Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
can be traced to two distinct sources: in the first settlements, the large body of convicts, soldiers and sailors who brought the traditional folk music of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland; and the first free settlers, some of whom had been exposed to the European classical music tradition in their upbringing. An example of original music by a convict would be an 1861 tune dedicated to settler James Gordon by fiddler constable Alexander Laing. Very little music has survived from this early period, although there are samples of music originating from
Sydney
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
and
Hobart
Hobart ( ; Nuennonne/Palawa kani: ''nipaluna'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Home to almost half of all Tasmanians, it is the least-populated Australian state capital city, and second-small ...
that date back to the early 19th century.Oxford, A Dictionary of Australian Music, Edited by Warren Bebbington, Copyright 1998 Musical publications from this period preserved in Australian libraries include works by
Charles Edward Horsley
Charles Edward Horsley (16 December 1822 – 28 February 1876), English musician, was the son of William Horsley.
He studied in Germany under Hauptmann and Mendelssohn, and on his return to England composed several oratorios and other pieces, n ...
Isaac Nathan
Isaac Nathan (15 January 1864) was an English composer, musicologist, journalist and self-publicist, who has been called the "father of Australian music".
Early success
Isaac Nathan was born around 1791 in the English city of Canterbury to a '' ...
,
Charles Sandys Packer
Charles Sandys Stuart Shipley Packer (1810–1883), commonly referred to as Charles S. Packer, was an Australian classical music composer, born in Reading, Berkshire, England. He was a graduate of The Royal Academy of Music in London. Packer was co ...
,
Frederick Augustus Packer
Frederick Augustus Packer (1839–1902) was an Australian composer of Anglican spiritual and romantic music. He was born in Reading, Berkshire, in the United Kingdom He worked as a parliamentary civil servant and music teacher. He was a nephew to ...
,
Carl Linger
Carl Linger (15 March 1810 – 16 February 1862) was a German Australian composer in South Australia who in 1859 wrote the melody for the patriotic " Song of Australia".
German-born intellectual Carl Linger, who had studied at the Institute of ...
,
Francis Hartwell Henslowe
Francis Hartwell Henslowe (1811–1878) was a British-born civil servant, business manager and composer who worked in England, Australia and India.
Born in England, Henslowe was the son of Edward Prentis Henslowe (1772–1857) and Cecilia Mari ...
Isaac Nathan
Isaac Nathan (15 January 1864) was an English composer, musicologist, journalist and self-publicist, who has been called the "father of Australian music".
Early success
Isaac Nathan was born around 1791 in the English city of Canterbury to a '' ...
's 1847 ''
Don John of Austria
John of Austria ( es, Juan, link=no, german: Johann; 24 February 1547 – 1 October 1578) was the natural son born to Holy Roman Emperor Charles V late in life when he was a widower. Charles V met his son only once, recognizing him in a secret ...
'' was the first
opera
Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...
to be written, composed and produced in Australia. The establishment of
choral societies
A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which sp ...
(c. 1850) and
symphony orchestras
An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families.
There are typically four main sections of instruments:
* bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, ce ...
(c. 1890) led to increased compositional activity, although most Australian classical composers of this period worked entirely within
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
an models and many undertook their training in composition in Europe or the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
. One of the earliest known composers was
George Tolhurst
George Tolhurst (5 June 182718 January 1877) was an English composer, resident from 1852 to 1866 in Australia.
Born in Maidstone, Kent, George emigrated to Melbourne with his father, where he practised as a teacher of music. He returned to Engla ...
, whose oratorio ''Ruth'' was the first composed in the then colony of Victoria in 1864. Some works leading up to the first part of the 20th century were heavily influenced by folk music (
Percy Grainger
Percy Aldridge Grainger (born George Percy Grainger; 8 July 188220 February 1961) was an Australian-born composer, arranger and pianist who lived in the United States from 1914 and became an American citizen in 1918. In the course of a long an ...
