Aulos Revival

In 2020, Austin joined the 'Aulos Revival' as initiated by scholars from Oxford and Cambridge University. His collaboration with Barnaby Brown produced new perspectives and culturally-responsive pedagogical resources for this historical instrument, known as the instrument of Greek tragedy (~500 BCE).

After months of practice-based artistic research, they presented five types of vibrato and a new technique that they coined ‘timbral transition’. This technique led to a new hypothesis for the birth of ancient Greek musical notation. Joint articles are forthcoming to assist fellow teachers, composers, and performers in the revival. The new 'timbral transition' technique that Austin developed is featured in his scores for the opera.

Austin was also invited by the Centre for Classical and Near Eastern Studies of Australia to talk about the intersections of this research with spectral music composition. There is no tragedy without the aulos, and his work shows not only how this historical instrument is meant to sound, but also how it resonates with contemporary musical contexts.