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The music & audio-visual works of Australian composer
Martin Wesley-Smith have consistently taken as their theme
the universal struggle for human rights. His first piece
was "Kdadalak (For the Children of Timor)," created with
photo-journalist Penny Tweedie in 1977; his most recent was
last year's "Tekee Tokee Tomak," created after he'd been to
East Timor and witnessed both the post-1975 (& US-backed)
devastation of East Timor and the optimism of the Timorese.
Another theme in Martin's work is the bizarre universe of
Lewis Carroll, from which he sometimes cannot escape. In the last
two years, for example, the utter nonsense of world events has
forced him to include our old friend Humpty-Dumpty in his piece
"Weapons of Mass Distortion," which takes as its subject the
actions of the US government, particularly in Iraq.
Martin taught for many years at the Sydney
Conservatorium of Music. He is now a full-time composer,
a duck-keeper, and, increasingly, a multimedia activist.
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Ros Dunlop is a musician & human-rights activist.
She made two trips to East Timor in 2002 (with
Martin Wesley-Smith), giving concerts & handing out
instruments to musicians whose equipment & livelihoods had been destroyed by the
Indonesian armed forces. She had thought these two trips
might be the end of her "active" involvement with East Timor now
that it was a new nation in its own right. Instead, she & Martin
now find themselves working with the people of East Timor on an
ambitious project to recover indigenous music.
Ros has been a strong advocate for the cause of new
music for the clarinet for most of her professional life.
She has premiered many new compositions for clarinet & has
had many written especially for her. She has performed
in Australia, New Zealand, Europe & the USA. Her three solo CDs
have received wide acclaim. She teaches clarinet at the Sydney
Conservatorium of Music.
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![[Kids]](../graphics/ttt0.jpg "Kids")
![[Martin Wesley-Smith]](../graphics/th-martin.jpg "Martin Wesley-Smith")
![[Ros Dunlop]](../graphics/th-ros.jpg "Ros Dunlop")