's "English Country Gardens" of 1908 being a good example of this). An estimated 10,000 Australians and New Zealanders traveled to Britain each year from the late 1880s to the early 20th century, and the number doubled between the World Wars. A majority was likely female, often a musician; in 1907 one commentator said that Australia's principal exports to Britain were " frozen sheep and pretty-voiced girls". Success in London was often seen as a prerequisite for fame in Australia for singers such as
Nellie Melba
Dame Nellie Melba (born Helen Porter Mitchell; 19 May 186123 February 1931) was an Australian operatic dramatic coloratura soprano (three octaves). She became one of the most famous singers of the late Victorian era and the early 20th century, ...
,
Amy Sherwin
Frances Amy Lillian Sherwin (23 March 1855 – 20 September 1935), the 'Tasmanian Nightingale', was an Australian soprano singer.
Biography
She was born at Forest Home, Huonville, Tasmania on 23 March 1855. She was taught singing by her mot ...
, and
Ada Crossley
Ada Jemima Crossley (3 March 1871 – 17 October 1929) was an Australian contralto notable as the first Red Seal recording artist engaged in the US by the Victor Talking Machine Company in 1903.
Born at Tarraville, Gippsland, Victoria, she was ...
.
Australian composers
Australian(s) may refer to:
Australia
* Australia, a country
* Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia
** European Australians
** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists
** Aboriginal Aus ...
who published classical music during the late nineteenth century include
Hugo Alpen
Hugo Alpen (26 October 184220 June 1917) was a German-born Australian composer, choral conductor and singing teacher.
Early life
Born on 26 October 1842 in Kellinghusen, (then part of Denmark), Alpen came to Australia in 1858 at the age of 16.
...
,
Hooper Brewster-Jones
Hooper Josse Brewster-Jones (1887–1949) was a musician, composer, teacher and music critic, born near Orroroo on the Black Rock Plain, South Australia.
His parents were William Arthur Jones (c. 1855–1947), a school master, and Rebecca ...
,
Thomas Bulch
Thomas Edward Bulch (30 December 1862 – 13 November 1930) was an English-born Australian musician and composer.
Biography
Bulch was born in New Shildon, Durham, one of thirteen children, living at 48 Adelaide Street, New Shildon. His fath ...
,
Alice Charbonnet-Kellermann
Alice Ellen Lauentine Charbonnet (12 October 1858, Cincinnati, Ohio – 1 June 1914, Paris, France) was an Australian composer of romantic music, romantic and classical music.
Her father was a French judge, and her formative years were spent in ...
,
George H. Clutsam
George Howard Clutsam (26 September 186617 November 1951) was an Australian pianist, composer and writer, best remembered as the arranger of '' Lilac Time''. Clutsam published over 150 songs.
Life
Clutsam was born in Sydney, New South Wales, A ...
,
Herbert De Pinna
Herbert De Pinna (1883–1936) was a composer and medical doctor. He was a medicine graduate from Cambridge University who trained at Middlesex Hospital. He opened a hospital in Queensland, but claimed he made more money from music.
Herbert De Pi ...
,
John Albert Delany
John Albert Delany (6 July 185211 May 1907), usually referred to as John A. Delany, was an organist and composer in Sydney, Australia, a champion of choral music. He has been called "Australia's greatest musician" and "The Australian Gounod".
H ...
Louis Lavater
]
Louis Isidore Lavater (2 March 1867 – 22 May 1953) was an Australian composer and author born in Victoria (Australia), Victoria, of Swedish extraction.
He published more than a hundred musical works. He prepared musical settings of popular f ...
,
George Marshall-Hall
George William Louis Marshall-Hall (28 March 1862 – 18 July 1915) was an English-born musician, composer, conductor, poet and controversialist who lived and worked in Australia from 1891 till his death in 1915. According to his birth certifica ...
George William Torrance
George William Torrance (25 July 1835 – 20 August 1907) was an Irish composer, mainly of church music, who was resident in Australia for many years.
Early life
Torrance was born in Rathmines, Dublin and became a choirboy at Christ Church Cath ...
, Cesare Cutolo,
Christian Helleman
Gorjes Christian Crawford-Hellemann (Christian Helleman) was an Australian composer, conductor and organist. He was born in 1881 to William Thomas
and Harriet Ann Crawford-Hellemann in Towrang, NSW Australia. He was an Associate of the Royal ...
and Augustus Juncker.
Even for composers, a trip abroad could make a career:
George Frederick Boyle George Frederick Boyle (June 29, 1886June 20, 1948) was an Australian, and later American pianist, composer and pedagogue. He moved to the United States in 1910 and remained there until his death in 1948.
