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30 Apr

‘The Music of Nigel Butterley’ reviewed in ‘Tempo’

The Music of Nigel Butterley by Elliott Gyger received a review in Tempo journal, Volume 70, Issue 276, April 2016, pp. 103-104. Reviewer Alistair Noble writes:

This book is a valuable publication for promoting an understanding and appreciation of Butterley’s music but I sense that its importance goes beyond this: it helps us also to understand a great deal about the nature of non-tonal musical composition in the latter half of the twentieth century.

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

16 Oct

New Audio resource now online

Here at Wildbird Music we’ve welcomed the feedback from some of our readers that the books in the Australian Composers series would be nicely complemented by recordings. We’ve asked the authors of the three volumes to date to suggest some essential listening for each of the composers they wrote about: up to 10 significant works by each composer that they may have analysed in-depth, and where recordings are readily available, especially in a digital format.

We’re delighted that authors John Peterson, Michael Hannan and Elliott Gyger share our enthusiasm for this new resource, and based on their suggestions we’ve been able to add a dedicated Audio section on the Wildbird website, where we’ve collated Spotify playlists for streamed listening and/or links to albums that you can get on iTunes if you prefer digital downloads.

If you already have copies of any of the books in Wildbird’s Australian Composers series, we encourage you to savour each composer’s sound world, revisit the musical analyses and check out the new Audio Resources pages on the Wildbird Music website:

Essential listening to works by Peter Sculthorpe, as suggested by John Peterson, author of The Music of Peter Sculthorpe.

Essential listening to works by Richard Meale, as suggested by Michael Hannan, author of The Music of Richard Meale.

Essential listening to works by Nigel Butterley, as suggested by Elliott Gyger, author of The Music of Nigel Butterley.

If you don’t already have copies of books in Wildbird’s Australian Composers series, this might be the feature that you were waiting for!

09 Oct

Special Education offer on books from the Australian Composers series

Wildbird Music are pleased to offer a discount especially for music students, music teachers and high schools or tertiary music institutions:

15% off purchases of 3 or more books from the Australian Composers series in one order (any combination of titles).
Enter the code 2015EDUoffer at checkout for website orders.
Offer valid until 31 December 2015.

You might like to take this opportunity to obtain each of the titles in the Australian Composers series if you haven’t already.  Or you might like to order several copies of one or all titles for use as a classroom textbook set.  Remember, there are 3 volumes so far in this important series:

And future volumes in the series are currently being written.

25 Jul

Limelight Australian Composition Seminar 2015

We’re looking forward to the Limelight Australian Composition Seminar tomorrow, 26 July, 2015 at Santa Sabina College, Strathfield.  There will be seminars and workshops for secondary school music students and teachers, and the day will finish with a concert at 4pm. We’re setting up a little stall where we’ll be selling books from our Australian Composers series.  If you’re attending, pop over and say hi!  We’ll be happy to chat or answer any questions about Wildbird’s activities.

04 Jun

“The Music of Richard Meale” Reviewed in The Studio

The Music of Richard Meale by Michael Hannan was reviewed by Dr Rita Crews in the May 2015 issue of The Studio, the journal of the Music Teachers’ Association of NSW. Dr Crews writes:

Very highly recommended, The Music of Richard Meale is a timely and valuable book containing detailed analysis of 37 diverse works and as such will be a great boon to students and teachers alike whilst contributing to overall research on the analysis of Australian music.