Violist Katie Yap plays Andrew Ford’s In My Solitude in a film by Darren James.
News
Sidney Myer Performing Arts Award to Andrew Ford
The 2020 Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards have been announced, with Andrew Ford among recipients. As a nod to the special circumstances of the pandemic year, the prize money was distributed equally between eight artists/groups, instead of awarding the usual three prizes (the Group Award, the Individual Award and the Facilitator’s Prize). The following all took […]
The Music Show turns 30
ABC Radio National’s long running weekend program, The Music Show, celebrated its 30th anniversary in February 2021 with a special show of highlights from the past three decades. Andrew Ford presented the program, as he has for the past 26 years. Listen here. Read an article about the show by Andrew Ford.
Lotte Betts-Dean sings ‘Gone’ from Red Dirt Hymns
Lotte Betts-Dean (mezzo-soprano) and Sean Shibe (guitar) performing ‘Gone’ from Red Dirt Hymns at the Royal Overseas League in London, November 2020.
How to commission a Red Dirt Hymn
Andrew Ford’s Red Dirt Hymns (‘The right idea for strange times’ – Harriet Cunningham, Limelight, March 2021) are a sequence of songs about hope and fear, courage, resilience, forbearance and forgiveness – in fact, the sorts of things hymns have always been about. They have new, specially commissioned lyrics by some of Australia’s finest poets […]
Bright Shiners and Blue Poles
Steel City Strings will dust off two short works by Andrew Ford for their first concerts of 2021. Both pieces were commissioned by the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Blues Poles as part of Manhattan Epiphanies, Bright Shiners for a national tour with Pekka Kuusisto in 2009. Individual pieces in Manhattan Epiphanies have subsequently been been taken […]
‘Gone’ sung and arranged by Gian Slater
Gian Slater has made this beautiful arrangement of ‘Gone’, the first of Andrew Ford’s Red Dirt Hymns. It has words by Jordie Albiston. Andrew Ford · 'Gone' from Red Dirt Hymns Andrew Ford · ‘Gone’ from Red Dirt Hymns
Ford on the txalaparta
Andrew Ford’s 1993 percussion piece, Composition in Blue, Grey and Pink, was written to be played on five matched drums of varying pitch (five bongos, say, of five congas), though over the years it’s been played on brake drums, muffled gongs and dinner plates (with knitting needles). Recently, Jabi Alonso adapted the piece to the […]
Red Dirt Hymns
Recently, I’ve revived an old idea that I’ve called Red Dirt Hymns. A few years ago, it came to nothing, but it seems to have found its time. Simple songs – simple to sing, not simple to write – that may yet add up to something larger as a pattern emerges. I’ve commissioned some of Australia’s […]
CD: There Was a Man Lived in the Moon
Andrew Ford’s popular CD of nursery rhymes and children’s songs, sung by Jane Sheldon and Teddy Tahu Rhodes is now available from this website. Please send Andrew a message at the contact page. CDs are $20 each including postage and packing in Australia. Try before you buy.