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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).
See also: the Books page.
Libretto of Rembrandt's Wife
now available online
March 2009. Andrew Ford's new opera Rembrandt's Wife will have its world premiere as part of Victorian Opera's 2009 season.
Read the libretto (pdf 111 KB) by the award-winning TV writer Sue Smith (Bastard Boys, The Leaving of Liverpool, Brides of Christ).
Ford's ANAM residency: three premieres
in Melbourne
February 2009. Andrew Ford is the composer in residence for 2009 at the Australian National Academy of Music. In addition to working with students in preparing performances of his music throughout the year, he will compose new works for them. These include Rauha (the Finnish word for ‘peace’) for wind band, piano, percussion and bass, and The Musical Child for string orchestra and piano duet, with a speaking role for the octogenarian tenor Gerald English. Based on a specially written text by Cathryn Strickland, The Musical Child is the cautionary tale of William Crotch, the late 18th-century child prodigy who, at the age of four, gave organ recitals in London, managed by his ambitious mother.
On 23rd April the musicians of the Academy will present a portrait concert of Ford's music, including the Australian premieres of two works linked to the opera Rembrandt's Wife. These are the clarinet duet The Tears of Geertje Dircx and a new version (for viola, cello and double bass) of Chorales from an Ox Life. The concert also includes performance of Icarus drowning, conducted by the composer.
Another highlight of the residency comes in September, when Brett Dean conducts the musicians of the Academy in the second performance of Ford’s Symphony, the work he premiered, to some acclaim, at ANAM in November 2008. Watch the premiere performance at The Music Page. Read program note. Read the libretto of Rembrandt's Wife (pdf 111 KB).
Rembrandt's Wife
- opera premiere in April
January 2009 . Andrew Ford's new opera Rembrandt's Wife to a libretto by Sue Smith will have its world premiere as part of Victorian Opera's 2009 season. Gary Rowley will star as Rembrandt and Jacqueline Porter as both his late wife, Saskia, and his muse and lover Hendrickje Stoffels. Roxane Hislop sings the role of Geertje Dircx and Paul Biencourt sings the six tenor roles.
Directed by Talya Masel and conducted by Victorian Opera's Music Director, Richard Gill, Rembrandt's Wife will open at the CUB Malthouse in Melbourne on 18 April for a season of five performances. Tickets are available online through Ticketmaster.
Premiere of
Ford's Symphony
at ANAM
December 2008. On Friday 28 November, in a concert to celebrate the achievements of the Australian National Academy of Music, Artistic Director Brett Dean conducted the Orchestra of the Academy in the first performance of Andrew Ford's Symphony. Composed mostly during the first half of 2008 and written with the Academy's line-up of musicians in mind, Ford's first symphony is in a single movement of around 18 minutes. Read program note. Watch the performance at The Music Page.
A Singing Quilt in Bundanoon
 November 2008. On 1st November, Andrew Ford conducted the first performances of his piece for choir and percussion, A Singing Quilt. The piece was commissioned by Wingecarribee Shire Council and the performance involved nearly a hundred singers from choirs throughout the NSW Southern Highlands. Read what the Southern Highland News wrote (pdf 420 KB) about the event.
The sung texts are drawn from interviews which Ford recorded with local residents and their own voices were also heard in the piece, together with drums, bells, gongs and rains sticks of the percussion ensemble ANU DRUMatiX, directed by Gary France. There were two performances at Bundanoon Soldiers Memorial Hall. Listen to a sample (mp3 832 KB) of the prerecorded voices. Read a program note about the piece.
Local Portraits at the Casula Powerhouse
 September 2008. Local Portraits is an exhibition of double portraits, visual and sonic. Jim Rolon photographed 70 residents of New South Wales, 35 from the 2168 postcode area of Liverpool and 35 from Robertson in the Southern Highlands. Andrew Ford interviewed these same people about their favourite music. Visitors to the exhibition are given MP3 players and, as they look at the photographs, are able to listen to the corresponding interviews, as well as the musical choices.