Biography
Boyle was born in Sydney, New ...
, who was born in New South Wales in 1886, had a great career in Australia as a piano prodigy but did not meet with international success as a composer until he traveled to Europe and the United States.
From the time of Australia's
Federation
A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governin ...
in 1901, a growing sense of national identity began to emerge in the arts, although a patriotic attachment with the "mother country" or "Home", that is Britain, and the Empire, continued to dominate musical taste. European musical training became more available in Australia through migrants like
Alice Charbonnet-Kellermann
Alice Ellen Lauentine Charbonnet (12 October 1858, Cincinnati, Ohio – 1 June 1914, Paris, France) was an Australian composer of romantic music, romantic and classical music.
Her father was a French judge, and her formative years were spent in ...
,
Fred Werner
Fred Werner born ''Gottfried W Werner'' was an Australian composer, music teacher. He was possibly born near Berlin
where he attended the prestigious Stern Conservatory and studied under Polish composer Theodor Kullak.
He migrated to Coolabah, ...
and as an academic pursuit under emerging conservatory academics like
Ernest Truman
Ernest Edwin Philip Truman (29 December 1869 - 6 October 1948) was an Australian organist and a composer of light romantic era classical music.
Early life
Truman was born was in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, England. Son of Edwin Philip Truman, ...
and
George Marshall-Hall
George William Louis Marshall-Hall (28 March 1862 – 18 July 1915) was an English-born musician, composer, conductor, poet and controversialist who lived and worked in Australia from 1891 till his death in 1915. According to his birth certifica ...
. In the war and post-war eras, as the Australian national identity continued to build, composers looked to their surroundings for inspiration.
John Antill
John Henry Antill, CMG, OBE (8 April 190429 December 1986) was an Australian composer best known for his ballet ''Corroboree''.
Biography
Antill was born in Sydney in 1904, and was educated and trained in music at Trinity Grammar School, Syd ...
in his ballet ''
Corroboree
A corroboree is a generic word for a meeting of Australian Aboriginal peoples. It may be a sacred ceremony, a festive celebration, or of a warlike character. A word coined by the first British settlers in the Sydney area from a word in the l ...
'',
Peter Sculthorpe
Peter Joshua Sculthorpe (29 April 1929 – 8 August 2014) was an Australian composer. Much of his music resulted from an interest in the music of countries neighboring Australia as well as from the impulse to bring together aspects of Aborigin ...
and others began to incorporate elements of Aboriginal music,
Richard Meale
Richard Graham Meale, AM, MBE (24 August 193223 November 2009) was an Australian composer of instrumental works and operas.
Biography
Meale was born in Sydney. At the time the Meale family lived in Marrickville, an inner suburb of Sydney. Meale ...
drew influence from south-east Asia (notably using the harmonic properties of the
Bali
Bali () is a province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and Nu ...
nese
gamelan
Gamelan () ( jv, ꦒꦩꦼꦭꦤ꧀, su, ᮌᮙᮨᮜᮔ᮪, ban, ᬕᬫᭂᬮᬦ᭄) is the traditional ensemble music of the Javanese, Sundanese, and Balinese peoples of Indonesia, made up predominantly of percussive instruments. T ...
), while
Nigel Butterley
Nigel Henry Cockburn Butterley (13 May 1935 – 19 February 2022) was an Australian composer and pianist.
Life and career
Butterley was born in Sydney and learned to play the piano at the age of five. He attended Sydney Grammar School, but mus ...
combined his penchant for International modernism with an own individual voice.
By the beginning of the 1960s other strong influences emerged in Australian classical music, with composers incorporating disparate elements into their work, ranging from Aboriginal and south-east Asian music and instruments, American jazz and blues, to the belated discovery of European atonality and the avant-garde. Composers like
Don Banks
Donald Oscar Banks (25 October 19235 September 1980) was an Australian composer of concert, jazz, and commercial music.
Early life and education
Jazz was Banks' earliest and strongest musical influence. He learned the saxophone as a boy in Aust ...
Malcolm Williamson
Malcolm Benjamin Graham Christopher Williamson, (21 November 19312 March 2003) was an Australian composer. He was the Master of the Queen's Music from 1975 until his death.
