Nathan Waks (born 1951) is an Australian cellist, composer, record producer, arts administrator and wine company owner.

Early years

Waks was born in 1951, into a musical family, his mother being a talented pianist."Tasting notes", ''Sydney Morning Herald'', 21 December 2010
Retrieved 22 August 2013, He showed early musical aptitude, on the piano at age four, and the cello at age seven. He attended

North Sydney Boys High School North Sydney Boys High School (abbreviated as NSBHS) is a government-funded, single-sex, academically selective secondary day school for boys, located at Crows Nest, on the Lower North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. In 2022, Nor ...

but did not graduate. While there, he showed such talent at

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

that he was offered a scholarship by the visiting Scottish football manager

Tommy Docherty Thomas Henderson Docherty (24 April 1928 – 31 December 2020), commonly known as The Doc, was a Scottish football player and manager. Docherty played for several clubs, most notably Preston North End, and represented Scotland 25 times betwe ...

, but he declined as he felt that music was his passion. He studied at the

Sydney Conservatorium of Music The Sydney Conservatorium of Music (formerly the New South Wales State Conservatorium of Music and known by the moniker "The Con") is a heritage-listed music school in Macquarie Street, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the old ...

under

Lois Simpson Lois Jane Simpson (born 11 June 1961) is a New Zealand former cricketer and field hockey player. In cricket, she played as a right-handed batter and appeared in 1 Test match and 12 One Day Internationals for New Zealand between 1985 and 1988. ...

and

Robert Pikler Robert Pikler OBE (24 January 190916 January 1984) was a Hungarian-Australian violinist, violist and teacher. Biography Pikler received his musical training in his native Budapest, first under Eugene Ormandy, then at the Franz Liszt Academy of ...

.Australian Cello Awards
Retrieved 22 August 2013 He won the 1968 ABC Instrumental and Vocal Competition, and then travelled to Moscow (then the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

) to study with

Mstislav Rostropovich Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich, (27 March 192727 April 2007) was a Russian cellist and conductor. He is considered by many to be the greatest cellist of the 20th century. In addition to his interpretations and technique, he was wel ...

. That trip was cut short because of

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

tensions (there were alleged to be irregularities with Waks's visa). He then went to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

to study under

Paul Tortelier Paul Tortelier (21 March 1914 – 18 December 1990) was a French cellist and composer. After an outstanding student career at the Conservatoire de Paris he played in orchestras in France and the US before the Second World War. After the war he b ...

, and won a Premier Prix at the

Conservatoire de Paris The Conservatoire de Paris (), also known as the Paris Conservatory, is a college of music and dance founded in 1795. Officially known as the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (CNSMDP), it is situated in the avenue ...

.Media Release, Senator Richard Alston, 25 November 1998
Retrieved 22 August 2013

Music career

Having returned to Australia, in 1969, he co-founded the Fidelio Quartet with Brecon Carter and John Harding.Stephen Pleskun ed., ''A Chronological History of Australian Composers and Their Compositions'' - Vol. 2
Retrieved 22 August 2013 In 1970, at age 19, Waks was appointed Principal Cellist of the

Sydney Symphony Orchestra The Sydney Symphony Orchestra (SSO) is an Australian symphony orchestra that was initially formed in 1908. Since its opening in 1973, the Sydney Opera House has been its home concert hall. Simone Young is the orchestra's chief conductor and firs ...

, the youngest in the orchestra's history. He left the post after a year. He appeared as a soloist with all the Australian symphony orchestras, the

BBC Symphony Orchestra The BBC Symphony Orchestra (BBC SO) is a British orchestra based in London. Founded in 1930, it was the first permanent salaried orchestra in London, and is the only one of the city's five major symphony orchestras not to be self-governing. T ...

and others. In 1974, the Sydney String Quartet was re-formed for the third time, with members Harry Curby, Dorel Tincu, Alexandru Todicescu and Waks. Harry Curby left in 1980, and in 1981 after the sudden death of Dorel Tincu, the Quartet continued with John Harding, Laszlo Kiss, Todicescu and Waks. Waks remained with the Sydney String Quartet for ten years. In 1979, he commissioned and premiered ''Requiem'' for solo cello by

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 ...