Local Portraits is at the Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre until 16 th January 2009. Visit the ABC's Local Portraits website. Read reviews: The Sydney Morning Herald and StageNoise.
Image © Jim Rolon.
Night and Dreams
now available on Decca label
July 2008. Universal Music Australia has released a CD of Andrew Ford’s music-theatre piece, Night and Dreams: the death of Sigmund Freud on its super-budget Eloquence label. It was composed with librettist Margaret Morgan for the veteran tenor Gerald English.
English was a founder member of the legendary Deller Consort in 1950; he sang under the batons of Stravinsky, Ansermet, Vaughan Williams, Britten, Barbirolli and Beecham; he premiered works by Tippett, Henze, Berio and Dallapiccola. He has premiered 12 pieces by Andrew Ford. The latest of these, the one-man music-theatre piece Night and Dreams, was commissioned by the 2000 Adelaide Festival. We find ourselves in the exiled Freud's London home in September 1939, as the father of psychoanalysis confronts his own death while dreaming of Vienna, Schubert and a strange, unidentified naked girl.
 In the Sydney Morning Herald, Roger Covell wrote of the premiere: English . . . acts out Freud's reveries with a keen sense of timing and humour. The feeling of physical presence in the last hours of the great theorist is vivid. Described by other critics as 'stunningly intelligent, intensely moving' ( The Age), 'powerful and eerie' ( The Australian) and 'electrifying' ( The Canberra Times), Night and Dreams had sell-out seasons at the 2001 Sydney and Melbourne festivals, and this ABC studio recording of the 75-year-old English's 'virtuoso performance' (UK Opera magazine) is now commercially available for the first time. It is paired with Schoenberg's Ode to Napoleon, the work of another Viennese in exile. Schoenberg composed his brilliant setting of Byron's sardonic ode in Hollywood in 1942, scoring it for reciter and piano quintet. Gerald English recorded the work with the London Sinfonietta for Schoenberg's centenary in 1974, and this is its first release on CD.
Thin Air at the
Sydney International
Piano Competition
 July 2008. Andrew Ford’s piano piece Thin Air was commissioned by the 2008 Sydney International Piano Competition. It is one of two Australian works that will be played by contestants in the Quarter Finals stage of the competition at Sydney’s Seymour Centre on 21st and 22nd July. Contestants must play either Thin Air or Roger Smalley’s Morceau de concours.
The sheet music of Thin Air is now available as a free download for a limited time Download a pdf file (188 KB). Read a program note.
Ox Life for viola
and double bass
March 2008. On March 22, violist Heidi von Bernewitz and bassist Robert Nairn will premiere Andrew Ford's Chorales from an Ox Life at Penn State University. The gently obsessive nine minute duo was developed from an early sketch for Ford's forthcoming opera, Rembrandt's Wife, its title making reference to Rembrandt's 1655 painting of the butchered carcass of an ox. Bernewitz and Nairn will also record the duo for Tall Poppies.
The opera itself, with a libretto by Sue Smith, has been commissioned by Victorian Opera – the new Melbourne company's first full commission – with its premiere slated for 2009.
A Singing Quilt
for Wingecarribee
February 2008. Andrew Ford is presently working on a new work for choir and percussion, A Singing Quilt. Taking words from interviews with people throughout the NSW Southern Highlands, the piece aims to present a musical representation of the look and feel of the place. In addition to the singing and percussion (drums, bells and gongs to the fore), the piece also weaves in the sound of the original interviews, so that the spoken words can be heard alongside their sung transformations.
A Singing Quilt is commissioned by Wingecarribee Shire Council with financial assistance from Regional Arts ACT through STARTS (Southern Tablelands Arts). The first performance, involving local choirs and Gary France's ensemble DRUMatiX from the ANU School of Music in Canberra, all conducted by the composer, will take place at Bundanoon Hall in the Southern Highlands on Saturday 1 November.
