Bee-Sharp Honeybee
Rae Howell composer
Sunwrae String Orchestra | Rae Howell conductor
BEE-SHARP HONEYBEE from composer Rae Howell is an immersive journey through the secret life of bees, performed here by the Sunwrae String Orchestra, intertwined with the hum of a live honeybee hive. It is the foundation of a large-scale multimedia work, featuring live animated projections synchronized with the music, and a real-time stream of honeybees, filmed, amplified, and intermittently fed through the live performance.
Developed from extensive research into bee (buzz) rhythm, pitch, and “waggle dance” patterns (the sophisticated system of communication between bees, detailing the distance and direction of nectar in the environment), BEE-SHARP HONEYBEE magnifies the subtle intricacies of the beehive, highlighting these distinct patterns, identified through field recordings made during the initial research and development of the project.
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Track Listing & Credits
| # | Title | Composer | Performer | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Bee-Sharp I | Rae Howell | Sunwrae String Orchestra | Rae Howell, conductor | 10:17 |
| 02 | Bee-Sharp II | Rae Howell | Sunwrae String Orchestra | Rae Howell, conductor | 3:26 |
| 03 | Bee-Sharp III | Rae Howell | Sunwrae String Orchestra | Rae Howell, conductor | 2:30 |
| 04 | Bee-Sharp IV | Rae Howell | Sunwrae String Orchestra | Rae Howell, conductor | 16:08 |
Sunwrae String Orchestra, conducted by Rae Howell
Violin 1
Zac Johnston, Natasha Conrau, Cameron Jamieson, Jessica Bell
Violin 2
Isabel Hede, Sophie Dunn, Ruby Paskas, Leigh Raymond
Viola
Phoebe Green, Biddy Connor, Aaron Wyatt
Cello
Campbell Banks, Gemma Kneale, Oscar Woinarski
Double Bass
Miranda Hill, Vivian Qu
Recorded January 12, 2023 at Empire Music Studios in Melbourne, Australia
Producer Rae Howell
Recording Engineer Trevor Carter
Editing & Mixing Engineer Alex Stinson
Mastering Melanie Montgomery
Acknowledgments
This album has been made possible with the support of Creative Victoria (Australia), with special thanks to the bees of BUUKAAR WAARUUNG Boutique Apiary.
Executive Producer Bob Lord
A&R Director Brandon MacNeil
A&R Chris Robinson
VP of Production Jan Košulič
Audio Director Lucas Paquette
VP, Design & Marketing Brett Picknell
Art Director Ryan Harrison
Design Edward A. Fleming
Publicity Aidan Curran
Artist Information
Rae Howell
Rae Howell is an award-winning Australian composer and multi-instrumentalist. She is founding director of Sunwrae, a music performance and production enterprise, and works across a vast range of music concert hall and multi-artform projects. She has studied music in Melbourne, London, and New York; she lectures in music and creative industry subjects; and has worked professionally in many places across the globe, producing a large catalog of original music albums, publications, and collaborative recordings.
Sunwrae String Orchestra
Founded in 2001 in Melbourne Australia, Sunwrae features some of the finest musicians from Australia, hand-picked for their expertise in music performance, improvisation, and individual style. Directed by Rae Howell, and flexible in their instrumental line-up, Sunwrae captivate audiences through diverse music and multi-artform projects, residencies, and performance experiences beyond the conventional music concert.
Notes
The heart of Bee-Sharp Honeybee stems from community, social impact, and how we as humans are intrinsically linked to the land and affected by environmental concerns, with the objective of engaging with, educating, and raising public awareness of bee culture, bee research, and the importance of pollinators to human survival.
The project began working in collaboration with hobby beekeepers, scientists and researchers, musicians, animators, and a filmmaker, with an immersion in field recordings, spectrograms, and frequency graphs. Musical starting points grew from the technical data and after extensive development, Bee-Sharp Honeybee gradually emerged. The initial score was a collection of hand-illustrated graphic music sketches, featuring intricate rhythm and pitch patterns of the bee buzz, the “waggle dance,” and was based on the way a beehive functions (the main objective was that the musicians read directly from the score, encouraging them to interact, listen carefully, experiment with pitch and texture possibilities, and engage with more eye contact). The final score and parts were developed on manuscript for ease of the overall live performance production.
An award winning short documentary of the-making-of Bee-Sharp Honeybee, directed by Deacon Warner (United States), toured international film festivals during 2018-2019, and the world premiere live performance of the work garnered Rae Howell a finalist in the 2020 APRA AMCOS Art Music Awards in Australia.
Bee-Sharp Honeybee is directed by Howell, with live performance projections by CJ. Bees by Mother Nature.
Produced by Sunwrae, Bee-Sharp Honeybee has been supported by Creative Victoria, APRA AMCOS Art Music Fund, The Finzi Trust, The Eric Stokes Trust, The Pollination Project, and a large cohort of Sunwrae Subscribers. With thanks to UMN Bee Research Lab, The Bee Squad, Deacon Warner, Jenny Warner, Film North, Kurt Weimer, Celia and Ron Wirth, Ex Ponto Productions, Little Projector Company, Phoebe Green, Zac Johnston, The Nati Bee Man, and BUUKAAR WAARUUNG Boutique Apiary.
Sunwrae String Orchestra | Rae Howell, conductor performing Bee-Sharp, photo by Michelle McFarlane
Sunwrae String Orchestra | Rae Howell, conductor performing Bee-Sharp, photo by Michelle McFarlane
Videos
World Premiere of Bee-Sharp Honeybee at the Natimuk Frinj Biennale
