Music & Architecture: Grown Ocean and Sixty Martin Place

Music & Architecture is a program of carefully curated free concerts that celebrate Sydney's musicians and artists, and public spaces which accentuate some of the city's most architecturally significant office buildings.

Award-winning composer, pianist and improvisor, Novak Manojlovic and ensemble Grown Ocean perform a selection of works specifically curated for Sixty Martin Place.

Experience the timbre of Grown Ocean’s string quartet as they perform within the Hassell Studio-designed Sixty Martin Place and its unique ground floor ‘civic room’ that connects visually to the façade of the adjacent St Stephen’s Church.

Since forming in 2013 as a tight-knit ensemble of friends and collaborators at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Grown Ocean has evolved into more of a perpetually restless community of musicians guided by Novak Manojlovic's artistic vision than a conventional musical project. While their first record 'We Are Very Far' (2016) is a meditation on distance led by a driving rhythm section and fronted by three horns, their sophomore release 'Memory Gardens' (2021) brings a chamber influence to the fore with the addition of a string quartet to achieve an almost programmatic study on the subjects of home, youth and belonging. Manojlovic's amorphous approach to instrumentation within the project is always buoyed by a pervading sense of community, earnestness, and expression in his compositional output. In this special performance, a selection of works will be interpreted by an iteration of the project led by a string quartet curated specifically for the acoustics of Sixty Martin Place. 

Performing with Manojlovic at Sixty Martin Place are Jaques Emery, Yuhki Mayne, Hana King, Beth Condon and Freya Schack-Arnott. Sound by Bill Vickers.

About Novak Manojlovic

Novak Manojlovic is an award-winning composer, pianist and improvisor based in Sydney. He is the leader of several groups including the subversive piano trio HEKKA and large ensemble Grown Ocean, a member of Sam Gill's Coursed Waters and the contemporary improvising ensemble Microfiche, as well as the musical director for PNG/Australian artist NGAIIRE. In 2019 he was the recipient of the Freedman Fellowship in Jazz. 

Experience this free Rediscover Sydney event and enjoy lunch at The Naked Duck an Australian and French eatery with an Asian twist located Sixty Martin Place’s lobby, or dine at Toppi Restaurant located on the mezzanine.

This event received City of Sydney CBD Activation Grant funding.