The Cage Project - Melbourne

A mesmerizing spectacle for ears and eyes.

Imagine a grand piano, exploded, spinning in a ballet of fragments… Then imagine Cédric Tiberghien playing John Cage’s iconic Sonatas and Interludes beneath Matthias Schack-Arnott’s slowly whirling sculpture.

Australian percussionist, composer and sound artist Matthias Schack-Arnott collaborates with acclaimed French pianist Cédric Tiberghien on John Cage’s magnum opus, his ?Sonatas and Interludes ?of 1948. Schack-Arnott is known for his unique approach to sound: he creates sculptural musical worlds that are beautifully lit and dramatically staged. Here he brings his distinct voice to John Cage’s classic work for prepared piano, augmenting it with a massive kinetic sound sculpture that floats above the piano, dancing in synchronicity.

A pioneer in the development of percussion, Cage initiated the prepared piano as a means of giving the instrument a greater percussive quality. More than 70 years after its composition, the work is reimagined as a three-dimensional sculptural world, with Tiberghien’s exquisite playing at its heart.

The Cage Project’s premiere at the 2023 Adelaide and Perth Festivals was hailed as a triumph, described in Limelight as ‘engagingly playful, richly emotional and deeply meditative ‘. Now Canberra, Melbourne and Sydney get to experience its magic.