Biography
Williamson was born in Sydney in 1931; his father was an A ...
and Colin Brumby epitomise this period. Others who adhered to more traditional idioms include
Arthur Benjamin
Arthur Leslie Benjamin (18 September 1893, in Sydney – 10 April 1960, in London) was an Australian composer, pianist, conductor and teacher. He is best known as the composer of '' Jamaican Rumba'' (1938) and of the ''Storm Clouds Cantata'', f ...
,
George Dreyfus
George Dreyfus AM (born 22 July 1928) is an Australian contemporary classical, film and television composer.
Early life and orchestral career
Dreyfus was born to a Jewish family in Elberfeld, Wuppertal, Germany. He was the younger of two sons ...
,
Peggy Glanville-Hicks
Peggy Winsome Glanville-Hicks (29 December 191225 June 1990) was an Australian composer and music critic.
Biography
Peggy Glanville Hicks, born in Melbourne, first studied composition with Fritz Hart at the Albert Street Conservatorium in Me ...
Barry Conyngham
Barry Ernest Conyngham, , (born 27 August 1944) is an Australian composer and academic. He has over seventy published works and over thirty recordings featuring his compositions, and his works have been premiered or performed in Australia, Japa ...
,
Brett Dean
Brett Dean (born 23 October 1961) is an Australian composer, violist and conductor.
Biography
Brett Dean was born, raised and educated in Brisbane. He started learning violin at the age of eight, and later studied viola with Elizabeth Morgan a ...
,
Ross Edwards
Ross Edwards (born 1 December 1942) is a former Australian cricketer. Edwards played in 20 Test matches for Australia, playing against England, West Indies and Pakistan. He also played in nine One Day Internationals including the 1975 Crick ...
Matthew Hindson
Matthew John Hindson AM (born 12 September 1968) is an Australian composer.
Biography
Matthew Hindson was born in Wollongong, New South Wales, in 1968. He studied composition at the Universities of Sydney and Melbourne with composers including ...
,
Elena Kats-Chernin
Elena Davidovna Kats-Chernin (born 4 November 1957) is a Soviet-born Australian pianist and composer, best known for her ballet ''Wild Swans''.
Early life and career
Elena Kats-Chernin was born in Tashkent (now the capital of independent Uzbek ...
,
Graeme Koehne
Graeme John Koehne (born 3 August 1956), is an Australian composer and music educator. He is best known for his orchestral and ballet scores, which are characterised by direct communicative style and embrace of tertian harmony. His orchestral t ...
,
Constantine Koukias
Constantine Koukias (born 14 October 1965) is a Tasmanian composer and opera director of Greek ancestry based in Amsterdam, where he is known by his Greek name of Konstantin Koukias. He is the co-founder and artistic director of IHOS Music Theatre ...
Georges Lentz
Georges Lentz is a contemporary composer and sound artist, born in Luxembourg in 1965 and that country's internationally best known composer. Since 1990, he has been living in Sydney, Australia. Despite his relatively small output and his reclus ...
,
Liza Lim
Liza Lim (born 30 August 1966) is an Australian composer. Lim writes concert music (chamber and orchestral works) as well as music theatre and has collaborated with artists on a number of installation and video projects. Her work reflects her int ...
Carl Vine
Carl Edward Vine, (born 8 October 1954) is an Australian composer of contemporary classical music.
From 1975 he has worked as a freelance pianist and composer with a variety of theatre and dance companies, and ensembles. Vine's catalogue inclu ...
,
Martin Wesley-Smith
Martin Wesley-Smith (10 June 1945 – 26 September 2019) was an Australian composer with an eclectic output ranging from children's songs to environmental events. He worked in a range of musical styles, including choral music, operas, computer m ...
,
Nigel Westlake
Nigel Westlake is an Australian composer, musician and conductor. As a composer for the screen, his film credits include the feature films ''Ali's Wedding'', '' Paper Planes'', ''Miss Potter'', ''Babe'', '' Babe: Pig in the City'', '' Children of ...
, and
David Worrall
David Richard Worrall (born 12 June 1990) is an English professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for club Barrow. A versatile and aggressive player, he is able to play wide right or in central midfield.
