Bell Curve
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Sunday, 3 May 2026
11:00 am
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Member's Hall
Australian Parliament House
Bell Curve is a powerful sonic intervention that places Victoria’s iconic Federation Hand Bells — a gift marking the centenary of Federation — into one of the most symbolically charged spaces in the nation: Members’ Hall at Australian Parliament House. Situated at the intersection of Parliament’s architectural axes, directly beneath the flag mast and between the Senate and House of Representatives, this central chamber becomes the resonant stage for a site-specific spatial work that listens deeply to history, power and possibility.
Composed by Eugene Ughetti, Bell Curve is now being offered to Noongar musician, conductor and composer Aaron Wyatt to be decolonised across 2026. Through this process, the work will be re-examined, reshaped and expanded through First Nations knowledge systems, cultural practice and community consultation. The performance features twelve local community members, trained by Speak Percussion, who activate the Federation Hand Bells in a spatial choreography of sound. Surrounding the audience, the performers are guided by networked click tracks and a quadraphonic sound system that enables perfectly calibrated attacks, resonances and timbral shifts.
At its core, Bell Curve is a study in rhythm, resonance and geometry. Ughetti’s score draws on principles of physics — pendulum motion, spatial dispersion and even the behaviour of gravitational waves — to create patterns that stretch, refract and ripple through the space. The bell pitches are analysed spectrally, forming harmonic relationships with sine tones that generate shimmering overtones, difference tones and uncanny acoustic illusions revealed through deep, concentrated listening. The result is an immersive sonic experience that transforms Parliament’s heart into a place for reflection, deep listening and a process cultural reclamation.
‘You can hear the sound in front of you, behind you, beside you – it’s moving in three dimensions’
‘A gem of an immersive experience…. a marvellous work… Bells were struck then waved, in different configurations, bowed, stroked, muted on the carpet, separately and together. I’m sure the old St Brigid’s church in Crossley has never heard anything like it.’ Classic Melbourne
‘Experience the original and then return next year to hear ‘Decolonising the Bells’ – First Nations composer Aaron Wyatt’s reimagined and decolonised version of the work’
Artists
Speak Percussion
Kaylie Melville, Director
Aaron Wyatt, Lead
Community participants
Program
Eugene Ughetti Bell Curve (2016)
Duration: 55 min, no interval
Photo credit: Jody Haines
ARTIST Learn more about the artist
Artist Eugene Ughetti
Eugene is the founder and Co-Artistic Director of Speak Percussion as well as the Artistic Director of the Canberra International Music Festival. He is known worldwide as a trailblazer in art music whether as director, composer, performer or conductor.
He has collaborated with iconic figures in new music such as Pierre Boulez, Liza Lim, Steve Reich, and John Zorn.
As a soloist, chamber, and orchestral musician Eugene has worked across the globe. He has premiered new concerti with Australian Symphony Orchestras and worked with renowned conductors including Charles Dutoit, Lorin Maazel, Sir Andrew Davis, and Valery Gergiev.
Eugene’s compositions have been commissioned by The Australian Ballet, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra the ABC, and other prestigious institutions. His works have been featured at international festivals and venues, including Darmstadt (Germany), Roulette (USA), SONICA (UK), Ruhrtriennale (Germany), Transart (Italy), Lucerne Festival (Switzerland), Noordezon Festival (The Netherlands), SIPFest (Jakarta), National Museum (Singapore), Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (UK), and George Town Festival (Malaysia).
Eugene has received many prestigious awards, such as the inaugural Sidney Myer Creative Fellowship, the Freedman Award for Classical Music, and the Luminary Art Music Award (organizational). He is a PhD candidate at Monash University, focusing on Signature Pedagogies in Creative Collaboration.
Eugene’s classical training, diverse leadership experience, and adventurous spirit make him a pioneering force in the Australian music scene.
Photo credit: Bryony Jacks
Artist Speak Percussion
Speak Percussion takes percussive art to its physical and conceptual extremes. We shape the sounds of 21st century Australian percussion music through the creation and presentation of ambitious arts projects. Internationally recognised as a leader in the fields of experimental and contemporary classical music, Speak redefines the potential of percussion. From solo concerts to massed sound events, interdisciplinary projects to sound installations, participatory work to album releases, our “breathtakingly impressive” (The West Australian) work is presented locally and globally in concert halls, theatres, galleries and site-specific locations. Speak Percussion has been responsible for 240+ commissions and premieres of new percussion works, contributing new 21st Century masterworks to the global percussion repertoire.
Artist Kaylie Melville
Kaylie Melville is a percussionist, director and curator based in Naarm (Melbourne), Australia. Kaylie is the co-Artistic Director of new music organisations Speak Percussion and Rubiks Collective, and frequently works with leading Australian ensembles and orchestras as an independent artist. Dedicated to new music performances, commissions and collaborations, she has been noted for her “extraordinary ability to impart a sense of musicality to even the smallest gestures”.
Kaylie has performed in the world premieres of many nominated and award-winning Australian works, including Rubiks’ ‘Rorqual’ (Outstanding Sound Work nominee, 2025 Green Room Awards), Liza Lim’s ‘Atlas of the Sky’ (Performance of the Year, 2019 Art Music Awards) and Kate Neal’s ‘Semaphore’ (Performance of the Year, 2016 Art Music Awards). Her festival appearances include RlSING, Sydney Festival, Salihara Festival (Indonesia), Australia Fest (India), George Town Festival (Malaysia), and the Percussive Arts Society’s International Convention (US).
Photo credit: Darren Gill
Artist Aaron Wyatt
Aaron is an accomplished violist, conductor, composer, programmer and academic. He has played in a wide variety of ensembles across many different genres, and is a long term member of the award winning Decibel New Music ensemble. As well as performing with the ensemble, he is the developer behind the Decibel ScorePlayer app, the group’s cutting edge, animated graphic notation software for the iPad.
An emerging conductor, he was nominated for a Helpmann Award for his role as musical director of the premiere season of Cat Hope’s opera, Speechless, and is the director of Ensemble Dutala, Australia’s first First Nations chamber ensemble. An advocate for Indigenous classical music and musicians, he premiered Deborah Cheetham Fraillon’s work, Nanyubak, for viola and orchestra as a soloist with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and during a conducting engagement with them he became the first Indigenous Australian to conduct one of the state symphony orchestras in concert. He has since gone on to work with the ASO and SSO, and conducted the premiere of the first opera in Noongar, Gina Williams’ and Guy Ghouse’s Koolbardi Wer Wardong with the WA Opera.
As a composer he has been a participant in the Ngarra-Burria First Peoples composer program, writing for Ensemble Offspring. He has also written a number of electro-acoustic works, using a mix of traditional and animated graphic notation for Decibel, GreyWing Ensemble, Ensemble Dutala, and for Kyla Matsuura-miller’s Freedman Fellowship project, Three Conversations.