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Ross Edwards (composer)

Ross Edwards AM (born 23 December 1943) is an Australian composer of a wide variety of music including orchestral and chamber music, choral music, children's music, opera and film music. His distinctive sound world reflects his interest in deep ecology and his belief in the need to reconnect music with elemental forces, as well as restore its traditional association with ritual and dance. He also recognises the profound importance of music as an agent of healing. His music, universal in that it is concerned with age-old mysteries surrounding humanity, is at the same time connected to its roots in Australia, whose cultural diversity it celebrates, and from whose natural environment it draws inspiration, especially birdsong and the mysterious patterns and drones of insects. As a composer living and working on the Pacific Rim, he is aware of the exciting potential of this vast region.[1][2]

Ross Edwards

AM
Born23 December 1943
Parent(s)Frank Edwards, Majorie Robertson
RelativesGeorge Robertson (Great-grandfather)

Early life and education edit

Ross Edwards was born and raised in Sydney, Australia. His parents were Frank Edwards, an engineer,[3] and Marjorie Robertson. His great-grandfather was the publisher George Robertson of Angus & Robertson. Drawn to music at an early age, his first attempts at composition date from his fourth year, but it was not until the age of 13, when taken to a concert by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra by his aunt that featured Beethoven's Fifth Symphony and Liszt's First Piano Concerto,[3] that he became intensely aware of his vocation to become a composer.[4]

Edwards attended Sydney Grammar School,[5][self-published source] which did not offer music at the time. At 15 years of age, Edwards was granted permission to enter the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music to study piano, oboe, harmony, counterpoint and theory during lunch hours and weekends.[4] In 1963, after being awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship to the University of Sydney, he enrolled in a Bachelor of Arts degree, but became frustrated and dropped out after a year. Due to the benevolent intervention of composers Peter Sculthorpe and Peter Maxwell Davies, he was able to earn a scholarship and complete a Bachelor of Music degree at the University of Adelaide's Elder Conservatorium in 1969, where his teachers included Peter Maxwell Davies (then composer-in-residence), Sándor Veress and Richard Meale.[3] During vacations he worked as assistant to Peter Sculthorpe, gaining valuable insight into the working life of a composer.[6] A further Commonwealth Scholarship enabled Edwards to complete his studies with Peter Maxwell Davies in London in 1970, earning a Master of Music degree,[3] after which he spent 18 months composing at a remote Yorkshire farmhouse. Today, Edwards holds higher doctorates from the Universities of Sydney and Adelaide.[7]

Returning to Sydney in 1970, Edwards taught in the Music Department of Sydney University and in 1974 married Helen Hopkins, one of his students.[8] In the same year he became a lecturer in the Sydney Conservatorium's School of Composition, remaining there until 1980, when he began working as a freelance composer and lecturer. Working from their home in the coastal village of Pearl Beach, Edwards and his wife Helen, a piano teacher, led an idyllic and productive life until the education of their two children necessitated moving back to Sydney in 1984.

Musical career edit

Reclusive by nature, Ross Edwards has largely eschewed following a career path as such, neglecting to promote his work and responding mainly to the inner dictates of his vocation. Based in Sydney and often retreating to work in the Blue Mountains west of the city, he has an acute sense of place and belonging, claiming to draw on his experience as "a composer living and working in Australia and relating to the world from an Australian perspective."[9] Far from being isolationist, however, the surface of Edwards' music is often highly eclectic, making oblique references to many cultures in what he describes as an "intuitive search for unity within diversity".[9] He has also stated that underlying all his music "the natural environment remains the supreme generative force".[10]

In spite of his natural reticence, Edwards' works have been featured at such international music festivals as the Vale of Glamorgan Festival, Wales; the Edinburgh International Festival; the Australian Festival of Chamber Music, Townsville; the Mostly Mozart Festival, New York; the City of London Festival; the Darwin International Guitar Festival; the Canberra International Music Festival; the Adelaide Festival; the Melbourne Festival; the Tucson Winter Chamber Music Festival, Arizona; International Society for Contemporary Music Festivals in Stockholm, Basel, Warsaw and Sydney; and the Festivals of Sydney and Perth.

