WAVE Festival: "never doubt an orchestra’s ability to kick ass"

I had a bloody great time working on WAVE Festival, a morphing of modern sounds, technology and talent with the classical heritage and strength of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra.  I arranged and conducted a show with Australian hip-hop icons Horrorshow; and also composed an original work, Macquarie with rapper-poet Luka Lesson.

Horrorshow collab... Solo on the mic and Adit on the fader. And I got to conduct in a merch shirt!

"If only all collaborations between orchestras and contemporary musicians were done with such joy and flair! One of the QSO’s secret weapons is Gordon Hamilton, a musical chameleon with bonafides in the territories of Hip Hop and Classical music. His arrangements were authentic, used imaginative colour and crucially, celebrated rather than patronised the orchestral force." – Gillian Wills for ArtsHub [read in full]

Rapper-poet Luka Lesson and I wrote Macquarie, an orchestral-hiphop interrogation of Lachlan Macquarie's legacy. An amazing thing to be a part of... Luka is an incredibly evocative story-teller. Conductor Sarah-Grace Williams is an extraordinary musician, was 100% all over the score.

"Poetry and orchestra became vehicles for a powerful interrogation of Australian history and its habit of overlooking the horrible realities to focus on our nation’s advancement. The result is a harrowing piece exploring the realities and romanticisms of Lachlan Macquarie... Truthfully, I’m just not sure anything could follow ‘Macquarie’ and garner the same attention and awe as its predecessor... never doubt an orchestra’s ability to kick ass." – Kyley Thompson for Scenestr.com [read in full]

Thanks to all the great QSO musos and their badassery!