Worrall began his career at ...
have embodied the pinnacle of established
Australian composers
Australian(s) may refer to:
Australia
* Australia, a country
* Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia
** European Australians
** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists
** Aboriginal Aus ...
.
James Murdoch
James Rupert Jacob Murdoch (born 13 December 1972) is a British-American businessman, the younger son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, and was the chief executive officer (CEO) of 21st Century Fox from 2015 to 2019.
He was the chairman and CEO fo ...
played a large part in promoting Australian music both at home and internationally, and in bringing Peggy Glanville-Hicks and Richard Meale back from self-imposed artistic exile overseas.
Performers
Well-known Australian classical performers of the past and the present day include:
* conductors
Joseph Post
Joseph Mozart Post (10 April 190627 December 1972) was an Australian conductor and music administrator. He made an unrivalled contribution to the development of opera-conducting in Australia and was, in Roger Covell's words, the 'first Austral ...
, Sir
Bernard Heinze
Sir Bernard Thomas Heinze, AC (1 July 189410 June 1982) was an Australian conductor, academic, and Director of the New South Wales State Conservatorium of Music.
He conducted all the orchestras run by the ABC, most particularly the Melbourne Sym ...
, Sir
Charles Mackerras
Mackerras in 2005
Sir Alan Charles MacLaurin Mackerras (; 1925 2010) was an Australian conductor. He was an authority on the operas of Janáček and Mozart, and the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan. He was long associated with the Eng ...
,
Richard Bonynge
Richard Alan Bonynge ( ) (born 29 September 1930) is an Australian conductor and pianist. He is the widower of Australian dramatic coloratura soprano Dame Joan Sutherland. Bonynge conducted virtually all of Sutherland's operatic performances ...
Simone Young
Simone Margaret Young AM (born 2 March 1961) is an Australian conductor. She is currently chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.
Biography and career
Young was born in Sydney, of Irish ancestry on her father's side and Croatian ...
,
Geoffrey Simon
Geoffrey Philip Simon (born 3 July 1946) is an Australian conductor resident in London.
Recordings
Geoffrey Simon was born on 3 July 1946 in Adelaide. He was a student of Herbert von Karajan, Rudolf Kempe, Hans Swarowsky and Igor Markevitch, ...
,
Benjamin Northey
Benjamin Northey is an Australian conductor, musician and arranger. He has been Chief Conductor of the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra in New Zealand, since 2015.Richard Gill;
* sopranos Dame
Nellie Melba
Dame Nellie Melba (born Helen Porter Mitchell; 19 May 186123 February 1931) was an Australian operatic dramatic coloratura soprano (three octaves). She became one of the most famous singers of the late Victorian era and the early 20th century, ...
, Dame
Joan Sutherland
Dame Joan Alston Sutherland, (7 November 1926 – 10 October 2010) was an Australian dramatic coloratura soprano known for her contribution to the renaissance of the bel canto repertoire from the late 1950s through to the 1980s.
She possessed ...
, Dame
Joan Hammond
Dame Joan Hilda Hood Hammond, (24 May 191226 November 1996) was an Australian operatic soprano, singing coach and champion golfer.
Early life
Joan Hilda Hood Hammond was born and baptised in Christchurch, New Zealand. Her father, Samuel Hood, w ...
,
Marie Collier
Marie Elizabeth Collier (16 April 19278 December 1971) was an Australian operatic soprano.
Marie Collier was born in Ballarat, Victoria, to Thomas Robinson Collier (1894–1962), a railway employee, and his wife Annie Marie (née Bechaz). Sh ...
,
Florence Austral
Florence Austral (26 April 1892 – 15 May 1968) was an Australian operatic soprano renowned for her interpretation of the most demanding Wagnerian female roles, although she never gained the opportunity to appear at the Bayreuth Festival or New ...
,
Marjorie Lawrence
Marjorie Florence Lawrence CBE (17 February 190713 January 1979) was an Australian soprano, particularly noted as an interpreter of Richard Wagner's operas. She was the first Metropolitan Opera soprano to perform the immolation scene in ''Göt ...
,
June Bronhill
June Mary Bronhill (26 June 192924 January 2005), also known as June Gough, was an Australian coloratura soprano opera singer, performer and actress,
She was well known for light opera, operetta and musical theatre in London West End theatr ...
