Top-notch Sydney chamber group Omega Ensemble took a sharp turn in direction about a decade ago when Artistic Director David Rowden started looking towards the now and the future.

Alongside mainstream Classical, Romantic and 20th century repertoire the ever-adventurous clarinettist started commissioning new works by internationally acclaimed contemporary US composers such as Nico Muhly alongside established and rising Australian talent.

Taking it a step further Omega set up The CoLAB Composer Accelerator Program six years ago, putting young homegrown talent through a nine-month intensive creative workshop in which their specially written new works were put through the wringer with eminent mentors and the ensemble’s musicians.

At the end of this rigorous process the works would be heard for the first time at one of Omega’s concerts.

Omega Ensemble: New Now. Photo © Gabrielle Clement

This year it was the turn of four composers – Robert McIntyre from Victoria; Kiwi Jessie Leov; Tasmanian Thomas Misson and NSW’s Beth Roche – to have their quintets premiered by Rowden with Mark Ingwersen (violin), Neil Thompson (viola), Paul Stender (cello) and Vatche Jambazian (piano).

Each piece lasted about 14 minutes and the composers gave a brief introduction.

Matthew Hindson, alongside Muhly, Christopher Cerrone and Holly Harrison, was on the team of mentors this year and one could detect some of his influence in the driving rhythms and repeated riffs in a couple of the pieces, but the four works were also strong in originality.

McIntyre’s two-part Solastalgia opened the program. Its title comes from Australian environmental philosopher Glenn Albrecht’s term for a sense of homesickness while you are still at home, or a breaking down of environmental nostalgia as we face climate challenges.

Neil Thompson, Vatche Jambazian and David Rowden. Photo © Gabrielle Clement

The first part, Nostalgia, opens with hazy strings, warm piano phrases and billowing clarinet runs but the mood soon becomes agitated with glissandi and plucked strings and, after a rather beautiful lushly melodic interlude, a strong rhythmic riff takes hold with increasing dissonance over the pulsing piano.

Leov’s a map to nowhere was inspired by a bushwalk with a child through a forest where she saw “a stunning artwork” of patterns, resembling a map, on a tree trunk stripped of its bark.

Hushed clarinet and plucked viola create a sense of awe before the piano’s flurries, sliding strings and bent clarinet notes open out the journey. Playful pizzicato and a scurrying insistent pulse bring the piece to a vivid climax.

Misson believes we are now “disconnected, distanced and overstimulated away from the act of connecting deeply with ourselves and our senses” and feels that music, as well as food and drink, might be just what we need.

He combines both in his The Cicerone Suite in which music is matched to four different beer types – Hefeweizen, Belgian-style Blonde, Dry Irish Stout and West Coast IPA.

The first one obviously has the strong kick of the German brew with strong declamatory chords from Jambazian, bubblegum-popping pizzicato and trills from Rowden. Laid-back clarinet and building high notes over plucked cello denote a Belgian with a fine head and low, slow, bass timbres show that the Irish porter is not to be hurried.

Some fine string writing encourages us to “listen to ourselves and music deeply” – in Misson’s words – over a refreshing and piney pale ale.

Omega Ensemble: New Now. Photo © Gabrielle Clement

Beth Roche took a 14th century English folktale from County Durham for her piece The Lambton Worm, about a man who catches a worm while fishing, tosses it down a well, goes off to fight in the Crusades and returns home years later to find that it has become a giant dragon threatening the town.

The opening has the retro quality of a soundtrack for a black and white movie thriller. Acrobatic runs from clarinet and cello and a propulsive rhythm set the scene before a duet from Ingwersen and Thompson’s viola over powerful piano chords signal all is not well in the well.

As Lambton battles the giant worm a repetitive ascending riff builds and builds until it ends, literally, on a high note from Rowden.

The four world premieres made for an entertaining and varied glimpse into the works of four talented composers who represent our musical future. The New Now indeed.

For more information on Omega Ensemble’s CoLAB Composer Accelerator Program, visit this link.