Significant events edit

Significant events include the award of a joint Australian Broadcasting Corporation/Australian Bicentennial commission to compose the violin concerto Maninyas (1988);[5] the Australia Council's Don Banks Music Award (1989);[11] Australian Creative "Keating" Fellowships in 1990 and 1995;[12] and award of the Order of Australia – AM (1997).[13] The composition of Dawn Mantras, Sydney's contribution to the millennium celebrations, was telecast worldwide to an audience of billions, attracting great international acclaim.[14] In 2007 he was Musica Viva Australia's Featured Composer.

Collaborations edit

In 2005, Edwards' oboe concerto Bird Spirit Dreaming, originally composed for oboist Diana Doherty and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, had its US premiere by Doherty, the New York Philharmonic and Lorin Maazel, after which it was toured worldwide and received enthusiastically.[15] Another notable success was the 2010 UK premiere of the violin concerto Maninyas, given at the 2010 Edinburgh International Festival by its dedicatee, Dene Olding, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Vladimir Ashkenazy.[16] This work has also gained international popularity through choreography for dance, notably by Stanton Welch for the San Francisco Ballet.[17] Another Welch/Edwards collaboration, the ballet Zodiac, was successfully premiered by the Houston Ballet in 2015.[18] Edwards' music, with its unique rhythms, has a natural affinity with dance.

Another important collaboration with Australian saxophonist Amy Dickson, who now lives in London has produced three new works: the saxophone concerto Full Moon Dances (2012);[19] the double concerto Frog and Star Cycle, for whose 2016 premiere Dickson was paired with the Scottish percussionist Colin Currie and accompanied by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra;[20] and Bright Birds and Sorrows, which Dickson premiered at the 2017 Musica Viva Festival in Sydney with the Elias String Quartet, visiting from the UK.[21]

Musical style and philosophy edit

Early period: the influence of the natural world edit

In the early 1970s Edwards experienced an unexpected crisis. Disenchanted by the European music of the time, which was itself in crisis due to the waning of the Modernist movement, he found himself unable to compose for several years.[22] Having returned to Australia due to the terminal illness of his mother, and while lecturing at the Sydney Conservatorium, he moved in 1974 with his wife and infant son to the village of Pearl Beach, north of Sydney, where his sister-in-law had a holiday house.[23] Pearl Beach, which adjoined the Brisbane Water National Park "buzzing with wildlife", had an immediate effect on him and his work. "The summer days were swathed in the drones of cicadas with their mysteriously abrupt starts and stops and, at evening, the insects would start up. I was entranced by the insect chorus because it seemed to be on the verge of conveying some profound message which was ultimately elusive. All the temporal relationships in my music – the relative lengths of phrases and sections – are influenced by these ancient voices, whose near-symmetries and inconsistently varied repetitions often seem close to our inherited musical syntax. I don’t doubt that, over the millennia, such voices have generated much of the world’s music and it’s not hard to detect their presence in various surviving folk and religious traditions".[24]

Austerity and contemplation: the Sacred Series and beyond edit

The result of Edwards' move to Pearl Beach was a leap from the fierce complexity of some of his earlier work to a series of austere, meditative compositions (e.g., Tower of Remoteness (1978) and Etymalong (1984)), which became known as his Sacred Series, based on close listening to and absorption of the complex sound of the natural environment combined with his reading of Zen texts and commentaries.[3]

To Edwards' surprise, these skeletal compositions "found favour with the apostles of Orthodox Modernism,"[24] unaware that their position was being quietly subverted. It became vividly apparent, however, when, in 1982, his Piano Concerto burst upon the scene. "Some other pieces I wrote in the 1980s, however, ruffled establishment feathers both here and abroad and all but destroyed my reputation as a so-called serious composer. The most notorious example is, without doubt, my Piano Concerto, composed in Pearl Beach in 1982. My original intention for this work was to compose something … stark and introspective, but some unseen force seemed to dictate otherwise. In what seemed like a moment of sheer revelation, the outside world burst in on me and I suddenly became aware that I had the extraordinary privilege of living in a paradise of sun-blessed ocean and joyously shrieking parrots gyrating in the warm air, and that this ecstasy simply had to be transmitted through music. Conformist critics, especially English ones, gave me hell but, fortunately, the public responded positively, and this remains one of my most popular pieces."[24]

