William Barton is an

Aboriginal Australian Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait I ...

didgeridoo The didgeridoo (; also spelt didjeridu, among other variants) is a wind instrument, played with vibrating lips to produce a continuous Drone (music), drone while using a special breathing technique called circular breathing. The didgeridoo wa ...

player. He was born in Mount Isa, Queensland on 4 June 1981 and learned to play from his uncle, an elder of the Wannyi, Lardil and Kalkadunga tribes of Western Queensland. He is widely recognised as one of Australia's finest traditional didgeridoo players and a leading didgeridoo player in the classical world.Artist Profile
Camden Music Festival 2007 website. "I'm doing what I love," Barton says. "I want to take the oldest culture in the world and blend it with Europe's rich musical legacy." Barton has been featured on the ABC television program, ''

Australian Story ''Australian Story'' is a national weekly current affairs and documentary style television series which is broadcast on ABC Television. It is produced specifically by the ABC News and Current Affairs Department. The program first aired on 29 ...

''. Life for William Barton Taught to play the didgeridoo from an early age by Aboriginal Elders, by the age of 12 Barton was working in Sydney, playing for Aboriginal dance troupes. At the age of 15 he toured America, after which he decided he wanted to become a soloist rather than a backing musician and started to study different kinds of music. In 1998, he made his classical debut with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, and became Australia's first didgeridoo

artist-in-residence Artist-in-residence, or artist residencies, encompass a wide spectrum of artistic programs which involve a collaboration between artists and hosting organisations, institutions, or communities. They are programs which provide artists with space a ...

with a symphony orchestra. In November 2022, Barton was named Queensland Australian of the Year.

Performances

Barton has appeared at music festivals around the world and has also recorded a number of orchestral works. He featured in Peter Sculthorpe's ''Requiem'', a major work for orchestra, chorus and didgeridoo, which premiered the

Adelaide Festival of Arts The Adelaide Festival of Arts, also known as the Adelaide Festival, an arts festival, takes place in the South Australian capital of Adelaide in March each year. Started in 1960, it is a major celebration of the arts and a significant cultural ...

in 2004 with the

Adelaide Symphony Orchestra The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra (ASO) is a South Australian performing arts organisation comprising 75 full-time musicians, established in 1936. Based in Adelaide, South Australia, the orchestra's primary performance venue is the Adelaide Town Ha ...

and Adelaide Voices conducted by Richard Mills. This was reputedly the first time a didgeridoo has featured in a full symphonic work. The work has since been performed in the UK at The Lichfield Festival with The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Birmingham's choir Ex Cathedra, conducted by Jeffrey Skidmore. In May 2004,

ABC Classics ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

released ''Songs of Sea and Sky'', an album of works by Peter Sculthorpe revised for didgeridoo and orchestra. Performed by Barton and the

Queensland Orchestra Queensland Symphony Orchestra (QSO) is an Australian symphony orchestra in the state of Queensland. The orchestra is based in the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's building in South Bank. The Orchestra is funded by private corporations, th ...

conducted by Michael Christie. In 2005, Barton performed at the 90th anniversary

Gallipoli The Gallipoli peninsula (; tr, Gelibolu Yarımadası; grc, Χερσόνησος της Καλλίπολης, ) is located in the southern part of East Thrace, the European part of Turkey, with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles s ...

at ANZAC Cove, Turkey, and in debut concerts with the

London Philharmonic Orchestra The London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) is one of five permanent symphony orchestras based in London. It was founded by the conductors Sir Thomas Beecham and Malcolm Sargent in 1932 as a rival to the existing London Symphony and BBC Symp ...

