Composer, Writer & Broadcaster
Andrew Ford’s vocal works are among his best known, and several of them have won awards, notably Learning to Howl, which won the prestigious Paul Lowin Prize in 2004.
Please click work titles for more information and resources (audio, sheet music, program note etc.) about individual works in this category.
1.The Land of Nod (Robert Louis Stevenson)
2. All the Pretty Little Horses (Anon.)
3. John Mouldy (Walter de la Mare)
4. White Seal Lullaby (Rudyard Kipling)
5. Owls: an Elegy (Edward Elgar)
6. Baby, Baby, Naughty Baby (Anon.)
7. Caliban's Dream (William Shakespeare)
8. Golden Slumbers (Thomas Dekker)
Text: 'Fern' by Eileen Chong
First performance by Rachel Mink (soprano), Callum Tolhurst-Close (piano), Wesley Music Centre, Canberra, 8 October 2025
Text: Judith Nangala Crispin
mezzo-soprano, narrator, clarinet in A (= bass clarinet), oboe (= cor anglais), percussion (ratchet, sistrum, 3 cowbells, stones, tambourine, suspended cymbal, glockenspiel), harmonium, harp, viola and laptop
Commissioned by Music Viva Australia
Text: J.M Coetzee, based on an episode from his novel Elizabeth Costello
Commissioned by the McLaren Vale Music Festival Association for the Coriole Music Festival
First performance by Elizabeth Campbell (mezzo-soprano) and Celia Craig (oboe), directed by Mitchell Butel, Coriole Music Festival, Coriole Vineyards, McLaren Vale, South Australia, 21 May 2022
Each of these twenty songs has words by a different Australian poet. Individual songs have different and variable instrumentation.
* Commissioned by Kim Williams AM + Commissioned by Opera Queensland for its Young Artists Program # Commissioned by Evergreen Ensemble ## Commissioned by Luminescence Chamber Singers
Individual songs have been sung by the likes of Gian Slater, Robyn Archer, Lotte Betts-Dean with Sean Shibe and Joseph Havlat, Jess Hitchcock, Jenny Duck-Chong with Halcyon, Deborah Cheetham Fraillon, Michelle Nicolle, Jenny M. Thomas with Bush Gothic, Thursday's Child with Evergreen Ensemble, the Chapel Choir of Glasgow University, the Young Artists of Opera Queensland, jazz students of Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University, and Luminescence Chamber Singers
First performance of Red Dirt Hymns en masse by Luminescence Chamber Singers, Hilary Geddes (electric guitar), Freya Schack-Arnott (cello), directed by Roland Peelman, Canberra International Music Festival, Gandel Atrium, National Museum of Australia, Canberra, 2 May 2024
First complete performance of Red Dirt Hymns by Opera Queensland with vocal and instrumental students of the Jazz Program, Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University, music director Steve Newcomb, director Patrick Nolan, Opera Queensland Studio, Brisbane, 2 May 2026
Text: poems by Jen Hadfield, R.S. Thomas, Robert Adamson, Maria Takolander, Tomas Tranströmer, Robin Robertson, Maija Konttinen, Edward Thomas and W.B. Yeats
flute (= piccolo), percussion (tabla, crotales, wind chimes and temple block), guitar and cello
N.B. the percussion part is written for an improvising tabla player, though it can be played on other hand drums
Commissioned for Halcyon (Sydney), Haga Duo with Karin Lovelius and Suranjana Ghosh (Stockholm), Lina Andonovska and Crash Ensemble (Dublin) and Elisabeth Holmertz and Poul Høxbro (Oslo), with financial assistance from the Australia Council of the Arts, the Australian Government's arts funding and advisory body.
First performance by Karin Lovelius (mezzo-soprano), Sareidah Hildebrand (flute), Suranjana Ghosh (percussion), Joakim Lundström (guitar), Mattias Rodrick (cello), Norrtullskyrkan, Söderhamn, Sweden, 5 September 2019
A song from the cycle Nature
Text: R.S. Thomas
A song from the cycle Nature
Text: Jen Hadfield
First performance by Anna Dowsley (mezzo-soprano), Eliza Shephard (flute), Youth Music Foundation Australia, Toorak, Melbourne, 15 September 2024
Text: Anne Carson
soprano, metal percussion
Commissioned by Julian Burnside AO QC for Jane Sheldon and Claire Edwardes
First performance by Jane Sheldon and Claire Edwardes, Port Fairy Spring Music Festival, Reardon Theatre, Port Fairy, 13 October 2018
Text: poems by Adrian Henri, Brian Patten and Roger McGough
flute (= piccolo), clarinet in B flat, bass clarinet, alto sax, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, vibes, drum kit, piano, electric guitar, violin, double bass
Commissioned by the Monash Art Ensemble
First performance by Gian Slater, Monash Art Ensemble directed by Paul Grabowsky (piano), Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music, Monash University, Melbourne, 13 October 2017