Echo Chamber
for clarinet
Composed for Dario Scalabrini
World premiere performance: 17 Jun 2024 at 11:00am, Rosina Auditorium
Performed as part of ANAM 2024 Recitals
by Dario Scalabrini (clarinet)
This ANAM Set commission was generously supported by the Australian Government through Creative Australia and the Anthony and Sharon Lee Foundation
Program note:
An echo chamber is an environment in which one’s pre-existing beliefs are being reinforced and reflected in by their surroundings. The repetition of information resulting in confirmation bias limits the individual to other perspectives and stories, leading to a sense of disconnect with outsiders who adopt different ways of living and thinking. This piece for solo clarinet is my musical exploration of an individual falling into a unique type of echo chamber called a filter bubble, where algorithms keep track of what an individual clicks on, and only feed one with information based on what one is interested in. Multiphonics are reverberated and reflected, which are later contrasted by virtuosic passages of an individual actively challenging the algorithm. The ending is left up to the listener’s interpretation, both foreboding peaceful and peacefully foreboding.
About the composer:
Christine Pan (she/they) is a Sydney-based composer known for her versatility in style and malleability in form. Her passion for powerful storytelling through music spans into various areas of gaming, science, healthcare, film and theatre.
Christine’s compositions have been featured by WASO, Sydney Wind Symphony, Ensemble Offspring, Goldner Quartet, Musica Viva, ABC Classic, and has showcased her works throughout Europe and the U.S.
Christine started her career as a game music composer with No Moss Studios, while she was completing her undergraduate study in Composition at Sydney Conservatorium of Music. During the pandemic, she became a resident composer for Liverpool Palliative Care Unit. Orchestra Victoria performed her musical adaptation of Introducing Teddy, as part of Midsumma Festival Season 2022 and 2023, which subsequently went on tour to Bendigo Bank Theatre and other regional libraries later in the year.
In 2023, Christine has been involved in more than six theatre productions including sound designing for Metropolis at the Hayes Theatre and complete original scores for Dumb Kids and Rhomboid, both showcased at KXT on Broadway. Christine won the Best Sound Design and Composition of an Independent Theatre Production Sydney Theatre award for Moon Rabbit Rising and made her musical directorial debut for The Village at Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre in collaboration with Q Theatre. She is a selected composer of MSO’s Cybec 21st Century Australian Composers Showcase 2024.
Christine also leads her own piano quintet and frequently performs at international conventions. She is a represented artist with the Australian Music Centre.
For more about Christine, visit christinepanmusic.com