Music For Transitions
Announcing "Music for Transitions"
Click play below to learn more!
I’m excited to announce “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. The works were recorded in Melbourne with my talented and inspiring colleagues in the Penny Quartet with ABC engineer/producer Alex Stinson at ABC Melbourne’s iconic classical recording space, Iwaki Auditorium.
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
Four string quartets, each written to answer moments of change, transformation and the search for new normals. Each speaking to the enduring drive of the human spirit and collectively creating a metamorphic experience for listeners.
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
MUSIC FOR TRANSITIONS
STRING QUARTET NO.4
Commissioning Campaign
Thank you for being a part of creating art!
Crowd-commissioning for String Quartet No.4 is now completed. Thank you for everyone who supported! If you’d like to be a part of my other activities for the season, please see the donation links below!
$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.
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)
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 Madeleine 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 ANAM, culminating in a curatorship at St. Silas’ Anglican Church in Albert Park which focussed on merging improvised and experimental performance with classical works. Madeleine was nominated for the prestigious Freedman Fellowship award in 2019.
As a lover of all musical genres, Madeleine appears on several commercial recordings and live performances. Paul Kelly’s ARIA award winning “Conversations With Ghosts” and subsequent tour, multiple collaborations with Penny Quartet including Zola Jesus and Flight Facilities, recording the work of jazz pianist Tim Stevens for the ABC and most recently touring with singer-songwriter Kate Miller-Heidke.
Madeleine has performed extensively in orchestras including Orchestra Victoria, Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Australian World Orchestra and is a contract member of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. She is also a member of the Australian Octet. In 2015 Madeleine held an Emerging Artist position with the Australian Chamber Orchestra and is a member of the ACO Collective. She has featured as a soloist with ACO Collective and the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra.
Anthony Chataway, unlike most violists, began the viola at the age of nine without learning violin beforehand. After graduating from St Peter’s College in Adelaide, South Australia, where he was Captain of Music and recipient of the Evans Music Award in 2007, he attended the Elder Conservatorium where he studied with Keith Crellin, and was awarded his degree with first class honours as well as The Director’s Award in 2011 for outstanding leadership.
Since then he has studied at The Australian National Academy of Music under the tutelage of Caroline Henbest and Chris Moore. Anthony has been principal viola of the Adelaide Youth Orchestra and the Elder Conservatorium Symphony and Chamber Orchestras. He has performed in The Australian Youth Orchestra, Momentum Ensemble, Sydney Sinfonia, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and the Australian Chamber Orchestra and has performed chamber music with The Brodsky Quartet, Anthony Marwood, Paul Dean, Toby Lea, Tobias Breider among others. He currently holds a permanent position with The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and regularly performs solo recitals around Melbourne and Regional Victoria – as well as frequent guest appearances with the Melbourne based Trad. Jazz Band “The Knock Offs.”
In his spare time Anthony enjoys cryptic crosswords, knitting and is a self-confessed cricket tragic.
Jack Ward’s passion is chamber music and collaboration, and is a 2017 Emerging Artist with the Australian Chamber Orchestra. As a solo and chamber musician he has performed in the Melbourne, Perth, Canberra Festivals and the Four Winds Festival. As an orchestral musician, Jack has performed with the Melbourne and Adelaide Symphony Orchestras, Copenhagen Philharmonic, Orchestra Victoria and Sydney Symphony Sinfonia. In 2016, Jack joined Penny Quartet with performances at the Melbourne Recital Centre and recitals in Sydney and Brisbane.
Jack studied a Master’s degree under the tutelage of Andreas Brantelid at the Royal Danish Academy of Music. Previous teachers include Howard Penny at the Australian National Academy of Music, Janis Laurs, Georg Pedersen and private tutelage from Nicolas Alstaedt, Johannes Moser and Alban Gerhardt.
Jack also performs in improvised and contemporary music settings, including performances in the NowNow, Lalala series and the Griffin Theatre Company “As We Forgive” season.
STRING ORCHESTRA
(SYDNEY, NSW)