What followed was a process of integrating extreme positions – of gradually developing a musical language that spoke both to Edwards himself and, through him, to those prepared to listen. In the 1980s, the response to his music began to gain momentum, divided between the enthusiasm of those who perceived it as fresh direction – "a statement of independence from the impetus of cultural globalism" – and those who saw it as "a betrayal of Modernist idealism".[25] Edwards largely stayed aloof from these so-called "style wars", seeking his own instinctual voice in the midst of controversy.

The Maninya style: the dance of nature edit

Throughout the 1980s, the shapes, rhythms and temporal relationships Edwards subconsciously gleaned from walking in the Brisbane Water National Park began increasingly to inform the structure and texture of his music, which took on the character of angular, animated chant, with subtly varied repetition of rhythmic cells over elaborated drones. This "dance-chant", as he called it, sometimes mistakenly aligned with the minimalist movement, was closely examined by Paul Stanhope, who claimed that it suggested ritualistic behaviour.[3] Edwards' description of it as his maninya style originates from a spontaneously conceived nonsense text which he set to music in Maninya I (1986), and which was to spawn a series of maninya pieces culminating in the Maninyas violin concerto of 1988. While its quirky rhythms and chirpy, pentatonic melodic shapes are antithetical to the austere spiritual quietude of the sacred series, the maninya style also has its origin in nature, bringing the drones of insects and cicadas, the calls of birds and the mysterious temporal proportions into the concert hall. Edwards also notes that he had become fascinated by the music of the Sufis and the African mbira, and that these may have been influential.[10] From this time, Edwards' language, though firmly rooted in the Australian bush, begins to look outward and bear traces of an eclectic attitude to come. The maninya style has persisted throughout his work, as has the sacred, each increasingly infiltrated by symbols from and references to other cultures which preserve a reverence for the Earth.

Whereas Edwards' early maninya pieces tended to be static, ritualistic blocks of sound, Edwards began in the 1990s a series under the generic title "enyato", also extracted from the 1981 nonsense poem and given to connote "contrast". The enyato pieces are typically in two-movement form, the first slow, introductory; the second lively, dance-like. Examples are Prelude and Dragonfly Dance (1991) for percussion ensemble, and Blackwattle Caprices (1998), for solo guitar. In his study, Beyond Sacred and Maninyas, Philip Cooney maintains that these pieces may be seen as move towards a fusion of opposites, a steady progression towards the world of the later symphonies and concerti, where Edwards has been concerned with achieving greater richness and breadth.[26]

Diversity and eclecticism edit

Since the turn of the 21st century, Edwards' music, especially in his diverse larger scale works, has begun to integrate the many consistent elements of his earlier work – ranging from childlike simplicity, embellished Eastern pentatonicism, medieval Western modality, fragments of plainchant, occasional outbursts of expressionistic angst, complex textures which include the development of motives and Western counterpoint, Eastern heterophony, and a deep spiritual dimension with both Eastern and Western overtones. There are allusions to indigenous music but not direct quotations: where the didjeridu occurs its function has always been discussed between composer and performer. To these he has often added theatre and ritual, costume, lighting and dance, most manifest in such orchestral works as Bird Spirit Dreaming (2002), Full Moon Dances (2012) and Frog and Star Cycle (2015). Cultural symbols such as the Virgin Mary and her Eastern equivalent, Guanyin, goddess of compassion, make frequent appearance in the guise of the Earth Mother, protector and nurturer of the environment – Edwards' work has always had a strongly ecological focus. Behind the vivid surface activity however, the mysterious Australian bush is always present as a constant backdrop, providing unity and coherence.

