Performing at the 2012 ART Music Awards will open with the world premiere of HALO (created by Julian Day and Luke Jaaniste) for spatialised alto saxophones. With Janet McKay the two composers co-direct SUPER CRITICAL MASS (2012 Art Music Awards finalists in the Award for Excellence in Experimental Music category), an ongoing project that since 2008 has explored the atmospheric and communal world of homogenous, spatialised ensembles.
Saxophones: Nathan Henshaw, James Nightingale, Andrew Smith, Christina Leonard, Martin Kay, Nic Russeniello, Ben Carey, Jay Byrnes.
MORE INFO:
Composer Peter Sculthorpe AO to be Honoured for Distinguished Services to Australian Music.
Performers & Presenters Announced for 2012 Art Music Awards.
Proudly presented by APRA and the Australian Music Centre
PETER SCULTHORPE AO, composer, Living National Treasure (1997) and one of our top 100 Most Influential Australians (The Bulletin magazine, 2006) will receive the award for Distinguished Services to Australian Music at the 2012 ART MUSIC AWARDS held at the Playhouse Theatre, Sydney Opera House on Tuesday April 3.
The Art Music Awards, a celebration of Australia’s contemporary classical, jazz and experimental music, are hosted by APRA (Australasian Performing Right Association) and the Australian Music Centre (AMC) and presented before a gathering of composers, performers, educators, critics and music lovers. Special guest presenters MIKE NOCK, MARSHALL MCGUIRE, DEBORAH CONWAY and ROSS EDWARDS will join MC JAMES MORRISON.
The 2012 ART MUSIC AWARDS will feature a special tribute to composer Peter Sculthorpe performed by the AUSTRALIAN STRING QUARTET. The Quartet will perform Sculthorpe’s String Quartet no.11, Jabiru Dreaming, Deciso -Ancora deciso – Deciso, Liberamente - Poco estatico – Estatico. The Quartet is one of Australia’s finest music exports and has appeared at international music festivals and toured extensively throughout the United Kingdom, Europe, New Zealand and Asia in recent years.
Born in Launceston, Tasmania, in 1929, PETER SCULTHORPE was educated at Launceston Church Grammar School, the University of Melbourne and Wadham College, Oxford. He is now Emeritus Professor at the University of Sydney, where he began teaching in 1963. In 1977 he was appointed OBE and in that year he was the recipient of a Silver Jubilee Medal. He was appointed AO in 1990.
Sculthorpe's catalogue consists of more than three hundred and fifty works, many of which are regularly performed and recorded throughout the world. Sculthorpe’s deep love for his country and for its landscape, which he regards as sacred, is a constant theme in his work, as is his concern for the protection of our natural environment. His preoccupation with the frailty of the human condition resonates in works such as the choral Requiem (2004) and String Quartet No.16 (2006). The recipient of many awards, Sculthorpe has also been honoured by; the International Society for the Performing Arts, (Distinguished Artist 2001) and the American Academy of Arts and Letters (Honorary Foreign Life Member 2003).
Acclaimed Harpist and Artistic Director, Marshall McGuire will curate the 2012 ART Music Awards. McGuire was Curator of the Utzon Room Music Series at the Sydney Opera House, and Executive Manager, Artistic Planning with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra.
The 2012 ART Music Awards will open with the world premiere of HALO (created by Julian Day and Luke Jaaniste) for spatialised alto saxophones. With Janet McKay the two composers co-direct SUPER CRITICAL MASS (2012 Art Music Awards finalists in the Award for Excellence in Experimental Music category), an ongoing project that since 2008 has explored the atmospheric and communal world of homogenous, spatialised ensembles. 'Masses' of the same instrument are dispersed in space, creating sound clouds that evolve as if by magic - performers neither follow a conductor and score nor improvise, but instead render simple generative, algorithmic and interactive instructions. HALO is the result of a recent multi-site collaboration with Continuum Sax who will be joined on the night by fellow saxophonists from across Sydney.
2012 ART Music Awards finalist ANDREA KELLER will be performing an original composition for solo piano with loop pedal from a new collection of pieces titled Family Portraits. The series of piano pieces dedicated to and honouring Keller’s ancestors forms part of her current Australia Council fellowship program which is due for CD release later this year. Golden Strawberries fondly recollects Keller’s first meetings with her grandmother in a tiny bedsit flat in Prague where a pot of strawberries decorated the small balcony. Andrea Keller is a finalist in two categories for the 2012 ART Music Awards: the Award for Excellence in Jazz (for works, people and events) and the Work of the Year: Jazz category for Affectations.
Also performing on the night will be THE BAND OF BROTHERS featuring guitar virtuosi, Slava and Leonard Grigoryan along with the extraordinarily talented Joseph and James Tawadros: names that are synonymous with Australian contemporary classical music. They will perform Ten Ten by Joseph Tawadros. The exotic sounds of the oud and req’ add an intriguing dimension to this eclectic program. Each a distinguished artist in his own right, this collaboration showcases the very best of Australian talent.
NATIONAL CATEGORIES FOR THE 2012 ART MUSIC AWARDS
• Work of the Year: Orchestral
• Work of the Year: Instrumental
• Work of the Year: Vocal/Choral
• Work of the Year: Jazz
• Performance of the Year
• Award for Excellence by an Organisation or an Individual
• Award for Excellence in Music Education
• Award for Excellence in a Regional Area
• Award for Excellence in Experimental Music (for works, people or events)
• Award for Excellence in Jazz (for works, people or events)*
• Distinguished Services to Australian Music – Peter Sculthorpe AO
(Determined by the APRA and AMC Board of Directors)
There is also an award for each Australian State or Territory, gathered from one of the ten national categories listed above.
*New category
2012 Art Music Awards presented by APRA and Australian Music Centre
2012 ART MUSIC AWARDS
Tuesday April 3rd
The Playhouse Theatre,
Sydney Opera House
Hosted by James Morrison
With live performances curated by Marshall McGuire