"Music notation is symbolic of music in the way that the written language is symbolic of speech."- Butch Morris

Sono-Kinetic Conducting is a communication system that replaces noted scores with a lexicon of hand gestures and baton movements. Developed by AAO Artistic Director Aaron Choulai, this language allows a conductor to compose in real time, with directives that create complex structures of form, harmony, rhythm and melody, and utilises the ensembles individual artistic voices to interoperate and improvise these directives, influencing the direction and content for organised and instant composition.

A lateral extension of Butch Morris’ ‘Conduction’, Anthony Braxtons Language Music and Walter Thompsons Sound Painting, Sono-Kinetic Conducting is designed to speak specifically to AAO’s artistic mission to create new music that is representative of the diversity of artists and artistic practice in our country and region, through using improvisation in a compositional framework and celebrate individual and distinct artistic voice.

This lexicon is teachable to musicians from all music traditions, on instruments from all regions and periods of time, and to musicians of all levels creating a widely accessible platform for collaboration, and a lingua franca across borders to allow for intercultural collaboration that begins from an equitable departure point.

Differing from structured improvisation, Sono-Kinetic Conducting is a true compositional language that relies on a dialog between the conductor and the player, and the players with each other. It reimagines the process of composition, and opens a pathway for individual artistic expression to shape compositional development. It rethinks how music can be communicated, achieving more accessibility for composers and players, and has potential to become an educational tool for beginners to participate in music creation from early age