The death was announced earlier this evening of Peter Sculthorpe AO, OBE, arguably the best known Australian composer of the day. He was aged 85.
His output included works for orchestra, chamber ensembles, solo instruments and choral works. He is possibly best known for his integration of Aboriginal and South East Asian idioms into his writing creating a distinct portrait of the Australian Landscape.
Calvin Bowman, Australian composer, pianist and organist, joins the Decca Australia label with a world première recordings of his songs, Real and Right and True released on July 13, 2018. The title Real and Right and True, is taken from a set of nine poems by celebrated Australian cartoonist, writer and painter Michael Leunig, whose painting ‘Autumn Harvest’…
The ‘Modern Master’ Steve Reich talks to Phil Johnson of The Independent ahead of the world premiere of his new composition, Radio Rewrite drawn from the music of Radiohead. He discusses the musicians who influenced him. For Reich, Baroque and bepop, Coltrane and Classical were simply part of a spectrum, not to be segmented by labels. It is a fascinating…
The Royal Northern Sinfonia has commissioned a controversial new portrait of Mozart by American artist Tim O’Brien which portrays the composer as ‘ a “daring” and “edgy” musician in the mould of Johnny Rotten,’ dismissing Mozart’s “chocolate box” image. Click here to read the feature from the BBC.
One hundred days of lockdown, budget cuts, end-of-financial-year donation drives tinged with an added note of passion and a desperately uncertain future for the performing arts. It was against this stark backdrop that Musica Viva Australia grasped the helm and convened a webinar, What’s Next for the Arts? anchored by its CEO, Hywel Sims, with…
A new recording of the piano music of Elena Kats-Chernin, Butterflying, is due for release this week, as a double CD on ABC Classics (ABC 481 2625). Performed by ARIA-Award winner Tamara-Anna Cislowska and the composer herself, Butterflying is the first major survey of the piano music of Elena Kats-Chernin. Ever since her childhood in Uzbekistan,…
APRA AMCOS and the Australian Music Centre have announced that composer Helen Gifford OAM, is to be the recipient of the Distinguished Services to Australian Music Award for 2016. She will receive this honour at the Art Music Awards on Tuesday 16 August at the Plaza Ballroom in Melbourne. This singular honour is awarded by the APRA…