,
Joan Carden
Joan Carden AO OBE (born 9 October 1937) is an Australian operatic soprano. She has been described as "a worthy successor to Dame Nellie Melba and Dame Joan Sutherland" and was sometimes known as "the other Joan" (a reference to Sutherland and ...
,
Lauris Elms
Lauris Margaret Elms (born 20 October 1931) is an Australian retired contralto, renowned for her roles in opera and lieder and as a recording artist.
Biography
She was born in Springvale, Victoria, the elder daughter of Harry Britton Elms and ...
,
Yvonne Kenny
Yvonne Kenny AM (born 25 November 1950) is an Australian soprano, particularly associated with Handel, Mozart and bel canto roles.
Biography
Born in Sydney, she first studied at the University of Sydney in science, hoping to become a biochemi ...
,
Lisa Gasteen
Lisa Kinkead Gasteen AO (born 13 November 1957), is an Australian operatic soprano, known for her performances of the works of Wagner. She won the Cardiff Singer of the World competition in 1991. She did not perform between 2008 and 2011, due to ...
,
Sara Macliver
Sara Macliver is an Australian soprano singer, born and raised in Perth, Western Australia. Macliver is a versatile artist, appearing in operas, concert and recital performances and on numerous recordings. She is regarded as one of the leading ...
,
Cheryl Barker
Cheryl Ruth Barker (born 22 April 1960, Sydney) is an Australian operatic soprano who has had an active international career since the late 1980s. She has sung on several complete opera recordings with Chandos Records, including the title ro ...
Emma Matthews
Emma Matthews (née Lysons; born 1970) is an English-born Australian lyric coloratura soprano, noted for operatic roles, but also popular on the concert stage. A Principal Artist with Opera Australia, Matthews has received more Helpmann Awards ...
;
* mezzo-sopranos
Yvonne Minton
Yvonne Fay Minton CBE (born 4 December 1938) is an Australian-born but mostly British-resident opera singer. She is variously billed as a soprano, mezzo-soprano or contralto.
A native of Sydney, she originally studied voice while on a scholarshi ...
and
Margreta Elkins
Margreta Elkins (born Margaret Ann Enid Geater; 16 October 19301 April 2009) was an Australian mezzo-soprano. She sang at The Royal Opera and with Opera Australia and other companies, but turned down offers to sing at the Metropolitan Opera, B ...
Rosario La Spina
Rosario La Spina is an Australian operatic tenor who has had an active international career since the early 2000s. He has worked with many leading opera houses and orchestras, singing under such conductors as Renato Palumbo, Bruno Bartoletti, ...
John Pringle John Pringle may refer to:
*John Pringle, Lord Haining (c. 1674–1754), Scottish landowner, judge and politician, shire commissioner for Selkirk 1702–07, MP for Selkirkshire 1708–29, Lord of Session
*Sir John Pringle, 1st Baronet (1707–1782) ...
,
Robert Allman
Robert Edward Joseph Allman (8 June 19274 December 2013) was an Australian operatic bass-baritone.
Biography
Robert Allman was born in Melbourne in 1927. He studied in Paris and sang at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden for three seasons from 1 ...
,
Jeffrey Black
Jeffrey Black (born September 6, 1962) is an Australian baritone who has had an active international performance career since the early 1980s. A frequent performer with Opera Australia and the Glyndebourne Festival Opera, he has performed lead ...
,
Peter Coleman-Wright
Peter Coleman-Wright (born 13 October 1958) is an Australian baritone from Geelong. He began his career at Glyndebourne Festival Opera, where he sang Guglielmo in ''Così fan tutte'', winning the Touring Prize. Subsequently, he sang Sid in '' Al ...
, Teddy Tahu Rhodes, New Zealander Teddy Tahu Rhodes;
* bass-baritones Peter Dawson (bass-baritone), Peter Dawson and Donald Shanks (bass-baritone), Donald Shanks;
* bass Malcolm McEachern;
* pianists
Percy Grainger
Percy Aldridge Grainger (born George Percy Grainger; 8 July 188220 February 1961) was an Australian-born composer, arranger and pianist who lived in the United States from 1914 and became an American citizen in 1918. In the course of a long an ...
