Kairos, from the Ancient Greek, καιρός: the opportune time, the right time, the time which should be seized.

A premiere performance of Phillippa Murphy-Haste's work for 7 musicians. Drawing on influences including Ravel, Duruflé, Jimmy Giuffre, Ornette Coleman, Joshua Roseman, Vaughan Williams, Ólafur Arnalds, as well as rituals from her childhood, the performance is an homage to ephemerality. The project is a combination of two ensembles; Microfiche and Alterity. Microfiche are a composer-performer collective formed in 2015 featuring Phillippa Murphy-Haste (clarinets and viola), Sam Gill (saxes), Nicholas Calligeros (trumpet, electronics), Novak Manojlovic (piano, synth), Max Alduca (double bass), Holly Conner (drums, percussion, electronics). Alterity is the duo of Paul Cutlan (clarinets, flutes) and Murphy-Haste (clarinets). Kairos is composed by Phillippa Murphy-Haste and has been collectively arranged with the ensemble.

The work is supported by the Freedman Foundation.

About the composer
Phillippa Murphy-Haste is a multi-instrumentalist clarinets-specialist and composer on unceded Garigal land. Her artistic practice covers a broad range of contexts to which she brings experience in jazz, classical, experimental, improvised music, theatre, inter-arts and cross-cultural collaborations. Her favourite instruments to play are clarinets (A, B flat, bass) and viola.

Phillippa’s playing is featured on the global top-selling videogame Valheim, award-winning true-crime podcast Unravel: Snowball (2020 Best True Crime Podcast, Australian Podcast Awards) ABC Radio, the immersive and interactive exhibition Tyama, at the Melbourne Museum (2022-2023), and The Importance of Being Earnest (Sydney Theatre Company, 2023).

Phillippa is a member of several ensembles including the composer-improviser collective Microfiche, the duo Alterity, Sirens Big Band, and Cerulean Plume. With Microfiche she has released 2 studio albums, receiving a 5-star review in Dingo Jazz Journal, and 4-stars in The Sydney Morning Herald. Microfiche received a 5-star review (Limelight) for their performance at Phoenix Central Park alongside Mike Nock and Andrea Keller’s Transients. Phillippa has performed at Copenhagen Jazz Festival, Sydney Festival, OzAsia Festival, Wangaratta Jazz Festival, Graphic Festival at Sydney Opera House, STRATA, Sydney International Women’s Jazz Festival, Sonic Festival (Denmark), Speak Satellite Festival (Wollongong), the Now Now, and Converge Festivals. She is the 2023 Freedman Jazz Fellow.