How do you score a ballet about Parliament House? That was the challenge for composer Huey Benjamin. As he is a former Canberran, it seemed appropriate he should compose the music for Monument, one of the works in the Australian Ballet's Symmetries, which opens on Thursday as part of the Collected Works Australia: 2013 centenary program at the Canberra Theatre.
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Six months ago, Benjamin came back to his birthplace with choreographer Garry Stewart and designer Mary Moore and toured the building while Parliament was not in session to get a feel for the place. There had been early discussions about using sounds and voices from parliamentary sessions but these were discarded as ''too obvious'', he said.
''I would have loved to have Paul Keating slagging off everybody,'' the 52-year-old composer said.
He took a different approach.
''I recorded a lot of room sounds and ambiences and doors closing.''
Benjamin integrated these into his electronically produced score.
''I came up with a piece of music that would propel the choreography,'' he said.
Monument was the latest in a series of collaborations with Stewart in Australia, Britain and France.
Benjamin has established himself as a multi-talented musician and filmmaker, with credits ranging from co-writing the music for the film Spotswood (1992) starring Anthony Hopkins to producing, directing and composing the score for the 2000 documentary The Healing Wave. But he wasn't an overnight success.
Benjamin began learning the drums in Canberra at age nine and by the age of 14 was performing in gigs around town. He dropped out of Canberra Grammar School in year 11 to go to Sydney as drummer with the band G Force. They had a recording contract and interest from a big management company. ''It doesn't happen every day to a 17-year-old schoolkid,'' Benjamin, 52, said.
But their first record didn't sell and the band broke up within a year. All the other members went back to Canberra but Benjamin stayed in Sydney, intent on a musical career.
''I was playing in a series of awful cover bands, stuff like that,'' he said.
In the early 1980s he began working with the Tasmanian band The Innocents, which had a couple of top 20 hits. Word of mouth began to get him more work as a session and touring musician with bands such as Dragon and Yothu Yindi.
He stopped touring when his wife Narelle, a choreographer and frequent collaborator, gave birth to their first child in 1993. But by then he was working a lot from his home studio.
As well as his musical life, Benjamin has worked for more than a decade for environmental non-government organisations.
Monument is on as part of Symmetries at the Canberra Theatre from Thursday, May 23 to Saturday, May 25. Tickets $50-$109. Bookings: 6275 2700.