, Eileen Joyce, Noel Mewton-Wood, Nancy Weir, Geoffrey Parsons (pianist), Geoffrey Parsons, Piers Lane, Leslie Howard (musician), Leslie Howard, Ian Munro (pianist), Ian Munro, Gerard Willems, Kathryn Selby, Simon Tedeschi, Lisa Moore (musician), Lisa Moore, Geoffrey Tozer, Roger Woodward, Rhondda Gillespie, Stephanie McCallum and Michael Kieran Harvey;
* harpsichordists and fortepianists Geoffrey Lancaster and Paul Dyer (conductor), Paul Dyer;
* harpsichordist and multi-instrumentalist Winsome Evans;
* organist, fortepianist and harpsichordist Neal Peres Da Costa;
* violinists Elizabeth Wallfisch, Richard Tognetti and Dene Olding;Barbara Jane Gilby
* organist Christopher Wrench;
* cellists David Pereira;
* harpists Marshall McGuire and Alice Giles;
* guitarists John Williams (guitarist), John Williams, Slava Grigoryan, Karin Schaupp;
* horn players Barry Tuckwell and Lin Jiang;
* oboists Diana Doherty;
* flautist John Lemmone, Jane Rutter;
* clarinetist Paul Dean (clarinetist), Paul Dean;
* didgeridoo player William Barton (musician), William Barton;
* percussionists Claire Edwardes; and
* oud player Joseph Tawadros.
Orchestras
State-based symphony orchestras, originally managed under the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) but now operating as separate independent bodies, have played a major role in performing mainstream orchestral repertoire for the general public as well as commissioning new works from Australian composers and ensuring that works by contemporary international composers are introduced to their audiences. These include the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, the West Australian Symphony Orchestra and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. There are also professional orchestras whose role is related specifically to opera and ballet performance, chiefly the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra based at the Sydney Opera House and Orchestra Victoria based in Melbourne.
There are several Chamber music, chamber orchestras which focus on works for smaller ensembles. These include the Australian Chamber Orchestra which tours regularly throughout Australia and has been well-received overseas, the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, the Adelaide Chamber Orchestra and the Camerata of St. John's. Orchestral ensembles which concentrate on historically informed performance include the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Van Dieman's Band, and the Orchestra of the Antipodes.
Leading chamber ensembles include the Australian String Quartet, the Goldner String Quartet, the Australia Ensemble, Synergy Percussion, Dean Emerson, TRIOZ, the Sydney Soloists, the Southern Cross Soloists, Guitar Trek, Collusion (chamber ensemble), the Elandra String Quartet, the Zephyr Quartet, and the Tinalley String Quartet.
Chamber ensembles involved in historically informed performance include Marais Project, Accademia Arcadia, La Compania, Ironwood, and probably Australia's oldest group of this kind, The Renaissance Players.
Musica Viva Australia, now the largest entrepreneur of chamber music in the world, was founded in 1945 and has provided a major stimulus for public interest in chamber music by organising annual subscription programs of concerts by leading international and Australian ensembles. Further interest has been stimulated by events such as the Australian Festival of Chamber Music which was founded in 1991 and is held each year in Townsville, the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition and the Asia-Pacific Chamber Music Competition, both of which are organised by Chamber Music Australia and held every four years in Melbourne.
Several Australian composers have written chamber works. Among the older composers,
Peter Sculthorpe
Peter Joshua Sculthorpe (29 April 1929 – 8 August 2014) was an Australian composer. Much of his music resulted from an interest in the music of countries neighboring Australia as well as from the impulse to bring together aspects of Aborigin ...
stands out because he has written 17 string quartets up to 2010, with performances in Australia and overseas and recordings by leading groups such as the Kronos Quartet. In the next generation,
Brett Dean
Brett Dean (born 23 October 1961) is an Australian composer, violist and conductor.
Biography
Brett Dean was born, raised and educated in Brisbane. He started learning violin at the age of eight, and later studied viola with Elizabeth Morgan a ...
