Cathy Milliken
Cathy Milliken builds long, evolving scores from improvised encounter. On Two Step she turns duets with players and singers into a continuous narrative threaded with Gertrude Stein, her own oboe, cor anglais and voice woven through the fabric.
Almost half her partners on that project are Australian, the rest drawn from Berlin and Tel Aviv circles where she works. She records the duets first, then shapes them in the studio into one long span that radio can excerpt or hear whole. Poems from Tender Buttons drift through as commentators, sometimes clear, sometimes absorbed into the texture; the piece feels like a journey with voices along the way. Elsewhere she writes for new-music ensembles: Schifrorl sits among the After Julia commissions that answer Julia Gillard’s prime ministership in sound. Collaboration is the method; listening is the engine.
Cathy Milliken is featured on the following titles
Two Step
Recorded in Berlin, Brisbane and Tel Aviv, this is a truly international project. Cathy Milliken, an Australian oboist and composer based in Berlin, works with some of the finest contemporary performers available.
Composer
Compositions by Cathy Milliken also appear on
After Julia
After Julia gathers eight contemporary works by Australian women composers responding to Julia Gillard’s tenure as Prime Minister. Decibel Artistic Director Cat Hope was spurred by the gender discrimination around that prime ministership, and by what it revealed about politics and the new music sector.