'Live and Die with the Butterflies Part 2 – on a Knife's Edge' (Floods of Fire)

Back in March, our Head of Jazz, Mark Simeon Ferguson, put together a group of third-year students to perform for the Elder Con Jazz Department's contribution to Floods of Fire in the Adelaide Festival. The project was called 'Live and Die with the Butterflies part 2 – On a Knife's Edge' and featured climatologist and PhD candidate Darren Wray, his amazing ball contraption, his excellent commentary on how we can all make a difference for the health of our planet and two new and one revised composition by Ferguson.

Ferguson has continued to work with this group of students – Daisy Davidson (alto saxophone), Emily Dennis (baritone saxophone and clarinet), Victoria Katsoulis (trombone), James Ho (double bass), and James Nisbet (drums) – on a couple of other projects, including a visit to Victor Harbor High School for an Open Academy Connection Day. 

The same group also recorded a short video for the 2024 UNESCO Cities of Music Jazz Relay. Musicians from each UNESCO City of Music were invited to record their version of Korean composer Park Si Yeon's tune 'Bird, Bird, Blue, Bird' – our group performed Ferguson's arrangement of the tune. The videos are currently being compiled into a suite which will be broadcast on International Jazz Day, Tuesday 30 April. Big thanks to Liam Somerville from Capital Waste Productions for the video, and our own tech wiz Dylan Cooper for recording the audio, and Joe Hay from Adelaide City of Music for making it all happen.