SOE announces a brand new association with the Historic Houses Trust with two performances at The Mint. Don't miss the March concert at this beautiful venue.
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Click here to View Photos from SOE's first two concerts.
The SOE is committed to the performance of contemporary Australian works and is excited to be working with Margery Smith as composer-in-residence.
SOE has commissioned works by the following composers, with the assistance of Ars Musica Australis, for performance since 2006:
Anne Boyd St Elmo's Fire - performed 10 September 06 Margery SmithInferno - performed 15 October 06 David PereiraNimbus - performed 4 & 8 March 07 Paul WitneyOut into Silence - performed 17 June 07 George PalmerNot Going Quietly - performed 16 & 18 September 07 Matthew HindsonLight Music - performed 31 October 07 Elena Kats-CherninSlow Down Lady - performed 24 November 07 Christopher GordonFreefall - performed 9 & 11 December 07 Daniel McCallumSeamless Transitions - performed 16 March 08
2008 COMPOSERS
Daniel McCallum
Daniel McCallum completed his HSC at the Conservatorium High School in Sydney in 2007, where he studied for five years. His earliest musical formation was with Lyn Williams OAM at the Sydney Children’s Choir and the national Gondwana Voices choir. At the Conservatorium of Music he majored in oboe and composition, playing piano and baroque oboe as second studies. Daniel’s ability as a composer has been recognised with various prizes and awards. He won the Composers’ Day competitions at the Conservatorium High School in 2004, 2006 and 2007. In 2006 he was awarded a scholarship from Ars Musica Australis to study with Paul Stanhope. He was also awarded the Fellowship of Australian Composers Award and a special encouragement grant from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music for the study of aboriginal heritage and music. The latter award is part of the Manikay Project and will involve the study of the didgeridoo and other aboriginal musical art forms with the composer and performer, William Barton. He was a winner of the 2007 Groove Search competition run by the Philharmonia Orchestra in London, which involved travelling to London to witness his piece being recorded by the orchestra in the Abbey Road Studios. In 2006 and 2007 he was a winning participant in the composition program with the Sinfonietta Orchestra, run by the Sydney Symphony. There he had two works preformed which were conducted by Richard Gill. In 2006 he had a piece preformed by the Sonic Arts Ensemble as part of the Australian Music Day concert.
In 2007 Daniel was commissioned by Wahroonga City Council to write piece for its “Ripple Festival”. The work was part of an installation involving the beach with pictures projected onto the sand accompanied by music. His compositions range from solo instrument through to full orchestra.
Daniel Omar Rojas (b. 1974) was born in Chile and migrated to Australia at the age of six. Rojas has cultivated an interest in the music of Peruvian Indigenous and folk music and Afro-Hispanic.
Rojas holds a Bachelor of Music Composition (1st Class Hons and Medal) and a Master of Music from the University of Sydney. He is working towards a PhD in Composition at the Sydney Conservatorium. His composition mentors have included Ross Edwards, Anne Boyd, Ian Shanahan, Richard Meale and Edward Primrose.
Rojas has won several first prizes including the Fellowship of Australian Composers Award, Frank Albert Prize, the Miriam Hyde Memorial Award, and the Keys National Piano Composition Competition with Danza de Montañas.
Rojas has received commissions for the MSO, SYO, SSO Fellows, Kammer Ensemble, and the Prima Musica Philharmonic Orchestra of Gent, Belgium. His most recent work is a symphonic choral text setting of Christopher Smart's Jubilate Agno premiered at the Sydney Town Hall to celebrate the sesquicentenary anniversary of Sydney Grammar School. Work in progress includes an orchestral for the West Australian Youth Orchestra commissioned by ArsMusica Australis.
The Stuart Greenbaum sound has overt connections to jazz, pop and minimalism but goes beyond these important influences. Greenbaum (Melb. 1966 - ) studied composition with Brenton Broadstock and Barry Conyngham at the University of Melbourne, where he now holds a position in the Faculty of Music as Senior Lecturer and Head of Composition. Nelson, a 3-act opera written with long-time collaborator, poet Ross Baglin, was premiered at the 2007 Castlemaine State Festival. Current commissions include works for the Australia Ensemble and a piece for the 2008 World Shakuhachi Festival. Greenbaum was a featured composer at the 2006 Aurora Festival in Western Sydney and has won a number of awards, including the Dorian Le Galliene Composition Award, the Heinz Harant Prize, and the Albert H. Maggs Composition Award. His most recent CD, Mercurial, was released in 2005. More information is available at www.stuartgreenbaum.com
George Palmer (b. 1947) has spent his professional life as a lawyer, first as a solicitor, then a barrister, and finally as a judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales. As a youth, he studied piano with Frank Warbrick and Neta Maughan and has been composing music since he was a teenager. It was only in 2003 that he made any endeavour to have his music performed. By chance, his music came to the attention of the ABC, resulting in an episode of Australian Story on ABC TV, a live broadcast of a concert of his orchestral music and the release by ABC Classics of a CD of his music for string orchestra, "Attraction of Opposites". Since then, he has received a number of commissions. A Mass, "A Child is Born", for choir, soloists and orchestra, was commissioned by Ars Musica Australis in 2005 and has been recorded by ABC Classics with Cantillation and Sinfonia Australis, conducted by Dr Paul Stanhope. The CD, which contains George's other choral work, will be released in October 2007. In 2006 a commissioned work for large orchestra, Seascape III, was performed by the Sydney Sinfonia conducted by Richard Gill as part of the Discovery Series at the City Recital Hall. He is currently working on a clarinet sonata, a suite for 2 pianos, a wind quintet and another Mass. In addition to his judicial duties and composition, George is Chairman of Pacific Opera, a not-for-profit company committed to give Australia's best young emerging singers professional development and exposure. He is also President of The Arts Law Centre of Australia, which provides free legal and business advice to artists in all media throughout Australia. In addition, he is a director of Ars Musica Australis and of the Sydney Omega Ensemble.
