Speak Percussion's Pigeons combines music and danger at Melbourne Recital Centre for RISING.
Speak Percussion will debut Pigeons, a performance where musicians dodge flying clay projectiles while creating music.
The innovative work by the Melbourne-based percussion ensemble transforms a traditional clay shooting event into an experimental music performance, with musicians becoming the birds and clay targets serving as symbolic pigeons.
Speak Percussion – Pigeons
• Where: Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, Melbourne Recital Centre
• When: Friday 13 – Saturday 14 June 2025
• Duration: 1 hour
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At the centre of Pigeons are three robotic trap machines that hurl hundreds of fluorescent clay targets in symphonic patterns at a wall of suspended, resonant percussive objects. As these projectiles fly, the performers must navigate through the space, ducking and weaving while simultaneously creating music described as fragile, violent, poetic and heroic.
The concept was developed by Speak Percussion’s Co-Artistic Director Eugene Ughetti, who serves as the work’s composer, director and percussionist. Ughetti has been working with collaborators to redefine percussion’s potential since the early 2000s, with Pigeons representing their most ambitious and visually spectacular creation to date.
The performance pits human musicians against machines in what organisers are calling a percussionist vs pigeon, human vs machine confrontation. The event forms part of the Rising festival program and represents a significant collaboration between Rising and Melbourne Recital Centre.
The artistic team includes percussionist and collaborating artist Kaylie Melville, instrument systems designer Nick Roux, set and costume designer Jason Lehane, and lighting designer Bosco Shaw from Additive. The production’s technical elements are managed by Keith Tucker, with dramaturgical support from Bruce Gladwin.
Developed with support from Creative Australia, City of Melbourne, City of Darebin, Creative Victoria and the Robert Salzer Foundation, Pigeons aims to challenge audiences’ perceptions of what constitutes a musical performance while exploring themes related to our algorithmically driven future.
Tickets for the performances range from $59 to $69, with a multi-pass discount available offering 15% off when purchasing tickets to three or more eligible Rising events.
For more information, head here.