 The Music Show book is out now
March 2008. Talking to Kinky and Karlheinz is the title of a new book of interviews from ABC Books in which, as the subtitle has it, '170 musicians get vocal on The Music Show'. Ford has presented this radio program – something of a ABC Saturday morning institution – since 1995, and the new book, edited by Anni Heino, brings together conversations with guests such as John Adams, Victoria de los Ángeles, Robyn Archer, Pierre Boulez, David Byrne, Harry Connick Jr, Bob Geldof, k.d.lang, Tom Lehrer, Yehudi Menuhin, Pete Seeger, Mavis Staples, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Mitsuko Uchida.
Visit the website of The Music Show, buy the book online or visit the special Online Companion to Talking to Kinky and Karlheinz.
'Elegy' shortlisted
for Prix Italia 2007
October 2007. Andrew Ford's Elegy in a Country Graveyard was one of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's offical entries for the 2007 Prix Italia, held this year in Verona. The judges liked the piece, one of them referring to it as a "radio requiem", and together with entries from Radio France and Radio Belgrade, Elegy made it to the final shortlist, ultimately losing out to Jonathan Pontier's work for SRF.
Working with producer Andrew McLennan and sound engineer, Russell Stapleton, Andrew Ford made this piece at the ABC's Sydney studios in October 2006 and February 2007.
Meanwhile more concert performances of Elegy are in the pipeline for 2008. In the concert version of Elegy in a Country Graveyard, although many of the sounds (including the speaking voices) are identical to the radio piece, the choir and brass band play live.
The photograph below was taken at the conclusion of the first live performance of the piece at Arts in the Valley, at the village hall in Kangaroo Valley, NSW, in April 2007. The composer conducted the Berry Court House Choir and Southern Highlands Concert Band.
For photos of the Robertson graveyard, see the cemetery gallery (pop-up window).
Performance of 'Elegy' at the Arts in the Valley festival. Photo © Ray Moxon.
For more news, please see the News archive. |
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Performances 2008
January 23:
Est il paradis?, Sarah Leonard (soprano), Gemini, Victoria Rooms, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
January 25:
The Waltz Book (excerpts), David Vance (piano), Rathausstrasse 7, Vienna, Austria
February 23:
Bagpipe Music, Genevieve Lacey (recorders), Marshall McGuire (harp), Festival of Perth, Laurence Wilson Art Gallery, University of WA, Perth
March 15:
The Waltz Book (excerpts), George Lopez (piano), Kowmung Music Festival, Laureldale Farm, near Oberon, NSW
March 25: world premiere
Chorales from an Ox Life, Heidi von Bernewitz (viola), Robert Nairn (double bass), Esber Recital Hall, Penn State University, PA, USA
April 4:
A Reel, a Fling and a Ghostly Galliard (String Quartet No 2), Grainger Quartet, Adelaide Contemporary Music Festival, Dunstan Playhouse, Adelaide
April 11:
A Reel, a Fling and a Ghostly Galliard (String Quartet No 2), Grainger Quartet, Aurora Festival, Campbelltown Arts Centre, Campbelltown, NSW
April 17:
The Armed Man, Claire Edwardes (percussion), Blacktown Arts Centre, Sydney
May 13:
Oma kodu, Catherine McCorkill (clarinet), Australia Ensemble, Sir John Clancy Auditorium, University of NSW, Sydney
May 16:
A Reel, a Fling and a Ghostly Galliard (String Quartet No 2), Grainger Quartet, Canberra International Music Festival, National Library of Australia, Canberra
May 16: world premiere
Golden Slumbers, Iva Bittova (voice), Lisa Moore (piano), Canberra International Music Festival / Sounds Alive, The Street Theatre, Canberra
May 23:
Golden Slumbers, Iva Bittova (voice), Lisa Moore (piano), Bennett's Lane, Melbourne
June 13: world premiere
The Tears of Geertje Dircx,