.Australian Music Centre
Retrieved 22 August 2013 He has also given premieres of works by

Anne Boyd Anne Elizabeth Boyd AM (born 10 April 1946) is an Australian composer and emeritus professor of music at the University of Sydney. Early life Boyd was born in Sydney to James Boyd and Annie Freda Deason Boyd (née Osborn). Her father died when ...

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 ...

and Gerald Glynn. For the broadcaster Andrew Olle's memorial service in the

Sydney Town Hall The Sydney Town Hall is a late 19th-century heritage-listed town hall building in the city of Sydney, the capital city of New South Wales, Australia, housing the chambers of the Lord Mayor of Sydney, council offices, and venues for meetings and ...

on 22 December 1995, Peter Sculthorpe wrote a special arrangement for cello and piano of his 1947 work ''Parting'', dedicated to Olle, which was played by Nathan Waks and pianist

Kathryn Selby Kathryn Shauna Selby Member of the Order of Australia, AM (born 1962) is an Australian Classical music, classical piano, pianist. She is often known as Kathy Selby. Biography She grew up in Sydney. She entered the Sydney Conservatorium of Music ...

. In 1998, Waks was appointed Chairman of the

Australia Council The Australia Council for the Arts, commonly known as the Australia Council, is the country's official arts council, serving as an arts funding and advisory body for the Government of Australia. The council was announced in 1967 as the Austra ...

's Music Fund. The same year, he reduced his administrative commitments and returned to the Sydney Symphony as Co-Principal Cello. In 2008, he participated in the Australian premiere of

Gianluigi Gelmetti Gianluigi Gelmetti OMRI, (11 September 1945 – 11 August 2021) was an Italian-Monégasque conductor and composer. Early life Gianluigi Gelmetti was born on 11 September 1945 in Rome, Italy. When 16-years old, Sergiu Celibidache let him conduct ...

's ''Cantata della vita'', with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and various solo artists, under the composer's baton.Sydney Symphony
Retrieved 22 August 2013 He has organized concerts for singers such as

Frank Sinatra Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Chairman of the Board" and later called "Ol' Blue Eyes", Sinatra was one of the most popular ...

Rod Stewart Sir Roderick David Stewart (born 10 January 1945) is a British rock and pop singer and songwriter. Born and raised in London, he is of Scottish and English ancestry. With his distinctive raspy singing voice, Stewart is among the best-selling ...

and Tiny Tim. He has also produced recordings for the Australian guitarist

John Williams John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932)Nylund, Rob (15 November 2022)Classic Connection review ''WBOI'' ("For the second time this year, the Fort Wayne Philharmonic honored American composer, conductor, and arranger John Williams, who wa ...

. He is a founding Director and Artistic Adviser of the

Australian Chamber Orchestra The Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO) was founded by cellist John Painter in 1975.Verghis, Sharon"Bach with more bite pays off" ''Sydney Morning Herald'', 2 September 2005. Richard Tognetti was appointed Lead Violin in 1989 and subsequently appo ...

, founding Director of the

Australian Music Centre The Australian Music Centre (AMC), formerly known briefly as Sounds Australian, is a national organisation promoting and supporting art music in Australia, founded in 1974. It co-hosts the Art Music Awards along with APRA AMCOS, and publishes '' ...

; has been Director of Music at the

Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-own ...

, Managing Director of

Symphony Australia Symphony Services International, formerly known as Symphony Australia, is a centralised organisation formed in 1997 for six Australian symphony orchestras: Adelaide, Melbourne, Queensland, Sydney, Tasmania and Western Australia. The orchestras wer ...

