It is a great pleasure to have been appointed recently as the Chair of the Music Board of the Australia Council.
Through this I do hope to make a contribution to the ongoing cultural life of Australia through music.
Category Archives: New Composition News
New recording of Night Pieces
Tall Poppies has released a CD of Australian music for oboe and piano entitled Bright Vessel. Performed by oboist Stephen Robinson with Elyane Laussade, this disc includes the premiere recording of Night Pieces for oboe and piano.
Two new violin works
Two works for violin and piano have recently been completed.
The first of these is the Violin Concertino: Summer Stories. This work was commissioned by Michael Patterson and Ars Musica Australis. Mike Patterson particularly wanted a work in which the solo violin part was not too difficult – that is, it would be playable by violinists of standard between Grades 7 and A.Mus.A. AMEB levels. The work is subtitled “Summer Stories” because each of its three movements relates in some way to an aspect of summer.
The second new work for violin and piano is Maralinga. Maralinga is a place in the South Australian desert, and was the site for secret British nuclear testing in the 1950s and 1960s. Not a happy place in Australian history for either the Aboriginal inhabitants of the area, nor the Australian service personnel who were unwittingly used as guinea pigs for the effects of radiation.
Maralinga was written for Lara St. John, who will premiere the piece on 20 March, 2009. It was commissioned by the Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts.
Great reviews continue for Violin Concerto disc
More great reviews have been received for the disc of the Violin Concerto, performed by Lara St. John with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
One of the latest is from Gramophone, which said:
“The latest effort from the Canadian violinist reveals a serious artist using her fame to bring a worthy new work to light rather than focusing on herself. The generic title of Matthew Hindson’s Violin Concerto is almost false advertising, as its three movements are vibrant programmatic music. It’s the sort of work that should get audiences running, not walking, back to concert halls on new-music nights… such joyous music can only be written by a composer both optimistic at heart and confident enough not to give a hoot what colleagues might think of its simplistic theme and sensational treatment.” (Andrew Druckenbrod)
Guest programmer: ABC Classic FM NMUL
Tonight (Sat 20 Sept, 10.30pm) I am the guest programmer for the New Music Up Late show with Julian Day, on ABC Classic FM.
New Music Up Late presenter, Julian Day.
If you happen to catch this show, you’ll hear a suitably eclectic selection of music ranging from Penderecki to Ross Edwards to Merzbow to Carcass. It will also be streamed from the New Music Up Late website for delayed broadcast.
It’s quite amazing how the selecting music like this can result in contemplation upon the whole compositional process.