Calendar of Events

May 6th, 2019 – Capital Metro Austin, TX; Cultural Diversity Celebration – Oceania: Capital Metro celebrates cultural diversity around the world with annual cultural events.  This year, the event will focus on Oceania and Austin Aboriginal Instruments will provide a cultural talk and musical performance, promoting the musical and artistic cultures of Australia’s top end.

 March , 2019 – Llano Earth Art Festival, Llano, TX: Held on the banks of the Llano River – one block from Llano’s historic downtown – the Llano Earth Art Fest (LEAF) is an interactive experience for young and old alike.  Watch internationally renowned artists defy gravity with amazingly balanced rock sculptures. Listen to great musicians fill the park with song. Try your hand at rock balancing or see if you’ve got what it takes to compete in the 2019 World Rock Stacking Championship. For kids there are plenty of activities, including a climbing wall, face painting, and more. Adults can enjoy a cold beer while taking part in workshops, viewing and creating art, or just relaxing in the sun.

Eliot Stone performed didgeridoo along with the musicians of Antares, an improvisational world music ensemble.

February 8th – 9th, 2019 – Bob Bullock Museum of Texas History & The University of Texas, Austin, TX; ANZSANA Annual Conference:

Australian and New Zealand Studies Association North America (ANZSANA) is a multidisciplinary academic association whose members share interests in Antipodean history, politics, society, literature, economics, and law. The association holds an annual conference that brings together an international group of academics, journalists, and diplomats who share research and discuss issues germane to Australian & New Zealand Studies. This year’s conference was held at The University of Texas at Austin.

Conference panels were held Thursday and Friday in the Glickman Conference Center on the University of Texas at Austin campus. Eliot Stone gave a lunch hour talk focused on his work developing Austin Aboriginal Instruments.

Eliot also performed didgeridoo alongside the musicians of Antares during a welcome reception for the conference at the Bullock Texas State History Museum.

September 6th, 2018 – The Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX; Perspectives: Ancestral Modern: The Blanton Museum of Art will again host AAI founder Eliot Stone for noon hour perspectives discussion of Aboriginal art, music, and performance.  The discussion will center around art pieces from Yirrkala currently on display in the Ancestral Modern exhibit, placed in the context of Eliot Stone’s personal experiences living with artists in Yirrkala. Eliot will also draw on his 12 year involvement in the international sale of Aboriginal art, production and commodification of Aboriginal culture, and the global popularization of didgeridoo performance.

July 16th, 2018 – Austin Chamber Music Center, Austin, TX; ACMC Behind the Scenes with Faculty: The Austin Chamber Music Center presented an Australia-inspired Behind the Scenes with Faculty workshop and concert, bringing together the musical talents of violinist Christabel Lin, cellist James Burch, and didgeridoo performer and AAI founder Eliot Stone to present a new composition by Australian composer Sam Lipman.

June 21st, 2018 – The Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX; Beat the Rush: The Blanton Museum of Art and the Austin Chamber Music Center present the Beat the Rush performance series, providing musical performance that correspond to special exhibits held at the Blanton.  This performance brought together the musical talents of violinist Christabel Lin, cellist James Burch, and didgeridoo performer and AAI founder Eliot Stone to present a new composition by Australian composer Sam Lipman.  The performance celebrated the opening of a temporary exhibit of Aboriginal Art on display at the Blanton through September 2018.

Ancestral Modern: Australian Aboriginal Art from the Kaplan & Levi Collection features contemporary painting and sculpture by Australian Aboriginal artists. Curated by Pamela McClusky, Curator of African and Oceanic Art at the Seattle Art Museum, the exhibition celebrates the renaissance that has occurred since the 1970s within the millennia-old traditions of indigenous Australian art.

Aboriginal people gained increased power and visibility in the late 1960s, following decades of grassroots activism. Since then, many artists have translated motifs from traditional art forms, such as rock and body painting, to media that can be more easily shared with viewers around the world. Their sculptures, large, colorful canvases, and intricately patterned bark strips and hollow logs bear symbols that communicate beliefs and histories, laws and rituals, and a profound connection to the land.

March 9th – 12th, 2018 – Llano Earth Art Festival, Llano, TX: Held on the banks of the Llano River – one block from Llano’s historic downtown – the Llano Earth Art Fest (LEAF) is an interactive experience for young and old alike.  Watch internationally renowned artists defy gravity with amazingly balanced rock sculptures. Listen to great musicians fill the park with song. Try your hand at rock balancing or see if you’ve got what it takes to compete in the 2018 World Rock Stacking Championship. For kids there are plenty of activities, including a climbing wall, face painting, and more. Adults can enjoy a cold beer while taking part in workshops, viewing and creating art, or just relaxing in the sun.

Austin Aboriginal Instruments hosted a sales booth for the duration of the festival, with 26 didgeridoos on offer.  Eliot Stone, RP Watson and Lance performed a 45 minute set at the festival’s main stage on Friday, March 9th at 1:30 PM.  Eliot also taught an introduction to didgeridoo performance workshop Friday, March 9th at 4:00 PM.