| |
|
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.
Tahu Rhodes and WASO
to premiere new work
with Tim Winton's words
January 2010. The gala opening concert of the West Australian Symphony Orchestra's 2010 season begins 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 will be in the Perth Concert Hall on 12 and 13 March, and the WASO will be conducted by its principal conductor, Paul Daniel.
Read a program note and Tim Winton's text.
 Premieres at Australian Festival of Chamber Music, Townsville
December 2009. Andrew Ford was composer-in-residence at the Australian Festival of Chamber Music in Townsville, Queensland in August. The program included the first performance by soprano Margaret Schindler and pianist Kevin Power of the festival commission, Three Shakespeare Songs and the long-awaited premiere of The Past, by countertenor Russell Harcourt with the Camerata of St Johns, flautist Lorna McGhee and didjeridoo player William Barton. The work is a setting of the poem of the same name by Oodgeroo Noonuccal, cross-cut with entries in Captain Cook's ship's log from his arrival in Sydney cove in 1770. According to one critic, The Past is 'a powerful, atmospheric work, swirling and thundery'.
Image: Lorna McGhee, William Barton, Andrew Ford and Russell Harcourt in Townsville
(click to enlarge).
 Ford's ANAM residency:
three premieres
in Melbourne
July 2009. Andrew Ford is Resident Composer at the Australian National Academy of Music in 2009. In addition to working with students in preparing performances of his music throughout the year, he is composing 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. The concert containing the premieres of both works will now take place in 2010.
Another ANAM commission is “ ...in Paradiso” for flute ensemble. It is one of several specially composed pieces to be interleaved between the movements of Haydn's Seven Last Words of Our Saviour on the Cross in a Melbourne Festival performance at St Patrick's Cathedral on the evening of 14 October 2009.
Another highlight of the residency comes on 18 September (concert details), when ANAM's artistic director 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.
Ford to be composer in residence
at the Australian Festival of Chamber Music, Townsville
July 2009. Andrew Ford's music will be featured at this year's Australian Festival of Chamber Music in Townsville, Queensland. The program includes two world premieres. Soprano Margaret Schindler will sing the festival commission, Three Shakespeare Songs (with pianist Kevin Power) and countertenor Russell Harcourt with the Camerata of St Johns will give the long-awaited first performance of The Past, a setting of the poem of the same name by Oodgeroo Noonuccal, cross-cut with entries in Captain Cook's ship's log from April 1770. Ian Munro will play a selection from The Waltz Book and Paul Dean will become the latest clarinetist to play Ford's quintet Oma kodu (with the Goldner Quartet).
Gary Rowley and Jacqueline Porter in Victorian Opera's Rembrandt's Wife
Rembrandt's Wife
- a critical success
May 2009. The premiere season of Andrew Ford and Sue Smith's opera, Rembrandt's Wife has received considerable critical acclaim. The first full commission by Victorian Opera, the new work received five performances by the company under its music director, Richard Gill. Bass baritone Gary Rowley was “compelling and impressive” in the demanding central role of Rembrandt, Jacqueline Porter sang the twin roles of his late wife Saskia and his final muse, Hendrickje Stoffels (“truly a 21st century Bathsheba”), mezzo-soprano Roxane Hislop was “glowing” and “riveting” and tenor Paul Biencourt brought “energy and individuality” to his six roles. Read more 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.
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
July 2009. Andrew Ford is Resident Composer at the Australian National Academy of Music in 2009. In addition to working with students in preparing performances of his music throughout the year, he is composing 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. The concert containing the premieres of both works is on 26 November (see: concert details).
Another ANAM commission is “ . . . in Paradiso” for flute ensemble. It is one of several specially composed pieces to be interleaved between the movements of Haydn's Seven Last Words of Our Saviour on the Cross in a Melbourne Festival performance at St Patrick's Cathedral on the evening of 14 October.
Another highlight of the residency comes on 18 September (concert details), when ANAM's artistic director 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).
 A Singing Quilt now on CD
May 2009.