, himself a violist of note and a composer who has received world-wide recognition, has written several works for various ensembles including a string quartet called "Eclipse" which was commissioned by the Cologne Philharmonie for the Auryn Quartet, a string quintet entitled "Epitaphs" premiered in 2010 at the Cheltenham Music Festival, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, La Jolla SummerFest and the Cologne Philharmonie, and a sonata for violin and piano commissioned by Midori (violinist), Midori for performance in 2010 in Stockholm and the Wigmore Hall, London. Dean's near-contemporary, Julian Yu has written over 30 works for various chamber ensembles including conventional trios and quartets, as well as unusual combinations such as a quintet for four percussions and piano, a septet for flute, percussion, harp, violin, viola, cello and double bass entitled "Pentatonicophilia", and an unconventional reworking of Modest Mussorgsky, Mussorgsky's ''Pictures at an Exhibition'' for 16 instruments.
Other piano and chamber works of special merit include Peggy Glanville-Hicks' Concertino da camera for flute, clarinet, bassoon and piano, Richard Meale's "Las Alboradas" for flute, violin, horn, and piano, Riccardo Formosa's "Vertigo" for flute (piccolo), oboe, clarinet and piano, Nigel Westlake's "Refractions at Summer Cloud Bay" for flute, bass flute, clarinet, soprano saxophone, violin, cello and piano, the piano works of Julian Cochran, Ross Edwards' "Laikan" for flute, clarinet, percussion, piano, violin and cello, Carl Vine's String Quartets Nos. 2, 3, 4 and 5, his Elegy for flute, cello, trombone, piano four-hands, organ and percussion, and "Inner World" for amplified cello and tape.
Venues
The Sydney Opera House and Melbourne's State Theatre (Melbourne), State Theatre are the premiere venues for operas and concerts, and Opera Australia performs regularly there. Other venues for classical music, opera and ballet are the Queensland Performing Arts Centre in Brisbane, the Adelaide Festival Centre, the Canberra Theatre Centre.
City Recital Hall in Sydney, Hamer Hall, Melbourne, Melbourne Recital Centre, Perth Concert Hall (Western Australia), Perth Concert Hall, and Darwin Entertainment Centre are dedicated concert halls. Additionally, many regional centres have entertainment and performance venues which are used by state and national touring companies and individual performers, groups, and orchestras.
Broadcasts
Music broadcasting has played an important role in providing classical music and jazz to the Australian public. Prior to the introduction of Frequency modulation, FM into the country, the ABC produced classical music programs which were broadcast through their local stations. Professor Alfred Ernest Floyd's program "Music Lover's Hour" was heard for over 25 years, beginning first on the local Melbourne ABC station in 1944 before being broadcast nationally. Pianist and academic Lindley Evans broadcast a series of programs called "Adventures in Music" on the ABC, but was probably better known and more influential through his appearances each Thursday under the pseudonym "Mr Music" on the ABC's national "Argonauts Club" program. Ralph Collins, formerly a record librarian at the ABC with an acute knowledge of music, hosted his own national music program for over 30 years from the early 1960s, and he was eventually nicknamed "Mr Sunday Morning" by the general public. John Cargher, a record retailer, avid collector of records and author of many books, presented two programs. The most popular was "Singers of Renown", which began on the local Melbourne ABC station in 1966 and was transferred by public demand to Radio National at the end of only 10 weeks and remained on air for 42 years. The other program, "Music for Pleasure", began on Radio National in 1967 and continued until 1996.
The national FM music network ABC Classic FM was established in 1976 to broadcast classical music, jazz, operas, recitals and live concerts from Australia and overseas, music analysis programs and news about music activities. Its audience is now estimated as being about one million people, not taking into account a growing number of international users who access its programs via its online service. At about the same time, community Non-profit organization, not-for-profit FM stations were set up to enable volunteers to produce and present classical music and jazz programs. These included 2MBS, 2MBS FM in Sydney, 3MBS, 3MBS FM in Melbourne and 4MBS, 4MBS Classic FM in Brisbane. More recently a similar station, 5MBS. has been established in Adelaide.
There are five important classical record labels in Australia: ABC Classics Move Records, Tall Poppies Records, Melba Recordings, and Master Performers.http://www.masterperformers.com/
See also
*Music of Australia
*Chronological list of Australian classical composers
*List of classical music festivals#Oceania
*Christian music in Australia
References
{{Classical music
Classical music in Australia,
Australian music history, Classical Music