Runa Cara
Friday 28 May 2021 from 7:30pm to 8:40pm
Irish-Australian percussionist and singer-songwriter Bonnie Stewart (aka. Bonniesongs) and Danish-Australian cellist and nyckelharpist Freya Schack-Arnott (also part of Ensemble Offspring) collaborate as Runa Cara, performing ethereal folk songs set to strings, percussion, harmonies and loops.
Since meeting at an intensive workshop in Tasmania, they’ve been mixing Bonnie’s angelic and new edge folk-pop with a wide range of dramatic cello techniques.
This set will include traditional Irish and Scandinavian folk songs as well as some original pieces, with Freya performing on cello and Swedish folk instrument the nyckelharpe, and Bonnie performing on guitar, mandolin, percussion and vocals. They can be heard on Bonnie's live EP Strings release along with violist Sascha Bota, and their collaboration is most recently featured on Bonnie’s Energetic Mind album.
Bonnie Stewart is a composer, improviser and multi-instrumentalist. She was drawn to Australia’s definitive sound in the experimental improvisation and jazz genres and relocated from her native Ireland to Sydney in 2012. Working mainly with drums, percussion, voice and guitar, Bonnie is actively involved in a mix of self-led and collaborative projects including Bonniesongs, Crossover, Rebel Scum, Pheno, Which, Prophets and the Splinter Orchestra.
Bonnie’s practise moves between improvisation, performance and songwriting, which has led to collaborative work with visual artists (Ida Lawrence), interdisciplinary artists (Lauren Brincat), contemporary circus producers (Circus Oz, Company 2), and Television and Film creators (M&C Saatchi, Caitlin Yeo). Bonnie completed a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Jazz Drums Performance at Newpark Music Centre (Dublin, IRE) in 2010. She was awarded a travel and training grant from the Irish Arts Council to participate in the School of Improvised Music workshop in New York in 2011. She was also awarded a full scholarship in 2009 to attend a summer intensive workshop at Berklee School of Music in Boston. Most recently, Bonnie was awarded a scholarship to attend the Australian Art Orchestra Creative Music intensive in Tasmania.
Freya Schack-Arnott is a Danish/Australian contemporary cellist who enjoys a multi-faceted career as a performer, improviser, composer and curator; ranging from contemporary classical repertoire to experimental, electronics, popular and cross-disciplinary art forms. Freya regularly performs with Australia’s leading new music ensembles, including ELISION Ensemble and Ensemble Offspring. Her curatorial roles include co-founder and curator of the regular ‘Opus Now’ music series, an ongoing project exploring relationships between the music of today and classical string quartets; and co-curator of the Rosenberg Museum, together with violinist and improviser Jon Rose. In recent years, Schack-Arnott has performed in a number of festivals and major venues across Australia, Asia and Europe: National Concert Hall, Taipei; JazzSpot Candy, Tokyo; Copenhagen Jazz festival; Sydney Festival; Melbourne International Arts Festival; Vivid Sydney; Dark Mofo Hobart; Supersense; No New Noise; Now Now Festival; Baiame’s Ngunnhu Festival, and more.