Cover of Tim Winton's novel 'Breath'.
Tahu Rhodes and WASO
premieres new work
with Tim Winton's words
March 2010. The gala opening concert of the West Australian Symphony Orchestra's 2010 season began with the world premiere of a newly commissioned vocal piece by Andrew Ford.
A Dream of Drowning sets to music a passage from Tim Winton's latest novel, Breath. Composed especially for the baritone voice of Teddy Tahu Rhodes, the short piece is scored for the unusual combination of vibraphone, harmonium, celesta, harp and strings.The first two performances took place in the Perth Concert Hall on 12 and 13 March, and the WASO was conducted by its principal conductor, Paul Daniel.
> Read a program note and Tim Winton's text.
> Read Rosemary Sorensen's article in The Australian (8 February 2010)
> Read reviews in The Australian and The West Australian.
Listen to Andrew Ford's music online
Watch the premiere of Andrew Ford's Symphony at ANAM, conducted by Brett Dean. (www.themusicpage.com)
Listen to Dance Maze performed by the Sydney Alpha Ensemble. (classic/amp)
Download (for free!) Ford's Elegy in a Country Graveyard (ABC Radio National). And while you listen, view images of the Robertson cemetery.
Latest additions
to work list
The Rising, for brass band
The Cloths of Heaven, for 10 or more cornets
Nine Fantasies about Brahms for violin, cello and piano
The Averted for six solo voices
Rauha, for woodwind, brass, percussion, piano and double basses
A Dream of Drowning, for baritone and orchestra
The Musical Child, for speaker, piano duet and string orchestra
“ . . . in Paradiso” for flute ensemble
Willow Songs for soprano, mezzo-soprano and ensemble
Variation on a Waltz by Schubert for piano trio
Three Shakespeare Songs for soprano and piano
Bright Shiners for solo violin and string orchestra
Rembrandt's Wife, an opera
Symphony for orchestra
A Singing Quilt for mixed choir, prerecorded voices and percussion ensemble
The Tears of Geertje Dircx for two clarinets
Golden Slumbers for voice and piano
Free sheet music
downloads
Thin Air for solo piano (pdf 188 KB)
Broadway Boogie Woogie (pdf 150 KB)
for solo piano
Fear no more . . . (pdf 155 KB)
for solo piano
Photographs
High resolution promotional photographs for use in concert programs and other non-commercial contexts are now available on the biography subpage.
The Music Show website:
Listen to programs online:
Dots on the Landscape is a six-part oral history of Australian classical music.
Music and Fashion casts a far wider net, the programs ranging from the 12th-century composers of Notre Dame to Cyndi Lauper, from Andrea Bocelli to Elvis Presley, and from electronica to the Elizabethan volta.
Roxane Hislop as Geertje Dircx in Rembrandt's Wife (Victorian Opera 2009).
A Green Room Award
for
Rembrandt's Wife
March 2010. Rembrandt's Wife has been named as the best new Australian opera of 2009 at the annual Green Room Awards in Melbourne on 15 March. The premiere season of Andrew Ford and Sue Smith's 75-minute work had already met with considerable critical acclaim. The first full commission by Victorian Opera, in April 2009 Rembrandt's Wife received five performances by the company under its music director, Richard Gill, bass-baritone Gary Rowley sing the role of Rembrandt van Rijn. Read reviews.
Read composer's note.
Read the libretto (pdf 111 KB) of Rembrandt's Wife by the award-winning TV writer Sue Smith (Bastard Boys, The Leaving of Liverpool, Brides of Christ). Read librettist's note.
Some of Andrew Ford's books are no longer available in bookshops. Contact Andrew directly to purchase a copy of In Defence of Classical Music or Speaking in Tongues - the Songs of Van Morrison (AUD 25 + postage). For a full list of books, please see the Books subpage.
