Composers
(in alphabetical order)
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Katy Abbott Katy Abbott’s work has been widely performed, recorded, awarded and published with recent performances by Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, Halcyon, The Flinders Quartet and a recording of her symphony Souls of Fire by The Kiev Philharmonic Orchestra. Abbott holds a PhD from The University of Melbourne. Abbott says of her music: ‘In my music, I am trying to capture the little things that make us human or happen to us because we are human. I seek to unpack the human side of life; humour, foibles, quirky things we do and say, beauty, grief and friendship’. |
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Brenton Broadstock Born in Melbourne, Brenton studied history, politics and music at Monash University, and later composition and theory, with Donald Freund, at Memphis State University in the USA and with Peter Sculthorpe at the University of Sydney.In 1991, he signed a publishing contract with G. Schirmer (Australia), the first Australian composer to do so. He has won numerous prizes for composition including First Prize in the 1981 Townsville Pacific Festival’s National Composition Competition; the Albert Maggs Award; two APRA Music Awards; First Prize in the Hambacher Preis in Germany; and in 1994 he received the Paul Lowin Song Cycle Award.His music has been performed at many international festivals in England, Germany, Japan, Hong Kong, Norway, Korea, and in Australia and further performances in New Zealand, Canada, Russia, Sweden, Spain and China. His orchestral music has been performed by all of the major orchestras in Australia as well as orchestras in Japan, England, Germany, Russia, Moldova, Ulster, and Finland.Brenton has written 5 symphonies, concertos for tuba, piano and saxophone, several orchestral works, 4 string quartets and much chamber, choral and solo music; also several major brass band pieces such as Winds of Change, which was commissioned, by the Yorkshire Building Society Brass Band and premiered at the 2000 European Brass Band Championships in Birmingham, and Gates of Day, premiered at the 2001 Melbourne International Festival.In 1988-89, he was the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s Inaugural Composer In Residence and in 1997 he received the Jean Bogan Prize, in 1998 the Michelle Morrow Memorial Award and an Explorations Opera Project grant. In 1998, he spent three months in Italy on fellowships awarded by the Civitella Ranieri Foundation and a Bellagio Award from the Rockefeller Foundation. In 1999, he received the prestigious Don Banks Award for his “outstanding contribution to Australian Music”, and his five symphonies were released on the Etcetera label in 2000.In 2004, Torre di Forza was the test piece at the Sydney International Piano Competition and ABC Classics released a CD of his orchestral works with Ola Rudner conducting the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra in December 2005. His chamber opera based on Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 was performed in Bonn, Germany in April 2006. In 2007, Brenton was a Vice Chancellor’s Fellow at the University of Melbourne. Website: www.brentonbroadstock.com |
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Stuart Greenbaum The Stuart Greenbaum sound has overt connections to jazz, pop and minimalism but the experience of listening to the music goes beyond these tangible influences. Greenbaum (Melb. 1966–) studied composition with Brenton Broadstock and Barry Conyngham at the University of Melbourne, where he now holds a position as Senior Lecturer and Head of Composition. Nelson, a 3–act opera written with long–time collaborator, poet Ross Baglin, was premiered at the 2007 Castlemaine State Festival. Current commissions include works for the Australia Ensemble, a double concerto for Sydney Omega Ensemble and a piece for the 2008 World Shakuhachi Festival. Greenbaum was a featured composer at the 2006 Aurora Festival in Western Sydney and has won a number of awards, including the Dorian Le Galliene Composition Award, the Heinz Harant Prize, and the Albert H. Maggs Composition Award. His most recent CD, Mercurial, was released in 2005. Website: www.stuartgreenbaum.com |
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Maria Grenfell Maria Grenfell (b. 1969) was born in Malaysia, and completed composition studies in Christchurch, New Zealand, the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, and the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, where she was also a lecturer. Maria Grenfell’s work takes much of its influence from poetic, literary and visual sources and from non-Western music and literature. Her music has been commissioned, performed or recorded by all the major symphony orchestras in Australia and New Zealand, and numerous chamber groups in Australasia and overseas, including the Australia Ensemble and the Vienna Piano Trio. Maria Grenfell is Head of Composition at the University of Tasmania Conservatorium of Music. She co-ordinates and teaches at the Symphony Australia TSO Composers’ School, an annual emerging composer program. Maria lives in Hobart, Australia, with her husband, guitarist David Malone, and their two children. Website: www.mariagrenfell.com.au |
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Andrián Pertout Andrián Pertout was born in Santiago, Chile, and in 2007 completed a PhD degree at the University of Melbourne on Tweddle Trust, Australian Postgraduate and Melbourne Research scholarships. Composition awards include the Dorian Le Gallienne Composition Prize, Betty Amsden Award, Louisville Orchestra Prize (USA), Oare String Orchestra Judges’ and Audience Prize (UK), Michelle Morrow Memorial Award, and the Zavod Jazz/Classical Fusion Award. Andrián’s music has been performed in over twenty-five countries by orchestras that include the Melbourne and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras, Orchestra Victoria, The Louisville Orchestra (USA), The Foundation Orchestra (USA), Orquestra Petrobrás Sinfônica (Brazil), La Chapelle Musicale de Tournai (Belgium) and the Oare String Orchestra (UK). Website: www.pertout.com |
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Johanna Selleck Johanna Selleck is a composer, flautist and writer. She teaches at Melbourne University and the Victorian College of the Arts, works at the Centre for Studies in Australian Music and recently completed a PhD (in Composition) at Melbourne University, studying under Professor Brenton Broadstock. She has composed a wide range of chamber, orchestral, vocal and electronic works. Her compositions have been published by the Centre for Studies in Australian Music, Allans and Reed Music and recorded by Move Records. Her works have been broadcast on the ABC, 3MBS and 3PBS. In 1990 Johanna was awarded the Percy Grainger Prize for Composition, and in 2006 she was awarded First Prize in the Albert H. Maggs Composition Award. Web: Johanna Selleck |