Petra Stump & Heinz-Peter Linshalm (clarinets), Alte Schmiede, Vienna, Austria
July 9:
Chimney-sweepers, Austin Allen (baritone), David White (piano), Voices of Shakespeare Festival, The Living Willow Theatre Barn, Penlanole, Newbridge-on-Wye, Wales
July 21: world premiere
Thin Air, Hoang Pham (piano), Sydney International Piano Competition, Seymour Centre, Sydney
July 21:
Thin Air, Alexey Yemtsov (piano), Fernando Altamura (piano), Mariangela Vacatello (piano), Christopher Devine (piano), Miyeon Lee (piano),Yoon Soo Rhee (piano), Sydney Piano Competition, Seymour Centre
July 22:
Thin Air, Daniil Tsvetkov (piano), Sydney International Piano Competition, Seymour Centre, Sydney
August 3:
Chamber Concerto No 4, New Juilliard Ensemble conducted by Joel Sachs, MoMA Summergarden, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, USA
September 14: world premiere
Domestic Advice, Jane Edwards (soprano), David Miller (piano), Sydney Chamber Music Festival, Manly Council Chambers, Sydney
November 1: world premiere
A Singing Quilt, Combined Southern Highlands Choirs, ANU DRUMatiX conducted by Andrew Ford, Bundanoon Hall, Bundanoon, NSW
November 2:
'Trying to Write' from A Terrible Whiteness, Jane van Balen (mezzo-soprano), Elizabeth Wilton (piano), St Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney
November 7:
Thin Air, Hoang Pham (piano), Greenfield Hall, Manhattan School of Music, New York, NY, USA
November 8:
Learning to Howl, Merlyn Quaife (soprano), ARCKO, Richmond Uniting Church, Melbourne
November 23: world premiere
Lullaby and Fire Dance, Natsuko Yoshimoto and James Cuddeford (violins), Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Sydney
November 28: world premiere
Symphony, Musicans of the Academy conducted by Brett Dean, Australian National Academy of Music, Melbourne
Performances 2009
February 13:
Domestic Advice, Rachel Gordon (soprano), Jenny Durbin (piano), Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, UK
February 23:
Tattoo, Musicians of the Academy, Percussionists of the VCA, University of Melbourne, conducted by Peter Neville, Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM), Melbourne
March 12: world premiere
Bright Shiners, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Pekka Kuusisto (violin and director), City Hall, Newcastle, NSW
March 14:
Bright Shiners, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Pekka Kuusisto (violin and director), Llewellyn Hall, Canberra
March 15:
Bright Shiners, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Pekka Kuusisto (violin and director), Arts Centre, Melbourne
March 16:
Bright Shiners, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Pekka Kuusisto (violin and director), Arts Centre, Melbourne
March 17:
Bright Shiners, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Pekka Kuusisto (violin and director), Town Hall, Adelaide
March 18:
Bright Shiners, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Pekka Kuusisto (violin and director), Perth Concert Hall, Perth
March 21:
Bright Shiners, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Pekka Kuusisto (violin and director), City Recital Hall, Angel Place, Sydney
March 22:
Bright Shiners, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Pekka Kuusisto (violin and director), Sydney Opera House, Sydney
March 23:
Bright Shiners, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Pekka Kuusisto (violin and director), Queensland Performing Arts Centre, Brisbane
March 24:
Bright Shiners, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Pekka Kuusisto (violin and director), City Recital Hall, Angel Place, Sydney
March 25:
Bright Shiners, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Pekka Kuusisto (violin and director), City Recital Hall, Angel Place, Sydney
March 26:
Bright Shiners, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Pekka Kuusisto (violin and director), Anita's Theatre, Thirroul, NSW
