“To be human” program note
Will Kepa was born and raised in Cairns, and is of Torres Strait Island First Nations heritage. Music and dance was a part of his family culture from a young age, and he completed a Diploma of Music at the Cairns TAFE college. Kepa is very active as a multi-instrumentalist in contemporary popular music ensembles – including Festival appearances around Australia and several international tours – and also as an audio engineer and music producer, including an extensive audio and film audit of Northern Australian First Nations and Torres Strait Islander music and dance. He is currently undertaking Bachelor of Music (Composition for Film and Video Games) on Scholarship at the Australian National University. In 2019, Will joined Ngarra-Burria, an artist development program for First Peoples musicians to develop their composition skills and connect with the art music sector. The program was initiated by Dharug composer Chris Sainsbury. In early 2021, Kepa was appointed the position of Recording Officer at the newly established ‘Yil Lull’ First Nations Recording Studio at the ANU School of Music.
Sleepless dreaming was commissioned in 2021 by Maree Kilpatrick as part of her Doctor of Musical Arts candidature research into Australian piano trio repertoire, which prior to this time included little or no representation of First Nations Australian composers. Will Kepa stated about the story behind the work:
‘Sleepless Dreaming’, coming from the angle of memories I have of growing up when my Mother/Aunty/Grandmothers would sing me to sleep with “scary lullaby’s” about the ‘boogie man’ or other mythological creatures from ancient Torres Strait stories, who may be coming to get me in the night if I don’t go to sleep soon! We would cover all the mirrors inside the house so that if you woke up in the middle of the night, you wouldn’t see what was in the room around you through the mirror. I’m laughing at it now, but it doesn’t seem like something I would do to my kids, although it was very effective! I remember as a child all I wanted to do was close my eyes and stay asleep until morning came!
Sleepless Dreaming draws stylistically from the musical and dance of the Torres Strait Islands, and we are excited to be presenting the world premiere of this work today.
