Lotte Betts-Dean’s voice, Bram de Looze’s piano, and Roland Peelman’s final year at Canberra International Music Festival The Music Show

Andrew is at the Canberra International Music Festival, where we get to catch up with an Australian who lives in the UK, a Belgian who tours the world, and another Belgian who lives in Australia.

Lotte Betts-Dean, Aussie mezzo-soprano now based in London, makes a trip home to perform a series of form-expanding vocal works from composers like Michael Finnissy, one of the masters of so-called "new complexity". 

Belgian jazz pianist Bram de Looze invites The Music Show into the Belgian Embassy where he's staying with the two resident llamas to talk about where improvisation and composition meet for him, and what he's taken from jazz idols like Hank Jones, Keith Jarrett and Thelonious Monk. 

And CIMF Artistic Director Roland Peelman looks back on his ten years leading the festival, the joys and tribulations of wearing multiple hats, and the particular way the city of Canberra has shaped the festival. 

Look out for Bram De Looze on ABC Jazz’s Jazztrack Live in June.

Music heard in the show:

Title: Spotting Gateways
Artist: Bram de Looze
Live in Canberra – courtesy of ABC Jazz

Title: Blessed Be I
Artist: Lotte Betts-Dean, Marsyas Trio
Composer: Michael Finnissy
Album: Alternative Readings
Label: Divine Art MEX77102

Title: Botany Bay
Artist: Lotte Betts-Dean, Marsyas Trio
Composer: Michael Finnissy
Album: Alternative Readings
Label: Divine Art MEX77102

Title: parallaxis forma
Artist: Lotte Betts Dean, Explore Ensemble
Composer: Catherine Lamb
Album: 3 Compositions for Voices and Ensemble
Label: Another Timbre at-215CD

Title: Bow
Artist: Bram De Looze
Composer: Bram De Looze
Album: Spotting Gateways
Label: Independent release

Title: Monk’s Mood
Artist: Bram De Looze, Joey Baron, Robin Verheyen
Composer: Thelonious Monk
Album: MiXMONK
Label: UCJ

Technical production by Simon Branthwaite
Recorded on Ngunnawal and Ngambri Country, produced on Gadigal and Gundungurra Country.