- a couple of pieces by fourteen year old Christchurch school-girl Salina Fisher, for example, wonderful little scenes describing moths circling the light and raindrops falling into small ponds.

Then there was a whole album of Brazilian composer Alfredo Votta's pieces, a mix of late Liszt, Messiaen, John Cage (plenty of silences) and something else I can't put my finger on - but definitely something quite unique - and Italian Luca Vanneschi's 'Per Pianoforte', a study in resonance - in both cases, highly original and intuitive composers.

As well, Sinta Wullur, who I met at the ACL festival in Wellington in early 2007 sent me her 'Aqua Piano', a skilful and unusual piece where the various states of waves and currents, from almost still to a raging torrent, are given musical expression - with a hint of gamelan in the work's final pages, a low F resonating as the gong.

Although these pieces were left for other programmes, I did include for Beijing the two short pieces by Salina, as well as other New Zealand composers Judith Exley, Helen Bowater and Helen Fisher, and Australians May Howlett and Kate Moore (the last-named a very talented composer in her late 20s of Australian and Dutch heritage, residing in The Hague), among other pieces by composers from China, Macao, Japan, the US, and Belgium. Thus the 'down under' component complimented, and acted as a counterweight to the 'up over' lot, who, needless to say, usually dominate proceedings!

Carrying the Kiwi Torch To Beijing 1 - A few laps before the earthquake

I got to Beijing from Wellington, where I had performed a concert including the premieres of the Bowater and Exely pieces, as well the first performance of three studies, especially written for the concert, utilising ancient Greek poetic meter and medieval plainchant, by another New Zealand composer, Susan Frykberg (also attending the congress) via the rather circuitous route of Gold Coast, Kuala Lumpur, Macao, and Chengdu.

While Gold Coast and KL were solely airport stop-overs, in Macao I explored the remarkable juxtaposition of booming casinos, with their somewhat tacky but undeniably live presence, to the rather more elegant and peaceful side to this unique place, a true admixture of East and West- beautiful, expressive squares, churches, temples, the famous ruins of St. Paul's, with it's bones of Catholic Japanese martyrs in it's vaults, and crowded streets, winding over the hills of the tiny peninsula upon which the main part of the city is built.

From there it was an early morning dash across the border to Guangzhou, passing on the way the factories and workshops powering the (also booming) Chinese economy. A flight to Chengdu, in Sichuan province in the central west of the country ensued. Here I met up with Aussie composer Kate Moore, and a fellow kiwi representative at the Congress, Pania Witoko, a performer and researcher of taonga puroro (native Maori instruments), which incidentally, have been utilised by many composers there, notably Gillian Whitehead, and in many cross-over performances, the most well-known exponent of which is Richard Nunns.

Sichuan Conservatory Of Music

We were hosted by the Sichuan Conservatory, somewhere I specially had wanted to visit, as it was the home conservatory of a fellow composer back in Wellington, and a good friend, Shen Na Lin. Here we gave workshops, the students especially responding to Pania's presentation of the taonga puoro.

I could feel their excitement at hearing and seeing these instruments, made from various bone, stone, gourds and wood, maybe somehow resonating with aspects of their own cultural and musical heritage.

The next day Pania and I performed a concert, which was well received, but possibly was a side-show to the real focus of activity here in Chengdu - eating and drinking! The hospitality shown to us by our hosts was quite wonderful, the famous Sichuan cuisine enjoyed by all at several banquets where the dishes just seemed to keep coming, and the laid-back atmosphere of Chengdu, where the tea-house is king, infectious.

Trips to the Tibetan quarter, streets of shops selling everything from butter tea sachets to ornate jewellery and Buddhist paraphernalia, and to an ancient though still functioning Buddhist temple, complete with an extremely busy tea-house, where the demanding and important activities of drinking tea, discussing issues of the day, drinking more tea, and maybe having a quiet reverie looking out over the temple garden, were highlights.

Carrying the Kiwi Torch To Beijing 2 - crossing the finishing line

Finally to Beijing, I arriving a little late on the first day, due to travelling from Chengdu by train instead of plane. Already the Congress official photo had been taken, and a chamber concert over by the time I found my way from Beijing West station, by the underground and taxi, to the China Conservatory in the city's northern suburbs.

After meeting with our very helpful student volunteers, who duty it was to look after us and ensure we didn't get up to too much mischief, and also Li Yiding, composer, and main organiser of the congress, it was up to my room in the Conservatory's guest hostel, from which I was rather surprised to see, in the near distance, part outlines of the Water Cube and famous Bird's Nest.

The next five days were a blur of activity, with seminars and concerts during the day at the Conservatory, and night-time concerts at selected venues in the city, to which we were transported by bus. Meals were at the conservatory canteen, and were an opportunity to get to know the other delegates; discussions were frequent and wide-ranging, and just as important a part of the meeting as the music-making.

