October 2016

Ross Edwards awarded Tribe Symphony Award 2016

The University of Sydney’s Conservatorium of Music was very pleased to present the David Harold Tribe Symphony Award for 2016 to Australian composer Professor Ross Edwards AM on Thursday 27 October.

Professor Matthew Hindson, Mr David Harold Tribe, Professor Ross Edwards AM

The $12,000 prize for a new symphonic composition of 20 minutes or more was awarded to Ross for his piece Frog and Star Cycle, a double concerto for alto saxophone, percussion and orchestra written in 2015. The judging panel consisted of the Conservatorium’s Associate Dean (Education) and Head of School Professor Matthew Hindson, Dr Maria Grenfell (University of Tasmania) and Professor Stuart Greenbaum (University of Melbourne) were extremely impressed with the high quality of applications.

“The quality of the submissions received points to a bright future in Australian orchestral music. The panel agonised long and hard about each applicant’s piece, the winning work was characterised by an intriguing approach to diverse forces and possessed a consummate command of technical forces and musical ideas,” said Hindson. “Frog and Star Cycle has a strong, unified structure but with a significant variety of approaches including strong narrative aspect and an unmistakable unique musical voice at play.”

“I’m honoured to receive this award for my double concerto Frog and Star Cycle and thankful to David Harold Tribe for his generosity towards the arts in our country,” said Edwards.

The award has been made possible by a donation from David Harold Tribe through the David Harold Tribe Charitable Foundation. The program offers five prizes worth $12,000 each in the areas of fiction, poetry, philosophy, sculpture and symphony. These categories rotate each year to inspire ingenuity in artistic fields that are often overlooked when it comes to charitable support.

“The David Harold Tribe Awards, administered and judged by the University of Sydney, cover the relatively neglected fields of symphony, sculpture, philosophy, poetry and short fiction,” said Tribe.

“It’s my hope that these educational awards for specific creative achievement in the recent past will stimulate and in some cases, perhaps, make it possible financially for the recipients to continue their creative output.”

View the original article here.

New guitar solo for Xuefei Yang

Celebrated guitarist Xuefei Yang will premiere Melbourne Arioso, which Ross has especially composed for her, as part of her Elisabeth Murdoch Hall Melbourne recital, 7.30 pm, November 3rd 2016.

Born following the Cultural Revolution, an era where Western music and instruments were banned, the fascinating story of Fei’s rise to the world stage is that of a musical pioneer. She was the first ever guitarist in China to enter a music school, and became the first to launch an international professional career. Her prodigious talent came to the attention of John Williams who donated two of his own guitars to her conservatorium. Since then, she has been impressing audiences around the globe with her exquisite sound and powerfully emotional performances of repertoire both old and new. The guitar is a world traveller, with a versatility that can take it with ease from 18th-century Germany to the beaches of Brazil. The guitar was still being perfected when Bach wrote his suites for its cousin the lute, but naturally guitarists have adopted these Baroque masterpieces for themselves. From the guitar’s heyday, Granados’ Poetic Waltzes make the leap from virtuoso piano work to an even more dazzling guitar showcase in Fei’s arrangement, revealing perhaps that Granados had the elegant and mellow sound of the guitar in mind all along. The guitar also found an ideal home in the New World, becoming integral to the music of Brazil, as heard in Villa Lobos’ many folk-tinged guitar pieces, and of course the bossa nova of Jobim and company. Its rainbow of sonic colours, its expressive voice and its brilliant exponents have extended the guitar’s global reach to Asia and Australia. The guitar is an ongoing source of inspiration to composers, here represented by the celebrated Ross Edwards who has composed a new work especially for Fei – an exquisite next step in the guitar’s journey.

For more information, click here.

CD Release: Four Hands

Described as ‘unforgettable’ by The Australian and ‘barnstorming’ by The New York Times, the Viney-Grinberg Piano Duo enjoy a stellar international profile. In their new album on ABC Classics, they survey recent music by Australian composers for piano four-hands, much of it receiving its world-premiere recording.

Music for piano four-hands began in the latter half of the 18th century, as the piano itself gained popularity. In the words of the pianists themselves, ‘the five Australian compositions on this disc grow and build on that tradition, with ambitious largescale works of complexity and virtuosity, as well as miniatures that deal with the interior world of the human heart and mind. Despite the diversity of music on this disc – a fascinating variety of responses to the musical opportunities afforded by piano four-hand performance – there is also a unifying thread of dynamism and spirited energy.’

Ross Edwards’ A Flight of Sunbirds showcases a seemingly effortless affection; Carl Vine and Stuart Greenbaum’s Sonatas explores the potential for four-handed counterpoint. Peter Sculthorpe’s ‘delicate and wistful quartet of beautiful tableaux’ follow the tradition of arranging existing works for piano four-hands. And Elena Kats-Chernin’s Victor’s Heart uses the warm resonance of the form to create a touching musical tribute.

Track Listing:

1-9. ROSS EDWARDS A Flight of Sunbirds: Nine Bagatelles for piano duet
10-14. CARL VINE Sonata for Piano Four-Hands
15–18. PETER SCULTHORPE Four Little Pieces for Piano Duet
19–21. STUART GREENBAUM Sonata for Piano Four-Hands
22. ELENA KATS–CHERNIN Victor’s Heart

https://shop.abc.net.au/products/viney-grinberg-four-hands-cd