Andrew Ford's piece for choir and percussion, A Singing Quilt, is now available on a CD single. Involving nearly a hundred singers from choirs throughout the NSW Southern Highlands, together with the DRUMatiX percussion group from the Australian National University, the premiere was conducted by the composer in November 2008 at the Bundanoon Soldiers' Memorial Hall. This performance was recorded and Wingecarribee Shire Council, the commissioner of A Singing Quilt, has now released that recording on CD. It can be purchased from the Council.
Read what the Southern Highland News wrote (pdf 420 KB) about the event. Read a program note about the piece.
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. |
|
|
| |
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 9: world premiere
'Composition with Yellow Square'; 'Composition in Blue, Grey and Pink' (duo version, wp) from Mondriaan; Getting Blue
Lamorna Nightingale (piccolo, bass flute), James Nightingale (alto sax), Josh Hill (percussion), Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney
August 15:
Folly, Michael Kieran Harvey (piano), Australian National Academy of Music, Melbourne
September 6:
Spinning, Janet McKay (alto flute), Queensland Centre of Photography, Brisbane
September 6:
Swansong, Patricia Pollett (viola), Queensland Academy of Creative Industries, Brisbane
September 12: world premiere
On Winter's Traces, Australia Ensemble, Sir John Clancy Auditorium, University of NSW, Sydney
September 18:
Symphony, Orchestra 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 9:
Variation on a Waltz by Schubert, Seraphim Trio, Coffs Harbour Education Campus, Coffs Harbour, NSW
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
“ . . . in Paradiso”, Musicians of the Australian National Academy of Music, St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne
November 8:
The Birthday of My Life, Jane Sheldon (soprano), Genevieve Lang (harp), Ballroom, Government House, Sydney
November 17: world premiere
'The Spirit of the Staircase' from Nine Fantasies About Brahms, Trioz, City Recital hall, Angel Place, Sydney
Performances 2010
March 4:
Bagpipe Music, Genevieve Lacey (recorders), Marshall McGuire (harp), Adelaide Festival, Elder Hall, Adelaide
March 12: world premiere
A Dream of Drowning, Teddy Tahu Rhodes (baritone), West Australian Symphony Orchestra conducted by Paul Daniel, Perth Concert Hall, Perth
March 13;
A Dream of Drowning, Teddy Tahu Rhodes (baritone), West Australian Symphony Orchestra conducted by Paul Daniel, Perth Concert Hall, Perth
April 4:
The Birthday of My Life, Jessica Aszodi (soprano), Marshall McGuire (harp), Four Winds Festival, Bermagui, NSW
May 6: world premiere
The Averted, The Song Company conducted by Roland Peelman, Aurora Festival
May 21: world premieres *
The Musical Child*; Rauha*; A Dream of Drowning, Orchestra of the Academy conducted by Brett Dean, Australian National Academy of Music, Melbourne
July 25:
Oma kodu, Ken Burnett (clarinet), Bourbaki Ensemble conducted by David Angell, Macquarie University, Sydney
August 1:
Oma kodu, Ken Burnett (clarinet), Bourbaki Ensemble conducted by David Angell, St Stephen's Church, Newtown, Sydney
September 4: world premiere
Nine Fantasies About Brahms, Trioz, Chevalier College, Bowral, NSW
September 5:
Getting Blue, Kurrawong Ensemble, Government House, Sydney
September 5:
Nine Fantasies About Brahms, Trioz, Turramurra Uniting Church, Sydney
September 6:
Nine Fantasies About Brahms, Trioz, Albert Hall, Canberra
September 8:
Nine Fantasies About Brahms, Trioz, Melba Hall, Melbourne
September 9:
Nine Fantasies About Brahms, Trioz, City Recital Hall, Angel Place, Sydney
September 12:
Nine Fantasies About Brahms, Trioz, Elder Hall, Adelaide
October 18:
The Art of Puffing: 17 elegies for Thomas Chatterton, Sue Newsome (bass clarinet), Michael Duke (alto saxophone), Daryl Pratt (percussion), Conservatorium of Music, Sydney
|
|
|
|