In the 1970s, Edwards' attunement to the sounds of nature in a mindful, meditative way had a powerful effect on his music. He came to regard the sacred pieces as sonic contemplation objects[3] similar to the honkyoku repertoire of the Japanese shakuhachi. Years later he re-established contact with Dr Graham Williams, a friend from student days, who had given up his career as a pianist to train as a meditation teacher in the Burmese and Tibetan traditions. Williams who, as director of the Lifeflow Meditation Centre in Adelaide and was developing a uniquely Australian form of meditation, perceived that all of Edwards' music possessed a quality that naturally induced a meditative state.[27]

List of works edit

Orchestral edit

  • Mountain Village in a Clearing Mist (1972)
  • Veni Creator Spiritus for string orchestra (1993)
  • Chorale and Ecstatic Dance for string orchestra (1994)
  • Chorale and Ecstatic Dance for full orchestra (1995)
  • White Ghost Dancing (1999, rev. 2007)
  • Emerald Crossing (1999)
  • Entwinings, for string orchestra (2016)
  • Dances of Life and Death, for wind orchestra (2017)

Symphonies edit

  • Symphony No. 1 "Da Pacem Domine" (1991)
  • Symphony No. 2 "Earth Spirit Songs" (1996–97)
  • Symphony No. 3 "Mater Magna" (1998–2000)
  • Symphony No. 4 "Star Chant" (2001)
  • Symphony No. 5 "The Promised Land" (2005)

Concertos edit

  • Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (1982)
  • Maninyas, Concerto for Violin and Orchestra (1981–88)
  • Arafura Dances, Concerto for Guitar and String Orchestra (1995)
  • Bird Spirit Dreaming, Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra (2002)
  • Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra (2007)
  • Full Moon Dances, Concerto for Saxophone and Orchestra (2011)
  • Frog and Star Cycle, Double Concerto for Saxophone and Percussion (2015)

Other orchestral works with soloist edit

  • Yarrageh, Nocturne for Percussion and Orchestra (1989)
  • The Heart of Night for shakuhachi and orchestra (2004–5)
  • Spirit Ground for violin and orchestra (2010)

Vocal edit

  • The Hermit of Green Light – Four Poems of Michael Dransfield (1979)
  • Maninya I (1981)
  • Maninya V (1986)
  • Maninya VI (1995)
  • Christina’s Lullaby (2010)
  • Five Senses – Five Poems of Judith Wright (2012)

Choral edit

  • Five Carols from Quem Quaeritis (1967)
  • Eternity (1973)
  • Ab Estatis Foribus (1980)
  • Flower Songs (1986–7)
  • Dance Mantras (1992)
  • Dawn Mantras (1999)
  • Dawn Canticle (2000)
  • Mountain Chant – Three Sacred Choruses (2002–3)
  • Southern Cross Chants (2004)
  • Mantras and Alleluyas (2007)
  • Mass of the Dreaming (2009)
  • Sacred Kingfisher Psalms (2009)
  • Miracles (2014)

Opera, dance and music theatre edit

Instrumental music edit

  • Bagatelle, for oboe and piano (1968)
  • Monos I, for solo cello (1970)
  • The Tower of Remoteness, for clarinet and piano (1978)
  • Marimba Dances (1982)
  • Ten Little Duets for treble instruments (1982)
  • Ecstatic Dances, for two flutes or flute and clarinet (1990)
  • Ecstatic Dance, arranged for two woodwinds or two strings
  • Prelude and White Cockatoo Spirit Dance (Enyato II), for solo violin or solo viola (1993)
  • Ulpirra, for a solo woodwind (1993)
  • Guitar Dances, for solo guitar, arr. Adrian Walter (1994)
  • Four Bagatelles for oboe and clarinet (1994)
  • Enyato IV, for bass clarinet and marimba (1995)
  • Raft Song at Sunrise, for solo shakuhachi (1995)
  • Binyang, for clarinet and percussion (1996)
  • Blackwattle Caprices, for solo guitar (1998)
  • Two Pieces for Solo Oboe, 1. Yanada, 2. Ulpirra (1998)
  • Djanaba, for guitar and marimba, also arr. for two guitars (2002)
  • Prelude and Laughing Rock, for solo cello (1993–2003)
  • Water Spirit Song, from Koto Dreaming, for solo cello and various solo woodwinds (2003)
  • More Marimba Dances (2004)
  • Two pieces for Organ (2004)
  • Nura, sonata for flute and piano (2004)
  • The Harp and the Moon, for solo harp (2008)
  • Mystic Spring – Songs and Dances for a Treble Woodwind (2009)
  • Exile, for violin and piano (2010)
  • Melbourne Arioso for solo guitar (2016)

