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.
Text: poem by Judith Wright
Commissioned by Katie Noonan with financial assistance from the Australia Council for the Arts
First performance by Katie Noonan and the Brodsky Quartet, Queensland Performing Arts Centre, Brisbane, 28 April 2016
Text:
poem by Katherine Philips
First performance by Halcyon (Alison Morgan, Jenny Duck Chong, Diana Springford, Joshua Hill), Sculpture Garden, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 23 October 2013
Text: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Henry Ward Beecher, Alban Berg, Robert Louis Stevenson, Robert Falcon Scott, Adelaide Crapsey, Chidiock Tichborne, Sappho, Dorothy Porter, Maurice Chevalier, Emily Brontë, Emily Dickinson, Sullivan Balou, Florenz Ziegfeld, Tim Winton (from Cloudstreet), Virginia Woolf and Noël Coward.
Commissioned by Jane Sheldon with financial assistance from the Music Board of the Australia Council for the Arts
First performance by Jane Sheldon (soprano), Helen Ayres (violin), Zoe Knighton (cello) and Anna Goldsworthy (piano), Port Fairy Spring Music Festival, Lecture Hall, Port Fairy, Victoria, 12 October 2013
1. The Owl and the Pussy-cat 2. The Quangle Wangle's Hat 3. The Jumblies
Text: poems by Edward Lear
First performance by Michael Lampard (baritone), Shirley Trembath (piano), St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne, 30 October 2013
1. Bonny at Morn
2. Maa Bonny Lad
3. Dance to Thi Daddy
Commissioned by Jane Sheldon
First complete performance by Fiona Campbell (mezzo-soprano), Australia Ensemble, Sir John Clancy Auditorium, University of NSW, Sydney, 8 June 2019
Text: poem by Jane Taylor
First performance by Tobias Cole (countertenor) and Meriel Owen (harp), Canberra International Musica Festival, Fitters' Workshop, Canberra, 30 April 2017
The first song in this work is A Dream of Drowning.
Text: Tim Winton, George Barker, Georgiana Molloy, Bruce Dawe, Stevie Smith and William Shakespeare
Commissioned by Ruthless Jabiru and the Camerata of St John's with a project grant from the Australia Council for the Arts
First performance by Morgan Pearse (baritone), Ruthless Jabiru conducted by Kelly Lovelady, Chapel of King's College, London, 10 March 2018.
The first song in the song cycle The Drowners.
Text:
Tim Winton (from his novel Breath)
Commissioned by the West Australian Symphony Orchestra
First performance by Teddy Tahu Rhodes and the West Australian Symphony Orchestra conducted by Paul Daniel, Perth Concert Hall, 12 March 2010
Text: Cathryn Strickland (libretto)
Commissioned by the Australian National Academy of Music
First performance by Andrew Ford (speaker), Orchestra of Australian National Academy of Music conducted by Brett Dean, ANAM, South Melbourne Town Hall, Melbourne, 20 May 2010
Text:
poems by Anne Stevenson
Commissioned by Halcyon with the generous financial support of Barbara Blackman
First performance by Halcyon (Alison Morgan, Jenny Duck-Chong , Sally Walker, Jason Noble, John Douglas, Sally Whitwell), Trackdown Scoring Stage, Fox Studios, Sydney, 26 September 2009