(2024) Spectrum Chamber Music Composition Award
Winner | Piano Trio No.1 “In Search of Peace”. Selected from over 50 other submissions as winner of the Spectrum Chamber Music Society of Fort Worth’s Composition award. In addition to winning the award, the work will receive a performance in the Spectrum Chamber Music Society’s April concert in Fort Worth, Texas by members of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra.
Music For Transitions
I’m excited to share with you “Music for Transitions”, a set of four string quartets written over the last the last 5 years. At their core, each quartet is a work that answers moments of change and with the support of Creative Australia, “Music for Transitions” will become my first full album and will be released commercially through streaming over 2024/2025. I’m very excited to be recording these works in Melbourne with my talented and inspiring colleagues in the Penny Quartet and we’ll be doing it with the amazing engineering team at ABC Melbourne’s iconic classical recording space, Iwaki Auditorium.
MUSIC FOR TRANSITIONS
STRING QUARTET NO.4
Commissioning Campaign
Be a part of creating art!
Crowd-commissioning this new composition is your opportunity to get involved in the creation of art at whatever level you feel comfortable, complete the last string quartet in the set and get an AU or US tax deduction! .
$10274/ $10,000 US
Amount Raised
Donations processed through Fractured Atlas are tax-deductible gifts for U.S. tax residents!
Donations processed through Australian Cultural Fund are tax-deductible gifts for Australian tax residents!
Part of String Quartet #4 of Music for Transitions is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
The Commissioning Campaign
Donations processed through Australian Cultural Fund are both tax-deductible gifts and matched dollar for dollar for Australian tax residents!
$1260/ $5,000 AU
Amount Raised
$1260/ $5,000 AU
Creative Partnerships Australia Matched Funding Used
$2520/ $10,000 AU
Total Project Funding
000 days 00 hours 00 minutes 00 seconds
Until Matched Funding Expires
The Commissioning Campaign
Donations processed through Australian Cultural Fund are both tax-deductible gifts and matched dollar for dollar for Australian tax residents!
$1260/ $5,000 AU
Amount Raised
$1260/ $5,000 AU
Creative Partnerships Australia Matched Funding Used
$2520/ $10,000 AU
Total Project Funding
000 days 00 hours 00 minutes 00 seconds
Until Matched Funding Expires
The Commissioning Campaign
Donations processed through Australian Cultural Fund are both tax-deductible gifts and matched dollar for dollar for Australian tax residents!
$1260/ $5,000 AU
Amount Raised
$1260/ $5,000 AU
Creative Partnerships Australia Matched Funding Used
$2520/ $10,000 AU
Total Project Funding
000 days 00 hours 00 minutes 00 seconds
Until Matched Funding Expires
What starts as your goodwill carried by sound, made from something as small as dots on a page,
can grow, and together, with music,
even in the most challenging of times, we can create moments reaching and connecting others now and into the future…
…at the best of times, at the worst of times…
…and all those transitions in-between.
Music can do that.
So, let’s make some.
THE ALBUM
Music for Transitions will be a full album available on streaming services. The album will be a set of four string quartets written over years of enormous change. Although it was big transitions in my journey that inspired my writing at the time to find some way to rationalize and find new normals, these works are for intended anyone at any stage of their story to find the meaning and space they need in the work.
The recording of Music For Transitions has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body
I’m very grateful to the entire community of individuals that came together to bring these works to life!
STRING QUARTET NO.1 "SFIDARE"
(NICE, FRANCE)
PIANO TRIO
(MELBOURNE, VIC)
PREMIERED DATE: Date of premiere
PRESENTER: Zodiac Music Festival
LOCATION: Valdeblore, Nice, France
PROGRAM NOTES/BACK STORY
STRING ORCHESTRA
(SYDNEY, NSW)
THE STRING QUARTET
PENNY QUARTET (AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND)
I’m elated to be working with Amy Brookman, Madeline Jevons, Anthony Chataway and Jack Ward of the Penny Quartet to bring Music for Transitions to life! The much loved Australian/New Zealand quartet will be bringing their famous energy to record and perform string quartets one through four. To learn more about the Penny Quartet and each of their talented members, read more below!
STRING ORCHESTRA
(SYDNEY, NSW)
The PENNY QUARTET have gained a reputation as a driven and multifaceted voice in Australian chamber music. Founded in early 2014, the group brings a vibrant approach to their performances across the country.
In their inaugural year, they were nominated for the Freedman Fellowship award, were the recipients of the John and Rosemary Macleod Travelling Fellowship and winners of the Australian National Academy of Music Chamber Music Competition. Since then, the Penny Quartet have been an ensemble in residence at the Four Winds Festival, Canberra International Music Festival, presented independent recital tours across Australia as well as Featured Artists with Musica Viva Australia’s regional touring program. They made their international debut as full scholarship holders at the St. Lawrence String Quartet seminar at Stanford, CA.
