Piano + Place: pop-up recitals around Sydney
Image: Sophie Hutchings and Jim Moginie;
Paddington Town Hall;
March 2024
Jim Moginie is on a mission to bring four pianists into four of Sydney’s secret spaces respectively, and activate a relationship between the player, the listener and the historic spaces where this will take place.
The series, Piano+Place, co-curated by Moginie and Ross Heathcote, will place four iconic piano players into four inner-Sydney historic spaces and unleash their sonic potential as never experienced before.
“The idea is to bring the piano into unusual places in Sydney that have a real story to them,” Jim Moginie, guitarist and keyboardist said.
“Taking it to places in Sydney that are unusual, not your usual pubs and clubs.”
Moginie is best known as one of Midnight Oil’s two powerhouse guitarists who has occasionally played keyboards on stage.
“I have not always performed on the piano but I have always written the Midnight Oil stuff on it.” Moginie said.
The program of musicians that will see Moginie joined by Chris Abrahams (The Necks), Sophie Hutchings (composer) and David Bridie (Not Drowning Waving and My Friend the Chocolate Cake) in four concerts each Friday in July.
“The first person who came to mind was Chris Abrahams who was in the Oils briefly and is one of the most extraordinary players I have ever heard,” Moginie said.
“He is so special.”
Abrahams’ performance will take place in Elizabeth Bay House, the grand colonial-era mansion located in Elizabeth Bay and well known for its elliptical saloon with its domed ceiling and curved staircase.
“Elizabeth Bay House certainly has a lot of history to it and was an artist colony at one point,” Moginie said.
Artists who lived in the then decaying building up until 1935 included Donald Friend and Wallace Thornton.
It was later tuned into apartments before being fully restored in the 1970s.
“Architecturally, with that dome above it, I think it is going to be an exciting space to play in,” Chris Abrahams said.
Sophie Hutchings will be exploring the ethereal sounds she creates in the Stapleton Room of the Paddington Town Hall.
“We live in an over-stimulated environment (and) this performance is about stripping back layers, to let go and immerse oneself into a world of space and tranquility through the natural sound that comes from the piano,” Sophie Hutchings said.
David Bridie has spent much of his professional musical life working with musicians from the Pacific and PNG regions, and in Australia people such as Alice Springs musical legend Frank Yamma.
He will be bringing the alt-pop sounds of his ‘80s and ‘90s band, Not Drowning Waving, and selections from his album, The Wisdom Line, to the Paintings Gallery of the State Library of New South Wales.
Moginie will lead the series off with a performance in the recently opened The Auditorium in the ANZAC Memorial, Hyde Park, a space that resonates with him as three generations of his family served in the armed forces.
“Its certainly part of my history with the War Memorial and I am certain that other people share this,” Moginie said.
“There are Midnight Oil songs that relate, including the song ‘Forgotten Years’ (Blue Sky Mining) that we played at the Somme.”
Moginie’s performance will draw from his vast Midnight Oil catalogue, improvising and storytelling from his own family’s history.
At the end of each performance, Ross Heathcote will conduct an interview with the artists to discover the inspiration behind their selections.
“The whole thing is about special places that people don’t normally go to and the audience can share being in these places with so much history in the walls and have the artists being influenced by the places as well,” Moginie said.
“The potential is for it to be special for everybody.”