, and Board Member of the

Australian National Academy of Music The Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) is a classical music performance training facility situated in Melbourne. History ANAM was established in 1994, as part of prime minister Paul Keating's "Creative Nation" initiative. On 23 Oct ...

. He is an Ambassador of the Melba Foundation.

Compositions

Nathan Waks has written a number of film scores: * ''

My Brilliant Career ''My Brilliant Career'' is a 1901 novel written by Miles Franklin. It is the first of many novels by Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin (1879–1954), one of the major Australian writers of her time. It was written while she was still a teenager, ...

'' (1979) * '' Intimate Strangers'' (1981) * ''

Hunger In politics, humanitarian aid, and the social sciences, hunger is defined as a condition in which a person does not have the physical or financial capability to eat sufficient food to meet basic nutritional needs for a sustained period. In the ...

'' (1986) * '' For Love Alone'' (1986) * ''

Kangaroo Kangaroos are four marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern gre ...

'' (1987; this score was based on the slow movement of

Antonín Dvořák Antonín Leopold Dvořák ( ; ; 8 September 1841 – 1 May 1904) was a Czechs, Czech composer. Dvořák frequently employed rhythms and other aspects of the folk music of Moravian traditional music, Moravia and his native Bohemia, following t ...

's String Quartet No. 12 in F major "American", Op. 96) He was musical director for ''

The Removalists ''The Removalists'' is a play written by Australian playwright David Williamson in 1971. The main issues the play addresses are violence, specifically domestic violence, and the abuse of power and authority. The story is supposed to be a microc ...

'' (1975).

Winery interests

In 2000 he became involved in the Kilikanoon Winery in the

Clare Valley The Clare Valley is a valley located in South Australia about north of Adelaide in the Clare and Gilbert Valleys council area. It is the river valley formed by the Hutt River but is also strongly associated with the roughly parallel Hill Riv ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

. Since 2007 he has headed a syndicate that owns Kilikanoon, and also Seppeltsfield in the

Barossa Valley The Barossa Valley ( Barossa German: ''Barossa Tal'') is a valley in South Australia located northeast of Adelaide city centre. The valley is formed by the North Para River. It is notable as a major wine-producing region and tourist destinati ...

. Waks travels widely as an international ambassador for the companies.

Family

In the 1970s, Waks' partner was the operatic soprano Eilene Hannan.David Marr, "Soprano loved for ruthless wit and 'God-given' voice"
''Sydney Morning Herald'', 26 July 2014
Retrieved 15 October 2014 He later married Candice Williams, daughter of film distribution pioneer David Williams AM (1925-2009) and sister of Kim Williams."A passionate supporter of the film industry", ''Sydney Morning Herald'', 15 May 2009
Retrieved 22 August 2013 They have two children.

Discography

Albums

Awards and nominations

AACTA Awards

* 1986 -

AACTA Award for Best Original Music Score The Australian Film Institute Award for Best Original Music Score is an award in the annual Australian Film Institute Awards The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards, known as the AACTA Awards, are presented annually by the ...

''For Love Alone'' (nom)

ARIA Music Awards

The

ARIA Music Awards The Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards (commonly known informally as ARIA Music Awards, ARIA Awards, or simply the ARIAs) is an annual series of awards nights celebrating the Australian music industry, put on by the Austr ...

is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of

Australian music The music of Australia has an extensive history made of music societies. Indigenous Australian music forms a significant part of the unique heritage of a 40,000- to 60,000-year history which produced the iconic didgeridoo. Contemporary fusions of ...

. They commenced in 1987. ! , - ,

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, k ...

, ''For Love Alone'' , Best Original Soundtrack, Cast or Show Album , , ARIA Award previous winners. , -

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Waks, Nathan 1951 births Living people Date of birth missing (living people) Australian classical cellists Australian film score composers Male film score composers Australian arts administrators Sydney Conservatorium of Music alumni Australian food industry businesspeople People educated at North Sydney Boys High School