RE:TUNING
Can you de-colonise sound?
Join us for this participatory art experience as master musicians teach us how to re-tune our ears to the renewed practices of dormant sounds. We invite you to bring your instruments, to listen, to play, to reconnect and to re-tune with one another.
Live in-person event | Concert Hall Northern Foyer | Talks & Ideas
COVID-19 safety information
The health and wellbeing of everyone attending the Opera House is our top priority. We’re committed to making your experience safe, comfortable and enjoyable, with a number of measures in place including regular cleaning of high-touch areas, air conditioning systems that maximise ventilation, and hand sanitiser stations positioned in all paths of travel. We encourage you to wear a mask in indoor settings or when physical distancing can’t be maintained, and please stay home if you feel unwell. If you need to discuss your ticketing or booking options, contact our Box Office team on 02 9250 7777.
Pre-sale and on-sale information
Multipacks
Insider Member Priority – 9am, Tuesday 28 June
Single Tickets
Insider Member Priority – 9am, Tuesday 28 June
What's on Priority sale – 9am, Wednesday 29 June
General public on sale – 9am, Friday 1 July
Sunday 11 September 2022
RE: TUNING will unfold over six sessions. While the sessions are cumulative, it is not necessary to attend the whole day.
Free workshop | Registration required
The only authorised ticket agency for this event is the Sydney Opera House. For more information about Authorised Agencies, see the FAQ below. Children aged 15 years and under must be accompanied at all times.
This event runs throughout the day
Please refer to the schedule below.
Event duration is a guide only and may be subject to change.
In English | wheelchair accessible
Find out more about accessibility at Sydney Opera House.
“Perhaps one day we can start our own pre-colonised orchestras and come together to play the instruments of our ancestors”
James Nguyen and Victoria Pham
Learn to listen anew - to music, and each other.
You're invited to a series of workshops and performances to re-tune the way we listen. Building on their practice exploring the Vietnamese Đông Sơn drum, artists James Nguyen and Victoria Pham have gathered an interactive assembly of master performers of the Dizi flute, the erhu, the didgeridoo, classic Indian movement, and Mongolian throat singing. Teaching us all to connect with sound systems that might be unfamiliar, RE:TUNING is a generous, experimental invitation to listen beyond the Western scale and dissolve auditory biases. Featuring musicians Chloe Chung, Bukhchuluun Ganburged, Nicholas Ng, Priya Srinivasan and Norm Jurrawaa Stanley, we encourage you to bring along your instruments, voices, ears and hearts, to the songs of our ancestors.
RE:TUNING forms part of the larger RE:SOUNDING research project by James Nguyen and Victoria Pham, which works to reframe our relationship to objects and artefacts in order to produce and offer new, collective experiences and sound traditions.
Commissioned and presented by Sydney Opera House
RE:TUNING at Sydney Opera House is enabled by Janne Ryan and ARROW.
This year forms the forth project of ARROW’s ongoing support of contemporary art at our Talks and Ideas Festivals.
Sydney Opera House’s Curator Contemporary Art is enabled by Cathy & Andrew Cameron AM.
RE:TUNING
10.30am – 11.15am
Vietnamese Sweeping Ceremony and Introduction
Victoria Pham, James Nguyen and extended families
James and Victoria will introduce the RE:TUNING project, followed by a performance of Vietnamese singing bowls and the Đông Sơn drum. Their extended families will initiate the day by performing a Vietnamese sweeping ceremony.
11.30am – 12.15pm
Participatory Erhu Performance
Dr Nicholas Ng
Erhu Performer, Composer and Academic
Nicholas will lead an interactive and participatory performance-discussion of the Erhu, a two stringed bow instrument.
“This journey into the world of microtonality explores the concept of sonic and physical movement through bowed sounds, primarily on the erhu, and the esoteric practice of Bugang 步罡. Bugang is an ancient Daoist ritual of shamanic origin that seeks to harness the energy of the Big Dipper by symbolically pacing the outline of its stars.” Dr Nicholas Ng
12.35pm – 1.15pm
Participatory Mongolian throat singing and Morin Khuur Performance
Bukhu Ganburged
Musician and performer
Bukhu will lead a showcase of Mongolian culture by demonstrating Mongolian throat singing and perform the Morin Khuur (Horsehead Fiddle). This is participatory vocal workshop and performance in which everyone is welcome to join.
