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Category Archives: News

04 Sep

Metamorphosis

Opera Australia has announced that Brian Howard‘s opera Metamorphosis will receive a new production in the 2018 season.

This will be the fourth production of this opera after Nigel Triffitt (VSO) Melbourne, Graeme Murphy (OA) Sydney and John Milson (WAAPA) Perth.

Metamorphosis will be staged in Sydney on 26, 27, 28 and 29 September 2018 and in Melbourne on 25, 26 and 27 October 2018.

The new production will be directed by Tama Matheson with set and costumes by Mark Thompson.

Paul Fitzsimon will conduct with Simon Lobelson, Julie Lea Goodwin, Christopher Hillier, Taryn Fiebig, Adrian Tamburini and Benjamin Rasheed as the cast.

Find out more from Opera Australia: https://opera.org.au/whatson/events/metamorphosis-sydney

02 Jul

Rhoderick McNeill and Carl Vine on ABC RN The Music Show

Recently Rhoderick McNeill, author of The Music of Carl Vine, and the composer Carl Vine himself were invited to talk about the book with Andrew Ford on ABC Radio National’s The Music Show. During the show several movements from Vine’s Anne Landa Preludes are played, as well as an excerpt from the April 2017 recording of Five Hallucinations, concerto for trombone, played by Michael Mulcahy with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, conductor Mark Wigglesworth.  The show aired on Sunday 2nd July 2017; you can listen to the show online at the following link: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/musicshow/music-of-carl-vine/8668152

03 Feb

New Release: ‘The Music of Carl Vine’ by Rhoderick McNeill

Wildbird is delighted to announce the publication of the fourth volume in the Australian Composers series , The Music of Carl Vine. This book has been written by Professor Rhoderick McNeill, Head, School of Arts and Communication at the University of Southern Queensland.

Carl Vine is one of Australia’s great composers. He has been writing music for over forty years. His works include 7 Symphonies, 5 String Quartets, Concertos for Violin, Oboe, Piano (2) and Cello and his much awaited new work Five Hallucinations (2016) for Trombone and Orchestra. His compositions also include major works for the piano, choral, chamber and orchestral music. He is also well known for his ballet and film music including The Tempest and The Battlers.

Vine’s music has been examined by Rhoderick McNeill in this new Wildbird publication. McNeill is particularly known for his book The Australian symphony from Federation to 1960.  A large number of musical examples have been included throughout the book to enable music students, teachers and the interested public to see the key features of Vine’s creative world. Written by leading authorities on Australian music, books in the Australian Composers series are an important resource designed for all music students and teachers, university students and libraries interested in the work of Australia’s leading composers.

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03 Jan

Wildbird books and scores now available from the Australian Music Centre

Wildbird Music is delighted to announce that our publications can now be purchased through the Australian Music Centre.  While all titles are still available to order directly from the Wildbird Website, as before, this means you can now add Wildbird music scores or books from the Australian Composers series to your Australian Music Centre order for scores, recordings and books.  Visit www.australianmusiccentre.com.au to view the comprehensive range and place your order.

22 Sep

Premiere of new work by Brian Howard

Brian Howard’s Desires Ingrained (2016) for solo violin will be premiered at the first of the three After the Silence concerts in Amsterdam in October. This work will be performed by Vera Van Der Bie on 3 October 2016. The concerts will present a series of compositions all 8 minutes or less in duration. Kate Moore and Konstantin Koukias will also have works performed at these concerts.

Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/138974306552240/

Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.nl/e/tickets-after-the-silence-new-sounds-concert-1-of-3-27684587346

31 Mar

Limelight Australian Composition Seminar 2016

Wildbird Music is delighted to support the Limelight Australian Composition Seminar again in 2016.  Taking place on Tuesday 19 July at Santa Sabina College, Strathfield (Sydney), and hosted by Karen Carey, Richard Gill and Andrew Batt-Rawden, we hear this special and enriching event for secondary school music teachers and students has already sold out.

We’re very pleased that alongside workshops of student compositions, the music of Wildbird composer Brian Howard will be featured this year, with a performance and analysis of Voyage through radiant stars 6, the stand-alone string quartet movement from Howard’s larger chamber work Voyage through radiant stars, also connected with the solo saxophone work Voyages 1-8. We’re looking forward to the education kit arising from the seminar, as well as a recording of Voyage through radiant stars 6.

30 Oct

Peter Sculthorpe Music Fellowship 2015

The Wildbird team is delighted to announce that our Operations Manager, Peggy Polias, has been awarded the inaugural Peter Sculthorpe Fellowship, sponsored jointly by the NSW Government and Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney.

In the words of NSW Deputy Premier and Minister for the Arts, Troy Grant: “This Fellowship is in honour of the enormous contribution to Australia’s musical heritage by Peter Sculthorpe AO OBE, who is widely acknowledged as one of the nation’s most significant composers.  The fellowship will honour his contribution by supporting the professional development of an emerging NSW-based composer or performer dedicated to producing new Australian music.”

During the coming year, Peggy intends to record her Picnic at Hanging Rock Suite (2011) for digital release; compose, workshop, develop and present a new work Hive for clarinet, viola and piano/keyboards; and embark on various professional development activities, including short courses, and intensive development of the Making Waves listening project co-curated with Melbourne-based composer Lisa Cheney.

We all wish Peggy a great year ahead as the Peter Sculthorpe Fellow.

23 Oct

Forthcoming concert celebrating Nigel Butterley

We’re delighted to share the news about a very special forthcoming concert.  On 31 October 2015 at 7.30PM, Arcko Symphonic Ensemble, together with ABC Classic FM, will present From Sorrowing Earth, a concert celebrating composer Nigel Butterley in his 80th birthday year.

Butterley’s works From Sorrowing Earth – a symphony – and In the Head, the Fire – a radiophonic work – will be performed, along with From Joyous Leaves, a new concerto by Elliott Gyger for piano and orchestra, featuring soloist Zubin Kanga, and based on Butterley’s piano work Uttering Joyous Leaves.

The concert will take place at Iwaki Auditorium, ABC Centre (Cnr Stuart Street & Southbank Boulevard, Southbank, VIC). Tickets are FREE, and can be reserved online: http://www.trybooking.com/Booking/BookingEventSummary.aspx?eid=153981