From April to August this year, a unique project saw NIDA’s Master of Fine Arts (Directing) students partner with seven Emerging Artists from the Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO) – an initiative instigated by one of NIDA’s most recent Directing graduates, Benjamin Sheen.
From April to August this year, a unique project saw NIDA’s Master of Fine Arts (Directing) students partner with seven Emerging Artists from the Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO) – an initiative instigated by one of NIDA’s most recent Directing graduates, Benjamin Sheen.
The project involved five of NIDA’s current Directing students pairing up with an ACO Emerging Artist, and creating a short 1-2 minute video bio that explored how music shaped the emerging artist.
The ACO’s Emerging Artists’ Program connects the next generation of talented young Australian string players with members of the ACO, by offering tertiary and post-tertiary musicians the opportunity to rehearse and perform with its renowned players.
Benjamin, along with our Head of Directing, Dr Egil Kipste, liaised with ACO Collective and ACO Virtual Manager, Phillippa Martin, to work on producing these short films showcasing the ACO’s emerging artists.
‘The ACO are a fantastic ensemble, not only a world class string orchestra, but also fantastic innovators, particularly with multimedia content. Egil and I thought it would be an amazing opportunity for Directing students and musicians to collaborate to make something unique, which resulted in the video portrait project. We’re thrilled with the results and so glad the ACO invited us into their world,’ commented Benjamin.
Phillippa said: ‘The ACO was thrilled to be approached by NIDA for this exciting and unique collaboration. The results were fantastic and the Emerging Artists themselves were all so impressed with the Directors’ take on them and the quality of the video bios that were subsequently produced. It was so interesting to see the way the Directors explored the different aspects of the Emerging Artists’ personalities, and the completely different bios that resulted from their explorations.’
The Directing students involved were:
- Alexander Berlage – paired with double bass player, Bonita Williams
- Madeleine Humphreys – paired with violin player, Benjamin Adler
- Mark Churchill – paired with viola player, Elizabeth Woolnough
- Warwick Doddrell – paired with viola player, Nathan Greentree
- Carissa Licciardello – paired with cello player, Alexandra Partridge
Benjamin also directed the video bios of violin players, Nicholas Waters and Riley Skevington.
The breathtaking results were seven unique videos telling their own distinctive story of the individual artists.
‘NIDA Directing students are so lucky to be able to collaborate with so many different companies across Australia. This has been a fantastic new opportunity for the students to collaborate with musicians and gain some more filmmaking experience. It was a privilege to work with all of the artists, and I’m so thrilled with the beautiful and varied results,’ added Benjamin.
Phillippa also added: ‘The videos were excellently produced and we have been eager to share them on the ACO media outlets, such as our ACO YouTube channel. We hope to be able to continue this partnership with NIDA going forward and explore more innovative and unusual projects with them in the future.’
Watch the videos