2.15pm – 3pm
Participatory Dizi and Flute Performance
Chloe Chung
Flautist and educator
Chloe will lead an interactive session with the dizi (Chinese bamboo flute) and the Western concert flute. This session will combine personal stories, poetry, and performance culminating in the “messy in-betweenness of space-time traveling and re-tuning through various musical cultures.”
3.15pm – 4pm
Participatory Didgeridoo Performance
Norm Jurawaa Stanley
Artist and Storyteller
“I am honoured to share with you my spirit and story through my Didjeridoo, the Oldest wind instrument in the world. Take a breath, close your eyes and fly with me.” Norm Jurawaa Stanley
Norm will explore his story making process, drumming, the Didjeridoo, and improvised performance.
4.15pm – 5pm
Participatory Classical Indian Movement Performance
Dr. Priya Srinivasan
Dancer, choreographer and writer
Priya will share radical concepts of the body as a sound generating device using percussion, spoken word, melody and chants. Priya invites audiences to engage with these practices which have been decimated through colonial, national, patriarchal and caste based forms of oppression.
5pm
Vietnamese Farewell
James Nguyen, Victoria Pham and extended families
The day will conclude with an address by the artists, a farewell performance by James and Victoria’s extended families. The farewell will take place immediately at the conclusion of Priya’s workshop.
Speakers
James Nguyen is an Australian artist and filmmaker based in Melbourne. He has been commissioned by institutions such as the Australian War Memorial, the Museum of Contemporary Art for the National 2019, and others. A past recipient of the Maddocks Art prize and the Anne & Gordon Samstag International Visual Arts Scholarship, James has had the opportunity to develop projects and work collaboratively on experimental documentary, research and curatorial exchanges in New York City, Europe and the Asia Pacific.
Victoria Pham is an Australian composer, archaeologist and artist based between Sydney, Paris and London. She has been commissioned by institutions such as the Art Gallery of New South Wales, The Brett Whiteley Studio, Spineless Wonders and Maitland Regional Art Gallery and has featured in and produced segments of festivals from VIVID to Newcastle Writers Festival. She is the co-artistic director of sound-art collective Sonant Bodies and an archaeologist specialising in archaeoacoustics.
Chloe Chung is a celebrated cross-cultural flautist, optimal movement educator and Artistic Director of the Dreambox Collective. Whether it is playing the flute, dizi (Chinese bamboo flute), or collaborating with others working across various mediums, she is passionate about creating unique musical forms that bridge cultures and communities to form meaningful connections within the local and global community. As a passionate educator, she currently lectures at the Australian Institute of Music and teaches dizi (Chinese bamboo flutes) at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Chloe will lead the RE:TUNING sequence with the Dizi flute.
Bukhchuluun Ganburged (Bukhu) is a Mongolian Australian virtuoso throat-singer and Morin Khuur player. Bukhchuluun graduated in 2007 as a master student of the Mongolian Music and Dance Conservatory in Ulaanbaatar performing the Mongolian Statehood Long song recognised by UNESCO as one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. In 2013, Bukhu was featured in Angela Mesiti's work Citizen Band for the Anne Landa Award for video and new media arts at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. In 2015, Bukhu featured in the theme song for Sega's strategy video game title Total War: Attila. In the same year, notable composer and ABC Radio National host Andrew Ford named Bukhchuluun Ganburged amongst his selections for Australian Music Month. On 25 May 2016, Bukhu performed at the Sydney Opera House for TEDxSydney. In 2017, the Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences featured Bukhu in the This is a Voice exhibition at the Powerhouse Museum. Bukhu will lead the RE:TUNING sequence with throat singing and the Morin Khuur.
Norm Jurrawaa Stanley is a Kurnai / Wotjabaluk musician, artist and storyteller who was born on and still lives, works and plays on Wathaurong Country. He is a proud father of 5 children aged 22 to 11 months old. He has worked in many areas, but teaching his culture is his passion. Norm follows in the footsteps of his ancestors by sharing the stories of land, life and culture through the many different art forms he practises. Norm will lead the RE:TUNING sequence with the didgeridoo.