Keyboard music edit

  • Monos II, for solo piano (1970)
  • Five Little Piano Pieces (1976)
  • Kumari, for solo piano (1980)
  • Three Little Piano Pieces for the Right Hand Alone (1983)
  • Etymalong, for solo piano (1984)
  • Three Children’s Pieces, 1. Fipsis, 2. Gamelan, 3. Emily's Song (1983)
  • Pond Light Mantras for two pianos (1991)
  • Three Australian Waltzes, 1. Sassafras Gully Waltz, 3. Sandy Stone's Waltz (1997–8)
  • A Flight of Sunbirds – Nine Bagatelles for Four Hands (2001)
  • Mantras and Night Flowers, 9 bagatelles for solo piano (2001)
  • Two Pieces for Organ (2004)
  • Piano Sonata (2011)
  • Bird Morning, for two pianos and didjeridu (2015)
  • Sea Star Fantasy, piano solo (2015)
  • Lake Dreaming, for two pianos (2017)

Ensemble music edit

  • Laikan, sextet for flute, clarinet, percussion, piano violin and cello (1979)
  • Maninya II, for string quartet (1982). Withdrawn and partly incorporated into String Quartet No. 3 (see below).
  • Reflections, sextet for piano and percussion (1985).
  • Maninya III, for wind quintet (1985), later incorporated into Incantations (see below)
  • Prelude and Dragonfly Dance, for percussion quartet (1991)
  • Chorale and Ecstatic Dance, for string quartet. Also known as Enyato I. (1993)
  • Veni Creator Spiritus for double string quartet (1993)
  • Arafura Dances, arranged for harp and string quartet (1995)
  • Tyalgum Mantras, for variable ensemble (1999).
  • Piano Trio (1999)
  • Emerald Crossing, for piano quartet (1999). Later incorporated into Piano Quartet (see below).
  • Dawn Mantras, for shakuhachi, tenor saxophone (or cor anglais), didjeridu, percussion, child soprano, children's choir, men's choir. (1999)
  • Enyato V, for flute, guitar, percussion, violin and cello (2001)
  • Island Landfall, for flute, clarinet, piano, 2 violins, viola and cello (2003)
  • Incantations, for wind quintet (2006)
  • String Quartet No. 1 "Sparks and Auras" (2006, revised 2009)
  • String Quartet No. 2 "Shekina Fantasy" (2008, revised 2010)
  • String Quartet No. 3 "Summer Dances" (2012)
  • Gallipoli, for string quartet (2014)
  • Animisms, suite for flute, clarinet, percussion, violin and cello (2014)
  • Bright Birds and Sorrows, suite for soprano saxophone and string quartet (2015)
  • Voice of the Rain, for shakuhachi and string quartet (2016)
  • Piano Quartet (2017)

Awards, nominations and accolades edit

APRA-AMC Art Music Awards edit

The APRA-AMC Art Music Awards (previously Classical Music Awards) are presented annually by Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) and Australian Music Centre (AMC) since 2002. They "honour the achievements of composers, performers and industry specialists in the contemporary classical genre."[28]

