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Known now as ‘Black Summer’, the Australian wildfires of 2019–20 scorched an area three quarters the size of the UK. 3 billion animals were killed or displaced, 27 native bird species were listed as threatened as a result. In one day alone, half of Kangaroo Island’s endemic bird population were incinerated. More than 100 Australian plant species had their entire populations burned. Over 3,000 human homes were destroyed, with 33 civilian deaths. The disaster was both exacerbated by and further fuelling climate change through massive CO² and soot emissions.

“There was panic around the severity of air pollution as masks sold out in Sydney,” writes Annette Liu. “It prompted a national debate and rallies with tens of thousands of students protesting. An open letter was signed by more than 400 international scientists calling on the government to commit to science-informed policies to combat human-driven climate change.”

A hint of silver lining amid such mass destruction has been a turning to First Nations leadership on land management through cultural burning practices. 

Firesticks is one such Indigenous-led enterprise committed to collaborative action. The organisation activates traditional knowledge systems and Cultural Fire to heal and strengthen landscape and address critical environmental, biodiversity, and climate issues. The resulting mosaic of trees and grasslands protects the highly combustible Eucalyptus forests against intense bushfires. With the arrival of Europeans, much of this practice has given way as fire became feared rather than harnessed as a tool to manage the scrub. 

Ruthless Jabiru and Ensemble Offspring’s combined musical programme represents an imagined foray into the sound and emotional landscape of bushfire. Repertoire includes the world premiere of a Ruthless Jabiru-commissioned orchestration of Florence Maunders’ 2021 string quartet, Not Getting Out; regional premieres of four works commissioned by Ensemble Offspring for its acclaimed Songbirds programme (composers Gerard Brophy, Robert Davidson, Brenda Gifford, Nardi Simpson); further European premieres by Brenda Gifford and Holly Harrison; and closing with Thierry Pécou’s epic Rorqual, evoking a scorched apocalypse through the symbolism of the whale: this most ancient of creatures drawing a poetic line to the first Australians, the world’s oldest continuing civilisation.

Ruthless Jabiru is a chamber orchestra of professional Australasian musicians in the UK exploring a unique combination of activism, new music and immersive theatre. Now in its 15th year, the orchestra creates performance work around issues and ideas that are complex, challenging, urgent; and through its unique style of orchestral storytelling, makes them beautiful, evocative, provocative. 

Joining Ruthless Jabiru for the first time as part of its 2026 European tour, Ensemble Offspring has been a leading figure in Australian contemporary music and composer advocacy for 30 years. The ensemble’s pioneering First Nations Program, now in its 10th iteration, is underpinned by long term relationships with First Nations collaborators and consultation with community. As Ensemble in Residence for Ngarra-Burria: First Peoples Composers since 2016, Ensemble Offspring have been an integral part in the development of the careers of almost twenty of Australia’s most well-recognised Indigenous composers.  

The performance will be hosted by London contemporary music favourite IKLECTIK at the organisation’s new home within Peckham Levels. A seasoned promoter dedicated to experimental sound, embodied performance and creative exploration, IKLECTIK represents a cross-disciplinary approach to culturemaking and gathering shared wholeheartedly by Ruthless Jabiru and Ensemble Offspring.

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storY angles

Victor Steffenson, Firesticks Co-Founder
“We’re trying to take away the flammability of the Country. We’re bringing back the right plants for the right soil types to create a healthier, more open, more diverse landscape with more food for the animals; but more importantly, so it’s not a ticking time bomb in the dry season. Indigenous knowledge allows us to burn cool, ensure cleaner smoke quality by burning at times when the landscape isn’t so flammable. We’re doing it really safely, there’s no stress.”

Kelly Lovelady, Ruthless Jabiru Artistic Director
“The idea that our fear of fire is the result of colonisation – I find this extremely powerful. Even more so when it’s the introduced species that are fuelling our wildfires to be so fearsome in the first place. Even watching from as far removed as London is terrifying and emotional. It feels like a conversation we need to keep in circulation.

I love the symbiotic tangle of language and concepts at play in this programme. We’ve all heard of black ice, that invisible danger waiting to wipe us out on the roads. Surely the slipperiest slope of all is our inexplicable, generational resistance as a society to First Nations ecology management. It’s a conversation around land rights, intercultural bureaucracy, trust. Deference to Aboriginal knowledge and leadership on landcare seems so logical and so long overdue: we’re in crisis, we urgently need their ice on this pain point.”

Claire Edwardes, Ensemble Offspring Artistic Director
“The Black Summer bushfires were a moment when Australia collectively confronted the devastating reality of climate change in our country. This programme is our musical response to that trauma – but also to the resilience that follows. Working alongside Ruthless Jabiru, we’re bringing together powerful new Australian voices and First Nations perspectives to reflect on the musical landscape of fire, loss and regeneration. Music has the capacity to hold grief, provoke reflection and inspire action, and it feels especially meaningful to share these stories internationally, reminding audiences that the climate crisis is simultaneously local and global.”

