Composer Ellen Kirkwood is rapidly gaining recognition for her imaginative and daring style. Her debut album with sextet Captain Kirkwood, released in 2013 and named Theseus and the Minotaur, featured a 5 part narrated music-story suite which received glowing reviews and critical acclaim. She has since been commissioned to write pieces for a variety of large ensembles, including works premiered at the 2015 and 2016 Sydney International Women's Jazz Festivals. Ellen's music has been performed by international jazz luminaries Lisa Parrott and Claire Daly (USA) and celebrated local artists including Sandy Evans, Paul Cutlan and Matthew Ottignon.

We met Ellen at Creative portraits to talk about her amazing work on the Jazz suite - [Apart]. 

Written by Kirkwood during her Australia Council-supported mentorship with renowned composer Barney McAll, [A]part is an evocative engagement with what it means to exist in a world facing climate change, a global refugee crisis and the omnipresence of the internet. The music descriptively explores Kirkwood's reactions to these tumultuous world issues, and is her comment on our society's complex and shifting relationships with them, as we in the Western world are both part of, and apart from, these problems in so many different ways.

You can Watch a full documentary about [Apart] here:https://youtu.be/OhgFWHhVNNk

And purchase the album - https://ellenkirkwood.bandcamp.com/releases

Also we spoke about her new work  'Rumble', recorded live by her band Underwards.

Watch the performance here - https://youtu.be/IBXvwGHHxME

Find out more About Ellen Kirkwood on her website : https://ellenkirkwood.com/index.php