Australian Composers' Concert

20/03/2020

https://www.cutcommonmag.com/this-bunch-of-outstanding-australian-composers-will-host-an-all-original-concert-online/

CURATED BY CHRISTOPHER HEALEY FOR CUTCOMMON The Australian Composers’ Concert 2020 was supposed to be performed for you live and in the physical world. But with the COVID-19 outbreak leading …

16/03/2020

A tremendous thank you to Kammerklang for a very generous contribution to get the ball rolling and helping to make this undertaking less mammoth!

Chris Healey is asking for your help.

16/03/2020

Let there be MUSIC!

Corona is here and looks determined to stick around for a while... But so are we! It's times like these we need music and we're going to make sure you get it!

After some careful consideration and some lateral thinking, we will be partnering with CutCommon to bring this concert to you!

~~~We will no longer be having an audience at the venue* ~~~

We will instead be having an audience wherever YOU are, whether that's self-isolation, on your lunch-break at work, ChromeCast to your telly, or in the private underground cinema of your mansion.

On the 29th, we will descend on the venue, a flock of determined musicians, to make and record a FANTASTIC concert of new Australian work for you. Then once we've had a chance to get the recording uploaded, *everyone* will be able to enjoy the concert for free through the CutCommon website. They are going to be our digital concert hall!

As a fully self-funded project, impacted by the safety concerns of this escalating situation and making this last-minute change means that we no longer have revenue from tickets* to help cover the expense involved.

Therefore:
We need your help!

http://fnd.us/c1dRta?ref=sh_a8qro3

Help us keep music being made. Throw us a gold coin, buy a copy of the recording, become a Patron/Sponsor, or Commission a new work with the money going to fund the

Every little bit helps.

If you can't support us financially, support us by sharing this fundraiser with others who might want to. Sharing IS caring!
[Except if it's Corona virus, in which case, keep that to yourself!]

* If you have purchased tickets already, I will be in touch with you directly in the coming days.

We are Australian composers bringing exciting, heart-filled new music and we need your help. Together, nine composers and 13 of Melbourne's finest musicians have been hard at work preparing for audiences a programme of 11 new compositions for an ...

07/03/2020

Meet Composer, Lisa Cheney! Her work "Black on White" for Solo Piano will be performed by pianist Sam Colcheedas / Pianoman Sam at the upcoming Australian Composers' Concert on the 29th of March at St Stephen's Anglican Church, Richmond Victoria.

Get your tickets now!
www.trybooking.com/BHSIU

More about Lisa:
~~~

Lisa Cheney (b.1987) is an Australian composer of acoustic and acousmatic music, hailing from Queensland and now living in Melbourne. Her music communicates through varied styles which often explore notions of connection and authenticity through fascinations with the 'edge' of beauty; expression, poeticism, fragility, delicacy, resonant space, pacing, light and dark and atmospheric soundscapes. Cheney's work has been described as 'atmospheres of unfathomable spaciousness' (Partial Durations), 'melodic slivers with plaintive intensity' (The Australian) and 'fantastic and frightening in its detail and colour' (Resonate). Her body of work incorporates orchestra, chamber, voice, acousmatic collaborations, arrangements and works for theatre and ballet.

Cheney has received several accolades, including grants from the Australia-Korea Foundation, the 2017 Art Music Fund, the Griffith University Owen Fletcher Postgraduate Award the Silver Harris and Jeff Peck Composition Prize. Her music has been commissioned and performed by The Southern Cross Soloists, The Australian Voices, Queensland Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra, Plexus, Syzygy, Sydney Antiphony, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and the Australian Ballet amongst others.

She has participated as a student and fellow at the 2010 Atlantic Music Festival (Maine, USA), 2012 Australian Youth Orchestra National Music Camp, 2013 Brevard Music Centre Institute (North Carolina, USA), 2013 Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Cybec 21st Century Composers' Program, 2015 Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra's Composers' School, 2016 Yale Norfolk New Music Workshop (Connecticut, USA) and 2017 VIPA Festival and Academy (Valencia, Spain). Her work 'The Pool and the Star' written as part of the MSO Cybec Program, was selected by the MSO for performance at the Metropolis New Music Festival under the baton of Finnish maestro Olli Mustonen.

Cheney holds a Bachelor of Music in Composition and Master of Music from the Queensland Conservatorium of Music where she studied with Gerard Brophy and Dr. Gerardo Dirie respectively. Her research in to the early career experiences of female composers in Australia was supervised by Dr. Brydie-Leigh Bartleet. She is currently completing a PhD in Music at The University of Melbourne, supervised by Dr. Elliott Gyger and Dr. Katy Abbott-Kvasnica.

Cheney's passion for championing new music can be seen in her role as co-founder of 'Making Waves' and an executive producer of the Making Conversation: Australian Composers' Podcast. In 2017 she was named the Victorian Young Achiever of the Year for the Arts. Thanks to the support of the APRA AMCOS Art Music Fund Award, she is currently working on a new opera for children based on Edward Lear's nonsense poem, The Owl and the Pussycat scheduled to premiere on the Gold Coast, Queensland in April 2018.