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artist biographies

Established in 1995, Ensemble Offspring is Australia’s leading new music group. Uniting the country’s most fearless instrumentalists under the direction of internationally acclaimed percussionist Claire Edwardes, they subvert classical music traditions and deliver concerts that pop and burst on stage, creating “visceral, joyous music.” (Sydney Morning Herald).

As the foremost champions of contemporary music in Australia for over 30 years, Ensemble Offspring have commissioned and premiered almost 400 works and have toured new Australian music around the world. Their dedication to excellence and amplifying marginalised voices including First Nations, female identifying and emerging artists, has earned multiple APRA Art Music Awards and ARIA Award nominations. Through their pioneering spirit and relentless commitment to equality, Ensemble Offspring continue to shape a vibrant and diverse artistic future for Australian music.

Ruthless Jabiru is a chamber orchestra of professional Australasian musicians in the UK merging contemporary music and activism to promote compassion, sustainability and social consciousness. Under the leadership of its founding Artistic Director, conductor-curator Kelly Lovelady, Ruthless Jabiru delivers curated performance events themed around humanitarian, sustainability and social justice stories in collaboration with the campaigning sector. The orchestra’s projects have explored ideas including forced migration, asylum policy, ethical sponsorship in the cultural sector, historic nuclear testing at Maralinga, female dis/empowerment in honour crime, and the UK’s first climate refugees. The forthcoming collaboration with Ensemble Offspring is the first of Ruthless Jabiru’s 15th anniversary season.

Kelly Lovelady is an Australian conductor-curator and cultural activist with a passion for experimental programming, concert dramaturgy and composer advocacy. Lovelady has devised, self-produced and conducted massed musical and cross-artform projects for festivals around the world and is in demand in the UK and abroad as a Musical Director, Guest and Cover Conductor with a focus on contemporary repertoire and composer collaboration.

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critical acclaim

cutcommon

“In a music industry that can often feel impenetrable—most of all for marginalised voices—[Ensemble Offspring]’s mission is not just honourable, but essential. In other words, it is not just doing the right thing, it is doing what’s necessary for the survival of new music in Australia.”

limelight magazine

“It would be impossible to imagine an ensemble better able to play and relate to this music than Ensemble Offspring, that crack band of Sydney musicians led by the extraordinary percussionist Claire Edwardes. Their performance never faltered, it was startling, energised and energising, delivered with extraordinary panache and almost clinical precision.”

tempo journal

“Kelly Lovelady conducted with masterful sensitivity throughout. Her carefully considered programming makes abundant conceptual sense. [Ruthless Jabiru’s Silk Moth] was one of the most remarkable musical experiences of my year, demanding that we look and listen. A sincere and sensitive exploration of ethnicity, domesticity and violence.“

night after night

“[Sarah Saviet is] accompanied with muscular elegance by the brilliantly named, London-based, Australasian activist chamber orchestra Ruthless Jabiru and conductor Kelly Lovelady—who sustain a fever-pitch intensity throughout this gripping album. A knockdown debut.”

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event details

Ruthless Jabiru & Ensemble Offspring:

Black Ice

IKLECTIK
Peckham Levels, 95a Rye Lane, Peckham, London SE15 4ST (⦵ Peckham Rye)
19:30, 24 April 2026
LINK TO BUY TICKETS ►

PROGRAMME

Robert Davidson Kookaburra Riff _{EUROPEAN PREMIERE 7’}
Brenda Gifford Bardju (Footsteps) _{EUROPEAN PREMIERE 3’30}
Nardi Simpson Of Stars and Birds  _{UK PREMIERE 4’30}
Brenda Gifford Biwaawa (Cold East Wind) _{EUROPEAN PREMIERE 4’}
Holly Harrison Black Ice _{EUROPEAN PREMIERE 10’}
Robert Davidson Raven Riff _{EUROPEAN PREMIERE 7’}
Arlene Sierra Excerpts from Birds & Insects _4’
Gerard Brophy Hummingbirds from Beautiful Birds _{EUROPEAN PREMIERE 6’}
Florence Maunders (Still) Not Getting Out _{WORLD PREMIERE 5’}
Thierry Pécou Rorqual _{UK PREMIERE 10’}

ARTISTS

Ensemble Offspring
— Claire Edwardes percussion
— Zubin Kanga piano
— Lamorna Nightingale flute
— Jason Noble clarinet
Ruthless Jabiru
Kelly Lovelady conductor

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We are open to all opportunities for editorial, broadcast and social media coverage including:

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Press enquiries to: 
Kelly Lovelady: Artistic Director, Ruthless Jabiru
Claire Edwardes: Artistic Director, Ensemble Offspring

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