Dr Nicholas Ng is a composer, performer and Research Fellow at the Institute for Australian and Chinese Arts and Culture (Western Sydney University). A former Lecturer (Australian National University) and Research Fellow (Queensland Conservatorium), he has been teaching erhu (2-stringed Chinese fiddle) and theory at Sydney Conservatorium since 2016. Nicholas' upbringing in Old Rite church music combined with his world music interests has led to a unique style in his compositions for The Song Company, The Australian Voices, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and other ensembles. On the erhu, Nicholas has toured to festivals around Australia, New Zealand, North America, Canada and Europe. These include KunstenFESTIVALdesarts (Brussels), Sydney Festival and Auckland Arts Festival. He established the ANU Chinese Classical Music Ensemble (2003). Nicholas has curated a number of events including ENCOUNTERS: China (2010), Music in the Gardens (2012) and BrisAsia Festival (2012-2013). His artistic career has been documented on SBS Mandarin Radio, ABC Music Show, and in the Compass program Divine Rhythms (ABC TV and iView). Nicholas will lead the RE:TUNING sequence with the Erhu.
Dr. Priya Srinivasan is a dancer/choreographer/writer who lives on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri people. Her multidisciplinary practice combines dance, theory, performance ethnography, anti-colonial, equity and racial justice frameworks within a deeply embedded community-engaged practice to act as a catalyst for social, cultural and political change. She has choreographed major projects with the Hermitage Museum Amsterdam, Berlin Wall Memorial, Rockbund Art Museum Shanghai, Typografia Gallery Romania, Showroom Gallery London, Dakshina Chitra and Spaces Chennai, Adishakti Puducherry, Highways Los Angeles, AsiaTOPA, Dancehouse, Bunjil Place and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in Melbourne to name a few. She is co-Artistic Director of Sangam which she founded in 2019. Priya will lead the RE:TUNING sequence with physical movement and dance.
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Venue Information
Performances are being sold to 100% capacity in line with the NSW Public Health Order. This includes all shows in the Concert Hall, Joan Sutherland Theatre, Studio, Playhouse, Drama Theatre, Utzon Room and Forecourt. Please note that you will be seated directly alongside other ticketholders.
Our foyers will be open 90 minutes pre-show for Concert Hall and Joan Sutherland Theatre performances, and two hours pre-show for Western Foyer venue performances. Refreshments will be available for purchase from our theatre bars. Please remember to maintain physical distancing whilst consuming drinks in our foyers.
All Sydney Opera House foyers are pram accessible, with lifts to the main and western foyers. The public lift to all foyers is accessible from the corridor near the escalators on the Lower Concourse and also in the Western Foyer via the corridor on the Ground Level (at the top of the escalators). Pram parking will be available outside the theatres in the Western Foyer consistent with COVID-safe rules.
Transport options
- We encourage you to use private transport options to minimise crowding on public transport (in line with NSW Government advice).
- The Sydney Opera House Car Park, operated by Wilson Parking, is open and available to use. Wilson Parking offer discounted parking if you book ahead. Please see their website for details.
- Please check the Transport NSW website for the latest advice and information on travel and COVID-19 safety measures. You can catch public transport (bus, train, ferry) to Circular Quay and enjoy a 6 min walk to the Opera House.
What safety measures have you implemented?
Nothing is more important to us than the health and safety of everyone on site, and we are closely following NSW Health guidelines and advice. The Sydney Opera House is registered as a COVID Safe business with the NSW Government. For detailed information about our COVID-19 safety measures and what’s required of you when visiting, please see our plan your visit page.
What am I required to do as an audience member?
Face masks are strongly recommended for all patrons while inside our theatres and foyers, including during the performance. Please bring your own mask.
As you move around the Opera House, practise physical distancing (1.5 metres whenever possible) and follow the guidance provided by our staff and signage.
Within venues, always take your allocated seat.
For detailed information about our COVID-19 safety measures and what’s required of you, please see our plan your visit page.
Do I need to be vaccinated to visit the Sydney Opera House?
The Sydney Opera House no longer requires patrons to show that they are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
Am I required to wear a mask?
Face masks are strongly recommended for all patrons while inside our theatres and foyers, including during the performance. Please bring your own mask.
How are you managing contact tracing?
Contact information is required when making a booking with us and upon arrival at the Opera House, as set out in our General Terms and Conditions for Tickets and Attendance at Events and our Customer Privacy Statement.
As the ticket purchaser, you are responsible for recording the contact details of your guests. Contact information will only be used for the purposes of contact tracing, if required, and will be deleted at least 28 days after your event.
What time do I need to arrive before the event?