The composers present ranged in age from 14 to 80 - from our Christchurch school-girl to a retired professor of composition from Los Angeles. Not all of the featured composers of course could make it to Beijing, although there was an especially strong representation from the United States, including a number of musicologists.

There were also a number of Chinese composers and performers (and also a number from other countries) who were, or had, been living in the States, so that particular nexus seemed to be underpinning the festival. Not surprising really, given that the IAWM's genesis was in that country, with each odd-numbered congress being held somewhere in North America.

Astonishing Sense Of Being Taken Over

Highlights for me were the opening night's orchestral concert performed by the China National Symphony Orchestra, and conducted by wonderful Taiwanese conductor Apo Hsu, at the striking new futuristic National Theatre located next to the Great Hall of the People in Tiananmen Square.

Pieces by Tania Leon and Chan Hae Lee made an especially strong impression, particularly the latter, with it's non-stop bold orchestral manoeuvres and really striking and I thought quite individual orchestral sound (a new book on Chan-Hae's work, published in both the Korean and English languages, and including a commentary on this work, has just been published).

Another was the electro-acoustic concert, a relatively short concert, but one where a wide range of work and approaches was displayed, from Katie Abbott's "Egyptian Wish", where the sax soloist performed along with the call to prayer in stereo, to Argentinean composer Marcela Pavia's computer music accompaniment to a video of close-ups of a painting by Leonilde Carabba, to Susan Frykberg's piece for violin and tape on the subject of child-birth, with the wonderful title "Astonishing Sense of Being taken over by something Greater than Me" (actually a line spoken during the piece).

Also notable was a concert featuring indigenous performers, where gayageum, amplified mohoceno, an indigenous Aymara wind instrument from Argentina, taonga puoro, sitar and guitar shared the stage.

Other composers represented included Claudia Ulla Binder from Germany, whose work for alto flute and a pianist performing E-bows inside the piano I remember as very atmospheric; Hilary Tann from the UK, whose "Shakkei" for oboe and string orchestra was inspired by the "borrowed scenery" of Japanese landscape design, a very restrained and beautiful piece, and Carol Worthey from LA, whose chamber-piece combining Chinese and Western instruments was very sensitive and memorable (I told her I particularly liked the opening repeated phrase and she mentioned that she dreamt the theme after reading a poem by Li Bai).

As well, there were various chamber music concerts, a string orchestra concert, a Chinese orchestral concert, my own mainly solo piano concert, and a closing choral concert. Performers were professional musicians, faculty and students from the China Conservatory, guest artists, the China Youth Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Huaxia Chinese Orchestra. As well, various speakers delivered papers, some in Chinese and some in English, on a variety of topics, including Germaine Tailleferre's music for piano four hands, women composers on Broadway, and various Chinese and Western composers.

Postcards From The Edge

Looking back upon this event, I wondered if there were any differences between a women's' music festival and any other kind. I certainly remember a very supportive atmosphere and the fun of it, and the talks around the dinner table and at the coffee shop-music shop down the road (and site of musical accessories purchases).

One of the big thrills for me personally was performing composers who might otherwise not receive that many a performance, or whose music may not fall into any particular "category", or who maybe are overlooked by respectively the traditional and new music ensembles, for whatever reason.

I enjoyed this festival because of the sheer variety of what was presented, the non-competitive atmosphere, the friendships made, the inclusiveness, the feeling of achieving something personally, and lastly also because it was held in Beijing.

To have this glimpse of another culture and it's intersection with the world at this particular point in time was really revelatory. The incredible material progress made in China, especially in the cities, was an eye-opener, but also some of the very real strains and differences in the society - we were here just a month after the riots in Lhasa - an event endlessly analysed by Tibet "experts" on the local CCTV station. I was reminded too of seeing country-folk in blue Mao-era suits from the train window coming from Chengdu, a sight unthinkable in Beijing.

And even though, on my afternoon walk past exhausted Olympic construction workers and still evolving skyline of the dragon's head building in between our site and the Olympic Green, I couldn't get anywhere near to the Bird's Nest and Water Cube, what with the non-Olympic period smog blurring the outlines and even in April, quite noticeable security, it didn't matter.

The real action was happening up the road, where a group of women (and men) were expressing their particular worlds, through the sacred medium of sound, in just their own ways. I'm sure we all look forward to the next IAWM Congress, and the special offerings that will be heard there.

Ross Carey
Melbourne, September 2008

Ross Carey is planning a performance at Segi College Subang Jaya in November 08. For more information check the homepage News section closer to the month. You can listen to a similar concert programme as described in this article on Malaysian Art Radio titled New Minimalism.

Related Links

• Ross Carey's biography
• The New Minimalism: Regional new music performances by Ross Carey in Indonesia and China
• Listen to Ross Carey's Yogja concert on Malaysian Art Radio

20 Sep 08