Later this month I’m directing the Australian premiere of a performance with astronomical proportions (quite literally) – a musical exploration of the Southern Sky from The Griffyn Ensemble and astronomer Fred Watson, under the stars at the ruins of Mt Stromlo Observatory in Canberra before performing in Melbourne and Bendigo. It’s fitting that a piece [...]
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Giant Cynicism
Last Friday there was a lot of noise made about the AFL’s latest franchise, the Greater Western Sydney Giants new theme song: Maybe it is a little cynical of me, but from listening to it, it seems that the AFL Marketing Department asked The Cat Empire’s Harry Angus (who wrote the song) for a song [...]
money from music
You do some private teaching and sometimes give burnt CDs to your students because you know they won’t go and buy them if you ask them to, and you don’t want to lend your own CDs to people. You have also just spent $10,000 on an album with your group and after 3 months of [...]
Overcoming string-quartet-phobia
(As published in the Australian Music Centre’s Resonate Magazine) I have always been terrified of writing a string quartet – what could a developing Australian composer possibly have to offer the genre which boasts hundreds of masterworks by luminaries such as Beethoven, Ravel, Shostakovich, Haydn, etc. Perhaps my love for the string quartet repertoire was [...]
birds from East Africa
I wish I read more. I just don’t seem to read enough (although ironically, almost everytime I do read something I’m inspired to write a piece of music about it – funny that). One of the few times I do tend to read is when I’m away travelling – I’ve recently been in Adelaide working [...]
Musica Viva Festival
I’m currently up in Sydney for the 2011 Musica Viva Festival, taking some quick & dirty video snapshots as an insight to what’s going on. For a full list of the videos click here, or you can check out ABC Classic FM’s microsite. Videos feature a range of musicians – Festival artists, AYO students, audience [...]
illicit passions
an open letter to the Griffyn mailing list: Dear Griffyn-ites From the Baroque to Rock n’ Roll, The Griffyn Ensemble returns to Belconnen Arts Centre and open the brand new Calwell Performing Arts Centre on April 1st-2nd with two special concerts of inflamed desires and rapture. We’ll be performing music exploring the sordid side of [...]
sculpting sound?
Artist Susan Philipsz has received the Turner Art Prize for a sound installation Lowlands. She records herself singing a Scottish lament in three different locations, under bridges in Scotland, and then layers them on top of each other. She doesn’t describe herself as a musician, or a ‘sound artist’, but instead, she ‘scultps sound’ (apparently [...]
riot or not?
For the first time, I’ve been watching video footage from Stravinsky/Nijinksky’s ballet Rite of Spring, and have asked myself, what would happen if the work was premiered today? The premiere of the Rite of Spring by the Ballet Russe in 1913 is famous for being the scene of one of the most significant artistic riots in [...]
Griffyn American Songbook this week…
A recent letter sent to all our Griffyn friends – the rehearsals have been going great – Saturday is going to be something we’ve never quite done before – very excited about it! Dear Griffyn-ites A (gentle) reminder to book tickets for this Saturday’s Griffyn American Songbook at Belconnen Arts Centre, 5pm. We’ve been putting [...]
