The Carnival of the Insects will have two unusual performances at the Buxus Consort Festival in Gualtieri in September. Narrated by Silvio Castiligioni with the Ume Quartet and bassist, Stefano Bianchi, the live performances will be heard by festival goers wearing headphones as they walk through the lowland Caldaren Forest in the Po River floodplain. […]
News
How to commission a piece
To commission a piece of music from Andrew Ford you can either contact the composer directly or through his publisher, Wise Music Australia. Most composers charge by the minute (of music, not of the composer’s time!), the amount dependant on the medium. For instance, a minute of music for large orchestra will cost more than […]
Six Medieval Women
Hildegard of Bingen, Trota of Salerno, Anna of Rome, the Wife of Bath, Margery Kempe and Julian of Norwich: the words of these women of the Middle Ages are the starting point for Andrew Ford’s piece for women’s voices, bells and gongs, Six Medieval Women. It will have its first performance by actor Jaz Hoskins […]
The Carnival of the Insects in Australia and the Netherlands
The Carnival of the Insects for string orchestra and narrator (with words by John Kinsella) has forthcoming performances in Australia and the Netherlands. Andrew Ford will narrate the piece for Steel City Strings in March in Wollongong and Berry, and Kamerorkest van het Noorden will present the piece in Groningen in a new Dutch translation […]
Barton and the Brodskys touring Eden Ablaze in 2026
The Brodsky Quartet and didgeridoo maestro William Barton will perform Ford’s String Quartet No 7: Eden Ablaze on tour in Australia, Austria, Germany and the United Kingdom in February and April 2026. Starting in Melbourne and ending in Bristol, the tour includes performances at the Adelaide Festival, for Dornbirn Klassik and at London’s 12th-century Temple […]
Red Dirt Hymns on tour
Throughout November 2025, Luminescence Chamber Singers will be on the road in rural New South Wales with their award-winning Red Dirt Hymns show. In Orange, Penrith, Bowral, Queanbeyan and Bermagui, they will work with local choirs to sing about hope, determination and the land beneath our feet. They are joined for these concerts by Freya […]
Andrew Ford signs to Wise Music
Wise Music G. Schirmer Australia and Andrew Ford have signed a publishing agreement, initially for approximately thirty titles in all genres. These include the operas, Rembrandt’s Wife and Peter Pan, orchestral works including The Meaning of Trees, and a range of chamber, instrumental, vocal and choral music. Photo: Andrew Ford and Jane English, managing director […]
Machnamh premiere
On 28 July at the Australian Festival of Chamber Music in Townsville, the Australian String Quartet and William Mabo will give the premiere of Andrew Ford’s Machnamh, a ‘rumination’ on Seán Ó Riada’s famous tune ‘Mná na hÉireann’ (‘Women of Ireland’). It was commissioned by Ford’s neighbour, Owen J. Conlan, in memory of his mother […]
The Shortest History of Music
Andrew Ford’s new book, The Shortest History of Music was published on 30 July 2024 by Black Inc. A UK/Commonwealth edition followed from Old Street Publishing in October 2024. Picador India published an English-languuage Indian edition in February 2025. A North American edition from The Experiment arrived in May 2025, followed by a UK paperback […]
Help to commission Six Medieval Women
To make a tax-free donation to the Melbourne Women’s Choir commission fund see below. Six Medieval Women, for women’s voices and bells, draws on words by Hildegard of Bingen, Trota of Salerno, Anna of Rome (aka Anna the Hebrew), the Wife of Bath, Margery Kempe and Julian of Norwich. The half-hour piece is for Faye […]