Learn about the curious string instrument they have spent a half-century mastering
Celebrating International Women's Day: The Resonant Heart
On International Women's Day, music ensemble The Resonant Heart brings its kaleidoscope of original compositions and traditional music to the Primrose Potter Salon.
Featuring traditional Bosnian, Sephardic Indian and Iranian works with songs, stories and poems in Nuer, Hindi, Bosnian, Farsi and Judeo-Spanish Ladino language, this event is a ritualistic feast of ancient ways of knowing being transposed into the tremulous present. Musician Nela Trifkovic tells us more about The Resonant Heart below.
About The Resonant Heart
The Resonant Heart (TRH) is a collective of women and female identifying artists with a shared vision of making their work on their own terms.
The idea started in 2020, as a response to the never-ending experience of limited visibility for CALD (culturally and linguistically diverse) and BIPOC (black, indigenous, and people of colour) artists on the contemporary art scene. We wanted to come forward and share, understanding that we are still in environments that do not fully comprehend our contribution and craft.
The work is informed by our histories and memories, by the 'rituals of everyday' and that which we saw in our own homes. This work goes beyond us, it is also for our mothers, grandmothers and grand-ancestor-mothers and for the parts of themselves that they suppressed and left behind, during migration, exile and in the process of making homes and keeping families together in a new environment.
In order to embrace external diversity with dilated arteries, life invites us to, firstly, reconcile and accept our own internal diversities. This work is a dreamscape of those internal diversities that were passed on in the umbilical chord and through the expansive energy of the heart.
Meet the Musicians
Vahideh Eisaei is an Iranian-Australia qanun player, based in Melbourne. She has performed with many ensembles throughout Europe, the Middle East and Australia. Vahideh has worked with ensembles, groups and companies such as Chakam, Sary and Outer Urban Projects (OUP), recently participating in their critically acclaimed theatre work The Audition at La Mama Theatre. Her music is influenced by her work experience as a social worker, as well as her migration to Australia. She has been a part of many advisory groups and leadership programs, advocating for migrant and refugee communities and preventing violence against women.
Lizzy Kuoth is a South Sudanese/Australian who wears many hats. She is a leader in the multicultural sector and adviser on refugee experience and community engagement, passionate about the advancement and advocacy of issues to build better, more inclusive communities. Currently, Lizzy is the Inclusion Capability Officer at the Level Crossings Removal Project and also work as Multicultural Officer at St Francis Xavier College, delivering and implementing programs and events to build awareness and drive change with families and the school.
SARAY Iluminado Femme is a trio derivative of the ensemble SARAY Iluminado, a Melbourne-based group that specialises in Sephardic Jewish and Sevdah, the traditional music of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The group explores contemporary, diasporic reimagining of Sephardic Jewish Romances and Sevdalinka songs. Similarly to the five-piece version of SARAY Iluminado, the Femme Trio creates a playful sound-field for the musical musings of its members, welcoming musicians who come together in love and respect of each other’s musical and cultural traditions. The Femme Trio made their European debut at the Sicilian traditional music circuit in August 2019.
Elnaz Sheshgelani is a writer, theatre maker, puppeteer, and performance artist whose work revives the pre-Islamic form of Naghali, the most ancient surviving form of Persian dramatic performance. Having completed a PhD thesis that explored reconstructing this ancient art form, she makes theatre that is a synthesis of different perspectives, fascinated by the way visual art intersects with installation, performing art and puppetry. Her performances are immersive, whole body sensory experiences that utilise poetry, the rhythm of language and the moving body.
Steeped in the centuries-old Indian folk culture, sitarist and vocalist Dr Sarita McHarg brings a unique classical and contemporary experience to the world of music. With her strong grip on classical ragas and her staggering instrumentation, Sarita brings the audience along as if they are part of her compositions, whether she’s performing in India or Australia. From the International Jazz Festival in Melbourne to the Fringe Festival in Sydney, Kathmandu Jazz Conservatory in Nepal or the famous Mahakal Temple in India, Sarita is equally at ease presenting classical Indian ragas with other instruments such as bouzouki, oud, violin and harp, blending beautiful traditional and modern music.