Penny Quartet regularly collaborate and record with various composers and musicians, both independently and as Festival artists. They have been part of the “Local Heroes” subscription series at the Melbourne Recital Centre since late 2017 and are two-time recipients of the MRC Contemporary Masters Award.
With diverse individual backgrounds and experiences across the globe, the group brings together years of knowledge and training to create a mature quartet sound. The Penny Quartet’s repertoire is wide and varied; a love for the core quartet repertoire is intertwined with an urge to explore less charted territory.
AMY BROOKMAN studied violin at the Queensland Conservatorium completing a Bachelor of Music (2009) and Master of Music Studies (2010). Amy graduated from the Australian National Academy of Music in 2014 and is currently a casual violinist with the Tasmanian, Queensland and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras and a founding member of the Penny String Quartet.
Amy is passionate about collaborating with composers and artists and is a driving force behind the Penny Quartets partnership with Melbourne based composer/Pianist Joseph O’Connor. She has participated in many local and interstate music festivals and competitions including Huntington Estate, Melbourne Festival and the 3MBS Schubert Marathon and is a past winner of the Australian Concerto and Aria competition. Amy has extensive chamber music and orchestral experience including being a finalist in the 2013 Chamber Music Competition at ANAM and winning with the Penny Quartet in 2014.
In 2015 Amy held an Emerging Artist positions with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, and is a member of the ACO Collective. In 2018 Amy won the position of Associate Principal Second Violin with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, and currently resides in Wellington whilst remaining a passionate and active member of Penny Quartet.
Melbourne/Naarm based violinist MADELINE JEVONS enjoys a vibrant freelance career. She holds a Bachelor of Music Performance at the former VCA (2010) and graduated from the Honours course in Music Performance (2011). Throughout these courses she studied primarily under Zoe Black, Miwako Abe, Monica Curro and Adam Chalabi. She is a 2014 graduate of the Australian National Academy of Music where she most recently studied with Dr. Robin Wilson.
Madeleine is passionate about chamber music and is a current and founding member of Melbourne’s Penny Quartet. She was part of the winning string quartet (2010) and a finalist (2011) in the University of Melbourne Alumni Chamber Competition and received the Corinna D’Hage Mayer string scholarship (2011). In 2013 Madeleine was the recipient of the St. Silas Outstanding Achievement Award at ANA
(2023) CreArtMusic Call for Scores Competition
Winner | Piano Trio No.1 “In Search of Peace”. Selected from over 50 other submissions as winner of the Spectrum Chamber Music Society of Fort Worth’s Composition award. In addition to winning the award, the work will receive a performance in the Spectrum Chamber Music Society’s April concert in Fort Worth, Texas by members of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra.
World premiere ‘Sfidare’ by NYC-based WA composer Michael Grebla with Fremantle Chamber Orchestra & John Keen
The West Australian | News Article | David Cusworth | World premiere ‘Sfidare’ by NYC-based WA composer Michael Grebla with Fremantle Chamber Orchestra & John Keen
July 3, 2023
(2023) New York State Council on the Arts - Artist Grant
Grant Winner. Support for the commissioning of a new work for String Quartet in 2023. NYSCA supports the creation of new work by New York State artists through artist-initiated projects across a wide range of areas.
(2022) The President's Own United States Marine Band Call for Scores Competition
Semi-finalist | Sfidare for String Orchestra
(2022) Australia Council for the Arts - Arts Projects for Individuals Grant
Highly selective grant. This program funds a range of activities that deliver benefits to the arts sector and wider public, including national and international audiences. Grants are available from $10,000 to $50,000. Supported activities must last no longer than two years from the proposed start date.
(2022) Red Jasper Award in Music Composition
Runner-up/Finalist | String Quartet No.2 “Fede”
One of 6 finalists selected from over 400 applications. The Red Jasper Award in Musical Composition seeks to recognize and promote outstanding musical works by recent composers
June in Buffalo - University at Buffalo (June 2023)
Buffalo, New York, USA
Presented by the UB Department of Music and The Robert and Carol Morris Center for 21st Century Music, June in Buffalo, is a festival and conference dedicated to contemporary composers. June in Buffalo offers an intensive schedule of seminars, lectures, workshops, professional presentations, participant forums and open rehearsals, as well as afternoon and evening concerts open to the general public and critics. Each of the invited composers will have one of his/her pieces performed during the festival. Evening performances feature faculty composers, resident ensembles and soloists renowned internationally as interpreters of contemporary music.