As part of Asia TOPA 2020 Arts Centre Melbourne is presenting the world premiere of Dragon Ladies Don’t Weep by boundary-pushing musician Margaret Leng Tan – also known as the queen of the toy piano.
Dragon Ladies Don’t Weep presents itself as a sonic portrait. Simply put, the event is an exploration of Tan’s particularly playful flavour of avant-garde music, where themes like time, memory, control and loss will be examined. Throughout all of which you can expect Tan to be performing music composed for toy pianos, prepared pianos (where objects have placed among the strings to “prepare” the piano and change the sounds), percussion and toys against a backdrop of projections and spoken text.
The event was created with Tan’s Brisbane-based collaborator Erik Griswold and will be led by Chamber Made artistic director Tamara Saulwick. The premiere event will also be Tan’s first proper foray into theatre (as opposed to concerts), with a host of Australian and Singaporean artists signed on to create an immersive, unconventional experience.