Throughout 2017 she will have works performed by the Australian Discovery Orchestra, Joseph Rebman (harp), Johnathan Henderson (flute) and the Brisbane Philharmonic Orchestra.

Lisa Cheney is available to consider commissions and collaborations. Orders for scores and personal contact can be made through e-mail - [email protected]. Select scores are available for purchase through the Australian Music Centre.

27/02/2020

Meet composer, Matan Franco! come and hear two of his works at the upcoming Australian Composers' Concert. March 29th St Stephen's Anglican Church, Richmond Victoria

Tickets available here:
https://www.trybooking.com/BHSIU

~~~

More about Matan:

Matan Franco is a composer, orchestrator, arranger and performer with a varied and diverse musical background.

Matan graduated as Valedictorian of his cohort with First Class Honours from the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music in December 2015, with a Bachelor of Music (Hons) specialising in Composition and undertaking minor studies in classical voice. He was the recipient of several awards throughout his time at the Conservatorium, including the Lionel Gell Foundation Scholarship for Composition, the Joyce McKenna Scholarship and the Adolph Spivakovsky Award for Composition.

Traversing genres ranging from Contemporary Classical and Jazz through to Film Music, Music Theatre and Pop, for solo musicians, chamber and orchestral ensembles, Matan’s music is often characterised by a deep melodic sensibility and rhythmic vitality.

Matan is passionate about film, and has collaborated numerous times with his older brother Oran (www.oranfranco.com), a Bachelor of Film graduate from the Victorian College of the Arts. Most notably, Matan composed the scores for Oran’s short films Like Children and Good Boy, which have both screened at various film festivals around the world and online.

In 2018, Matan was commissioned by the parliament of Zaragoza in Spain (alongside five international composers) to compose a short work to be featured in an audio-visual artefact highlighting the world-famous Aljafería Palace (a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Zaragoza). The resultant non-narrative documentary, ‘Aljafería: 6 Miradas’, was officially selected for the 2019 Zaragoza en Corto Film Festival, and was awarded third prize in June 2019.

As a performer, Matan was chosen as a soloist to perform with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra as part of its annual educational concert in 2005, and was cast as one of the three Spirits in the New Zealand Opera Companyʼs production of Mozartʼs The Magic Flute in 2006. He also has a strong background in music theatre.

Born and raised in Israel until the age of ten, in 2014 Matan returned to his home country when he was invited to perform in a range of concerts celebrating the centenary of the birth of one of Israel’s most renowned composers, Sasha Argov. Most notably, Matan performed alongside Israel’s leading artists in a concert held by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra at the Mann Auditorium in Tel Aviv.

In 2015, Matan originated the role of the Dad in Victorian Opera’s world premiere of Joseph Twist’s youth opera, The Grumpiest Boy in the World. At the same time, Matan was selected as young composer-in-residence with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra for 2015-16, through its Rising Star program. In this capacity, Matan was commissioned to compose three new works, the last of which was premiered by the full Orchestra at its annual educational concert at the Auckland Town Hall, in May 2016.

In 2018, Matan graduated with First Class Honours from a 1-year Masters in Scoring for Film and Visual Media at Pulse College (Dublin Institute of Technology) in Ireland, where he was the recipient of the 2017-18 Christopher Young Scholarship, and was generously supported by the Australian Music Foundation.

In 2019, Matan was commissioned to compose two new orchestral works which were premiered by the Stonnington Symphony Orchestra and Bendigo Symphony Orchestra. His work Anamnesis, performed by Bendigo Symphony Orchestra, was awarded ‘Best Original Composition’ as part of the inaugural Victorian Community Orchestra Project in August 2019.

(Current to January, 2020)
www.matanfranco.com

18/02/2020

Come and hear Sam Cooke's work 'Prismatica', arranged for Ensemble Françaix at the Australian Composers' Concert on the 29th of March, St Stephen's Cathedral, Richmond.

Tickets available here:
https://www.trybooking.com/book/event?eid=592404

More about Sam:

Sam Cooke is a flautist and composer from Melbourne. She has a Bachelor of Music from Melbourne University majoring in flute and composition, a Graduate Diploma in Contemporary Music Technology from La Trobe University, and a Graduate Diploma in Screen Composition from the Australian Film Television and Radio School. Sam composes for a wide range of instrumentation from concert band to flute ensemble, as well as music for film. Her flute ensemble works are regularly performed at the National Flute Association conventions in the US by various groups, and in 2016 Sam received an Honourable Mention in the American National Flute Association Newly Published Music Competition. Sam has extensive performance experience in orchestral, chamber music and theatre, and currently plays flute with Stonnington Symphony in Melbourne.

14/02/2020

Meet veteran Australian composer, Julian Yu. His fabulous China Fantasy will be performed by Ke (Chris) Lin at our upcoming Australian Composers' Concert.

Tickets available here:
