March Static is an immersive mobile work for massed musicians that reframes the marching band phenomenon as a celebration of community gathering around peace, rather than representations of military might.
Composed by Thomas Meadowcroft (AU/DE) and led by new music luminaries Speak Percussion, March Static brings together a mass of roaming musicians, creating a gentle spectrum of choreographed sound to envelop its listeners.
The work is site-specific and reimagined for every new location — both indoor and outdoor. The assembled musicians move in and around the audience as they perform, reframing the performer-audience relationship while simultaneously challenging the traditional marching band format.
Thomas Meadowcroft is a freelance composer who makes orchestral and chamber music for the concert hall, as well as music for theater and radio. His work has been described as “reaching an inexpressible purity” (Le Monde), “dreamy post-rock” (The New York Times), “never-ending, sugar-sweet” (Neue Zürcher Zeitung), and “hauntingly beautiful” (The Sydney Morning Herald). His music has been performed by, among others, the BBC SO, the SWR Big Band and SO, the German Film Orchestra Babelsberg, and the Mädchenchor der Sing-Akademie zu Berlin.
Past Presentations
March Static UK Premiere at Norfolk & Norwich Festival
In early May, Co-Artistic Director Kaylie Melville and Bec Reid (All the Queens Men) travelled to Norwich to collaborate with musicians from CoMA (Contemporary Music for All), a UK charity that fosters innovative partnerships between amateur and professional musicians. Together, they presented the UK premiere of March Static as the opening event of the Norfolk & Norwich Festival on Friday 9 May.
This new version of Thomas Meadowcroft’s work reimagined the traditional marching band through bespoke choreography, transforming it into an immersive sonic experience that celebrated community and peace over military power. Ethereal chords drifted through the audience, periodically disrupted by bursts of marching percussion.
Image credit: Norfolk & Norwich Festival / Luke Whitcomb
March Static at Monash Performing Arts Centre
Speak Percussion brought a new version of Thomas Meadowcroft’s March Static to Monash University.
Throughout March, Co-Artistic Director Kaylie Melville worked with Bec Reid (All the Queens Men) and Kyall Shanks (Yellow Wheel) to explore new choreographic ideas and approaches to roaming performances. An ensemble of musicians from Monash University and dancers from Yellow Wheel presented a showing of March Static in early April, taking over the university’s Clayton campus.
Outside the Matheson Library, audiences heard hypnotic beats, eerie melodies, and caught glimpses of strange, otherworldly choreography.
Performers: Kaylie Melville, Bec Reid, Kyall Shanks, Tamara Kohler
March Static featured in Sonic Eclipse at RISING festival
March Static, a striking work for massed wind players, drummers, and percussionists, brings together over 50 performers in a mobile, anti-military art music piece designed to interact fluidly with audience, site, and space. Coordinated via FM radio transmission, musicians move through internal and external areas of the Melbourne Recital Centre, executing precise rhythms and choreographic sequences. Think Music for Airports by Brian Eno — but with greater flair and spatial complexity.
Presented as part of Sonic Eclipse — an immersive percussive experience — March Static joins three other new Australian compositions in a continuous flow of spatialized sound. The performance unfolds across three floors, culminating in the Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, transforming the venue’s acoustics and expanding the boundaries of conventional concert performance.
Image credit: Gregory Lorenzutti
March Static at Four Winds Festival
Presented as part of the Festival’s opening weekend, March Static it brought together over 50 local student and community musicians in collaboration with visiting Festival artists.
Through choreographed movement and sound, performers navigated the audience, softening the boundaries between stage and spectator while disrupting the conventions of the marching band format. The morning performance combined ethereal harmonies and bursts of percussion with the ambient sounds of the beach, offering a gentle and reflective start to the day — and to the Festival weekend.
Image Credit: David Rogers
Artists
Supporters
March Static would not have been possible without the support of the following people and organisations.
Australia Council for the Arts
Creative Victoria
City of Melbourne
Partners