Royal Festival Hall The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,700-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge, in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is a Grade I li ...

in London. In 2005/2006, Barton collaborated with orchestras, choral directors and composers in Australia, America and Europe, developing new commissions for the didgeridoo. On 5 November 2014, Barton performed at the memorial service for former Prime Minister

Gough Whitlam Edward Gough Whitlam (11 July 191621 October 2014) was the 21st prime minister of Australia, serving from 1972 to 1975. The longest-serving federal leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 1967 to 1977, he was notable for being the h ...

in the Sydney Town Hall. In 2015, Barton performed at the 100th anniversary opening

at ANZAC Cove, Turkey for dawn service. In 2019, Barton played with 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 f ...

an orchestral rendition of Down Under at the memorial service for former Prime Minister

Bob Hawke Robert James Lee Hawke (9 December 1929 – 16 May 2019) was an Australian politician and union organiser who served as the 23rd prime minister of Australia from 1983 to 1991, holding office as the leader of the Australian Labor Party (A ...

at the

Sydney Opera House The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in Sydney. Located on the foreshore of Sydney Harbour, it is widely regarded as one of the world's most famous and distinctive buildings and a masterpiece of 20th-century architec ...

Discography

Albums

Awards and nominations

Barton was jointly selected with pianist

Tamara Anna Cislowska Tamara-Anna Cislowska is an Australian concert pianist. She has performed across many countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, South America, Italy, Japan, Germany, Switzerland, Greece, The Netherlands and Poland, and has played w ...

for the 2004 Freedman Fellowship for Classical Music by the Music Council of Australia. In 2004, he was awarded the Brisbane Lord Mayor's Young and Emerging Artists' Fellowship, and the following year he was a metropolitan finalist for the Suncorp Young Queenslander of the Year Award.

APRA Music Awards

The APRA Awards are held in Australia and New Zealand by the

Australasian Performing Right Association APRA AMCOS consists of Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) and Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS), both copyright management organisations or copyright collectives which jointly represent over 100,000 songwri ...

to recognise songwriting skills, sales and airplay performance by its members annually. ! , - , 2022 , "Spirit Voice of the Enchanted Waters" from ''River''
(William Barton, Piers Burbrook de Vere & Richard Tognetti) , Best Original Song Composed for the Screen , , , -

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 ...

. They commenced in 1987. ! , - ,

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight ...

, ''Sculthorpe: Songs of Sea and Sky'' (with

The Queensland Orchestra Queensland Symphony Orchestra (QSO) is an Australian symphony orchestra in the state of Queensland. The orchestra is based in the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's building in South Bank. The Orchestra is funded by private corporations, th ...

) ,

Best Classical Album The Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by m ...

, , ARIA Award previous winners. , - ,

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gat ...

, ''Kalkadungu'' , Best Classical Album , , , - ,

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wa ...

, ''Birdsong at Dusk'' ,

Best World Music Album The Grammy Award for Best Global Music Album is an honor presented to recording artists for influential music from around the globe at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards. Honors i ...

, , ARIA Award previous winners. , - ,

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...

, ''Restless Dream'' (with Bob Weatherall & Halfway) , Best World Music Album , , , - , rowspan="2", 2022 , ''Heartland'' , rowspan="2", Best World Music Album , , rowspan="2", , - , ''History Has a Heartbeat'' ,

Don Banks Music Award

The Don Banks Music Award was established in 1984 to publicly honour a senior artist of high distinction who has made an outstanding and sustained contribution to music in Australia. It was founded by 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 Austr ...

in honour of Don Banks, Australian composer, performer and the first chair of its music board. , - , 2021 , William Barton , Don Banks Music Award , , -

Environmental Music Prize

The Environmental Music Prize is a quest to find a theme song to inspire action on climate and conservation. It commenced in 2022. ! , - , 2022 , "Your Country" ( William Crighton featuring William Barton & Julieanne Crighton) , Environmental Music Prize , , , -

References

*
Profile
Arts in Australia website.

External links

Official site
* , Queensland Conservatorium 2004 * , Brisbane Music Festival 2006] * 2013 live performance of SCULTHORPE (b.1929) Earth Cry o
AYO Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barton, William 1981 births ARIA Award winners Living people Didgeridoo players Indigenous Australian musicians Contemporary classical music performers Australian classical musicians People from Mount Isa