April 18: world premiere
Rembrandt's Wife, Victorian Opera, conducted by Richard Gill, directed by Talya Masel, Merlyn Theatre, CUB Malthouse, Melbourne
April 18:
Spinning, Jane Duncan (alto flute), Soldiers' Memorial Hall, Bundanoon, NSW
April 19:
Rembrandt's Wife, Victorian Opera, conducted by Richard Gill, directed by Talya Masel, Merlyn Theatre, CUB Malthouse, Melbourne
April 21:
Rembrandt's Wife, Victorian Opera, conducted by Richard Gill, directed by Talya Masel, Merlyn Theatre, CUB Malthouse, Melbourne
April 22:
Rembrandt's Wife, Victorian Opera, conducted by Richard Gill, directed by Talya Masel, Merlyn Theatre, CUB Malthouse, Melbourne
April 23:
Hymn to the Sun; Like Icarus ascending; Asides on the Oboe; The Tears of Geertje Dircx; Chorales from an Ox Life; Icarus drowning, Musicians of the Academy conducted by Andrew Ford, Australian National Academy of Music, Melbourne
April 24:
Rembrandt's Wife, Victorian Opera, conducted by Richard Gill, directed by Talya Masel, Merlyn Theatre, CUB Malthouse, Melbourne
May 2:
Learning to Howl, Merlyn Quaife (soprano), Margery Smith (soprano sax, clarinets), Daryl Pratt (percussion), Marshall McGuire (harp), Arts in the Valley, Kangaroo Valley hall, Kangaroo Valley, NSW
May 3: world premiere
Sculthorpe Dreaming, Goldner Quartet, Arts in the Valley, Kangaroo Valley Golf and Country Resort, Kangaroo Valley, NSW
May 3:
The Tears of Geertje Dircx, Ashley Smith and Sam Curkpatrick (clarinets), Australian National Academy of Music, Melbourne
June 1:
Swansong, Hana Hobiger (viola), Ian Hanger Recital Hall, Queensland Conservatorium of Music, Brisbane, Queensland
July 4:
The Waltz Book (excerpts), Piers Lane (piano), Johnstone Shire Hall, Innisfail, Queensland
August 1:
Oma kodu, Paul Dean (clarinet), Goldner Quartet, Australian Festival of Chamber Music, Civic Theatre, Townsville, Queensland
August 4:
The Waltz Book (excerpts), Ian Munro (piano), Australian Festival of Chamber Music, Jupiter's Ballroom, Townsville, Queensland
August 4: world premiere
The Past, Russell Harcourt (countertenor), Lorna McGhee (flute and boatswain's call), William Barton (didjeridu), Camerata of St John's conducted by Federico Mondelci, Australian Festival of Chamber Music, Riverway Arts Centre, Townsville, Queensland
August 7: world premiere
Three Shakespeare Songs, Margaret Schindler (soprano), Kevin Power (piano), Australian Festival of Chamber Music, Jupiter's Ballroom, Townsville, Queensland
August 15:
Folly, Michael Kieran Harvey (piano), Australian National Academy of Music, Melbourne
September 18:
Symphony, Musicians of the Academy conducted by Brett Dean, Australian National Academy of Music, Melbourne
September 26: world premiere
Willow Songs, Halcyon, Trackdown Scoring Stage, Fox Studios, Sydney
September 27: world premiere
Chimney-sweepers (choral version), Gotlands Körförbunds Kör conducted by Ingvar Stagling, St Mary's Cathedral, Visby, Sweden
October 8: world premiere
Variation on a Waltz by Schubert, Seraphim Trio, Independent Theatre, North Sydney
October 10:
Variation on a Waltz by Schubert, Seraphim Trio, Melbourne Recital Centre, Melbourne
October 11:
Variation on a Waltz by Schubert, Seraphim Trio, Grainger Studio, Adelaide
October 14: world premiere
new work, Musicians of the Australian National Academy of Music, St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne
November 17: world premiere
'The Spirit of the Staircase' from Nine Fantasies About Brahms, Trioz, City Recital hall, Angel Place, Sydney
November 26: world premieres
Rauha, Musicians of the Academy, conducted by Andrew Ford
The Musical Child, Gerald English (speaker), Musicians of the Academy, conducted by Andrew Ford
Australian National Academy of Music, Melbourne
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