SALVO opens SIMA’s JazzNow series on 20th of March by featuring Hamed Sadeghi, Sabine Tapia with Harley Coleman and Novak Manojlovic’s new project CEREMONY at the Petersham Town Hall.

Conceived by 2025 Artistic Director Novak Manojlovic, this interactive performance aims to blur the line between the ‘us’ of the performer and the ‘them’ of the audience by having the listener engage with the music on their own terms. In this unique one-off event, a bespoke listening environment encourages audiences to move freely through the space; taking a seat right up close or contemplating the rich acoustics of the vast hall from a distance.

“This is an idea I’ve been trying to present for a while - I have been somewhat disillusioned in the past in live performance contexts by what feels like a perceived distance between the people making the music and the people receiving the music. Sometimes I feel the geographic realities of performance venues contribute to this dissonance. By re-framing the performance environment and minimising certain prohibitive sonic infrastructures, this show aims to make the audience feel as though the music is happening all around them - that they are engulfed by it; indeed, a part of it”. - Novak Manojlovic, Artistic Director.

Hamed Sadeghi will present a solo tar performance imbued with cultural depth as well as his own distinct virtuosic voice before Sabine Tapia and Harley Coleman introduce us to their sophisticated song structures which deftly incorporate their rich understanding of both song form and improvisation. Finally, SIMA Artistic Director Novak Manojlovic’s new project CEREMONY will explore the possibilities of acoustic music by bringing together a horn-fronted ensemble of his long-term collaborators to celebrate community and oppressed notion of music as ‘gift’.