Ticket purchases and collection at our Box Office is discouraged and eTicket or postal delivery methods should be used, wherever possible. However, if you are collecting your tickets from the Box Office, we recommend doing this at least 60 minutes before the event starts. If you have already received your tickets, the venue doors will be open 45 minutes pre-show for Concert Hall and Joan Sutherland Theatre performances, and 30 minutes pre-show for Western Foyer venue performances. Please take your seats as soon as you arrive.
If you are late, we will seat you as soon as we can and, where possible, in your allocated seat. However, to reduce movement in the venue as well as minimise disruption to the performance and other patrons, ticketholders may be seated in an allocated latecomer’s seat. Please be aware that some events have lock-out periods. In these cases, latecomers will be admitted at a suitable break in the performance. On occasions, this may not be until the interval, or at all where there is no interval.
Details of our right to refuse admission can be found in our General Terms and Conditions for Tickets and Events.
Will there be bag checks, and is cloaking available?
In accordance with our venue security procedures, Opera House security will be scanning and checking bags under the Monumental Stairs, prior to entering the building. Bags will be scanned by an x-ray machine, and staff will wear appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) when handling your belongings, such as gloves. Cloaking facilities will be open 60 minutes pre-show for Concert Hall and Joan Sutherland Theatre performances, and 60 minutes pre-show for Western Foyer venue performances. However it is strongly encouraged that you travel lightly to minimise contact and queuing. Any bags larger than an A4 piece of paper will need to be checked into the Cloak Room.
What safety measures do you have in place?
The health and wellbeing of everyone attending the Opera House is our top priority. We have a number of safety measures in place including regular cleaning of high-touch areas, air conditioning systems that maximise ventilation, and hand sanitiser stations positioned in all paths of travel. We encourage visitors to wear a face mask in indoor settings or when physical distancing can’t be maintained. Please stay home if you feel unwell and read more about our flexible ticket options here.
Does my child need to wear a face mask?
Children under the age of 12 are not required to wear a face mask.
Who are the authorised ticket sellers for this event?
The authorised agency for this event is the Sydney Opera House.
Only tickets purchased by authorised agencies should be considered reliable. If you purchase tickets from a non-authorised agency such as Ticketmaster Resale, Viagogo, Ticketbis, eBay, Gumtree, Tickets Australia or any other unauthorised seller, you risk that these tickets are fake, void or have previously been cancelled. RESALE RESTRICTION APPLIES. For more details, please refer to our General Terms and Conditions for Tickets and Attendance at Events.
What if I can't come to my performance?
Please contact Box Office on 9250 7777 as soon as possible to advise if you can no longer attend. If you can no longer attend because you are unwell, or have been in contact with someone displaying COVID-19 symptoms, the Opera House has introduced flexible ticketing options to help you, find out more information here.
Will there be food and beverages available for purchase in the venue?
Foyers will be open 90 minutes pre-show for Concert Hall and Joan Sutherland Theatre performances, and two hours pre-show for Western Foyer venue performances. Refreshments will be available for purchase from our theatre bars.
The venue doors will be open 45 minutes pre-show for Concert Hall and Joan Sutherland Theatre performances, and 30 minutes pre-show for Western Foyer venue performances.
Please bring a credit or debit card for any on site purchases to enable contactless payment. You’re welcome to bring your own water bottle but no other food and drinks are permitted inside our venues. Opera Bar, Opera Kitchen and Portside are also available for you to enjoy.
Will there be pram parking at kids performances?
All Sydney Opera House foyers are pram accessible, with lifts to the main and western foyers. The public lift to the foyers is accessible from the corridor near the escalators on the Lower Concourse and also in the Western Foyer via the corridor on the Ground Level (at the top of the escalators). Pram parking will be available outside the theatres consistent with COVID-safe rules.
Can my baby sit on my lap?
Children aged 15 years and under must be accompanied at all times. Babies aged 0-2 years old at the time of a performance may be seated on an adult’s lap. Children 2 years and older will need to hold a standard ticket.
Can I smoke at the Opera House?
- The health, safety and wellbeing of everyone at the Sydney Opera House is our top priority. In line with this commitment, the Opera House will become a smoke-free site from Saturday 1 January 2022.
- By becoming a smoke-free site, the Opera House seeks to reduce exposure to harmful second-hand smoke, as well as minimise the impact of smoking on the environment, including litter and pollution of the surrounding marine environment.