www.trybooking.com/BHSIU

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About Julian Yu:

Born in Beijing in 1957, Julian Yu settled in Australia in 1985. He studied composition at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, later joining the teaching staff there, and from 1980 to 1982 studied at the Tokyo College of Music with Joji Yuasa and Schin-ichiro Ikebe. In 1988 Julian Yu was a Composition Fellow at Tanglewood where he studied with Hans Werner Henze and Oliver Knussen.

Julian Yu has won many awards for composition, including the 1988 Koussevitzky Tanglewood Composition Prize; the inaugural and consecutive Paul Lowin Orchestral Prizes of 1991 and 1994; the 1992 Vienna Modern Masters Composition Award; awards in the International New Music Composers' Competitions of 1987, 1988, 1989 and 1990; the 35th Premio Musicale Citta di Trieste, Italy 1988; the 56th Japan Music Concours 1987; the international Irino Prize Competition, Japan 1989; the International 'Piano 2000' Composition Competition, Japan; the Albert H. Maggs Composition Award 1988 and 2015; the Jacobena Angliss Music Award 1989; the Adolf Spivakovsky Composition Prize 1993; the Margaret Lee Crofts Fellowship (USA) 1988; and an Australia Council Composer Fellowship in 1995.

His work has been performed at many international music festivals including four times at ISCM World Music Days (Switzerland in 1991 and 2004, Mexico in 1993 and Luxemburg in 2000), five times in the Asian Composers' League (ACL) festivals, at the Huddersfield Festival, the Shanghai Spring Festival (2004), the Munich Biennale (1988), and the Melbourne International Festival (1996).

Yu's major works include Philopentatonia, commissioned by IRCAM for Ensemble InterContemporain and later performed by Ensemble Modern, the London Sinfonietta, and the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra conducted by Heinz Holliger; Three Symphonic Poems, performed by Sydney Symphony under Gunther Schuller; Great Ornamented Fuga Canonica, performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Oliver Knussen; Wu-Yu, performed by the Tanglewood, BBC, Luxembourg and Hiroshima Orchestras; puppet music theatre The White Snake, commissioned by Hans Werner Henze and performed at the second Munich Biennale International New Music Theatre Festival; Sinfonia Passacaglissima, performed at the Sydney Opera House by the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra under Markus Stenz; Marimba Concerto, performed by Evelyn Glennie; Not a Stream But an Ocean, commissioned for the BBC Proms; The Future of Water, commissioned by the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra; and Willow and Wattle, commissioned by Melbourne Symphony and performed to great acclaim during their tour of China. Yu also composed music for the Beijing Olympic Games

Yu believes that quality and beauty in music come from something deeper than the sound produced: that they spring from the pattern of thought, the inner laws or structure of the music, and that it is this inner pattern which gives integrity and individual character to a work.

Biography provided by the composer — current to 2016

11/02/2020

Meet composer and pianist Sam Colcheedas (Pianoman Sam)

Come and hear Sam's Aromatic Fantasy for String Quartet performed by Invictus String Quartet. March 29th @ 2pm
Australian Composers' Concert
Tickets Available Here:
www.trybooking.com/BHSIU

More about Sam:
Sam has performed extensively around Melbourne and internationally. Alongside performing as a soloist and chamber musician, he is also a composer.
Initially studying Mechanical Engineering for three years at the University of Melbourne in 2014, his underlying passion was always the piano since he began learning the instrument at the age of 6. He is currently resident pianist for the South Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Sam’s first public recital was in 2009 with cellist Joanna Tidy, at the Warburton Arts Centre. Since then he has performed in and around Victoria as a soloist, orchestral pianist and chamber musician and also travelled more recently to Italy to perform alongside highly regarded Italian pianist Edoardo Lenza in a piano duo recital. He also has performed numerous times live on air for 3MBS as a soloist and an associate artist, most notably as a competitor for ‘The Talent’ series 2, 2018.

As an avid chamber musician, he works extensively with other pianists performing and recording the great piano duo repertoire such as Fauré’s Dolly Suite, Rachmaninov’s 6 Morceaux op.11 and Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite. He has performed in masterclasses with pianists such as Geoffry Saba, Professor Ian Holtham, Igor Machlak, Stephen McIntyre, Glen Riddle, to name a few. As a composer he has been commissioned organisations such as The Royal Society of Victoria, where in 2019 he premiered his solo piano work ‘It’s getting dark now’ at Parliament House Victoria for National Science Week. Other works include his climate change inspired piece ‘A wayward Zephyr’ (2017) that was commissioned by The Carlton Connect Initiative for the exhibition ‘Naturophilia’ with artist Peter Sharp. More recently, his Aromatic Fantasy for String Quartet (2019) was premiered by the Invictus Quartet and was said to be “…melodic and stunningly evocative” – FeverPitch Magazine (November, 2019).

​He possesses his AMusA, DMus (MCM) and BMus (MCM) of Piano Performance at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music where he studied under the tutelage of renowned Australian pianist, Caroline Almonte.