Year Nominee / work Award Result
2003 Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra (Edwards) – Diana Doherty Best Performance of an Australian Composition[29] Won
Song for Emily (Edwards) – 200 Guitar Duo Instrumental Work of the Year[30] Nominated
2005 Concerto for Guitar and Strings (Ross Edwards) – Karin Schaupp, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Richard Mills (conductor) Orchestral Work of the Year[31] Won
2006 Oboe Concerto (Edwards) – Diana Doherty, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Orchestral Work of the Year[32] Nominated
2007 Piano Trio (Edwards) – The Australian Trio Instrumental Work of the Year[33] Won
2008 Symphony No. 4 "Star Chant" (Edwards, Fred Watson) – Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, Richard Mills (conductor); Adelaide Chamber Singers, Carl Crossin (director); Adelaide Philharmonia Chorus, Timothy Sexton (director) Vocal or Choral Work of the Year[34] Won
More Marimba Dances (Edwards) Instrumental Work of the Year[35] Nominated
2011 Kalkadunga Man (William Barton, Edwards, Sarah Hopkins, Rosalind Page, Dan Walker) – The Song Company, William Barton (soloist) Performance of the Year[36] Nominated
Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre – Composer-in-Focus 2010 with Ross Edwards Award for Excellence in Music Education[37] Won
2012 Spirit Ground (Edwards) – West Australian Symphony Orchestra, Margaret Blades (soloist) Work of the Year – Orchestral[38] Nominated
Sacred Kingfisher Psalms (Edwards) – The Song Company Work of the Year – Vocal or Choral[39] Nominated
2013 Full Moon Dances (Edwards) – Sydney Symphony, Miguel Harth-Bedoya (conductor), Amy Dickson (saxophone) Work of the Year – Orchestral[40] Nominated
2015 Ross Edwards – Contribution to Australian chamber music Award for Excellence by an Individual[41] Won

In 2009, ABC Classic FM conducted a listener survey of favourite symphonies entitled Classic 100 Symphony. Australian composers were voted in three positions of the top 100; Edwards' Symphony No. 1 Da pacem Domine was placed at number 67.[42]

In 2011, ABC Classic FM conducted a listener survey of favourite work of the 20th century entitled Classic 100 Twentieth Century. Australian composers were voted in eight positions of the top 100; Two of Edwards' works appeared: Violin Concerto Maninyas (number 45) and Dawn Mantras (number 49).

In 2016 Ross Edwards was awarded the David Harold Tribe Symphony Award for Frog and Star Cycle, Double Concerto for Saxophone and Percussion.[43]

Don Banks Music Award edit

The Don Banks Music Award was established in 1984 to publicly honour a senior artist of high distinction who has made an outstanding and sustained contribution to music in Australia.[44] It was founded by the Australia Council in honour of Don Banks, Australian composer, performer and the first chair of its music board.

Year Nominee / work Award Result
1989 Ross Edwards Don Banks Music Award Won

Personal life edit

Ross Edwards married Helen Hopkins, one of his students, in 1974. She is currently his manager, having spent many years as a piano teacher, and has always been a committed supporter of his work. They have two children, Jeremy and Emily.[1]

References edit

  1. ^ a b Edwards, Ross (26 August 2017). "Ross Edwards – Biography". Ross Edwards. Retrieved 26 August 2017.
  2. ^ Edwards, Ross (August 2017). "Ross Edwards – Represented Artist". Australian Music Centre. Retrieved 26 August 2017.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Stanhope, Paul. The Music of Ross Edwards – Aspects of Ritual. Master of Arts (Honours) Thesis. University of Wollongong, 1994.
  4. ^ a b Murdoch, James. Australia’s Contemporary Composers. Macmillan, 1972.
  5. ^ a b Pleskun, Stephen. A Chronological History of Australian Composers and their Compositions. Volume 2. Xlibris , 2012.
  6. ^ Hannan, Michael Francis. Ross Edwards – A Unique Sound World. APRA, March 1986. Southern Cross University. 1986
  7. ^ "Ross Edwards by Bridget Elliot". National Portrait Gallery. 2013. Retrieved 26 August 2017.
  8. ^ Cummings, David. International Who's who in Music and Musicians' Directory. Psychology Press, 2000.
  9. ^ a b Edwards, Ross. The tensions of making sacred art in a secular world. Component of the Barbara Blackman Lecture, Canberra International Music Festival, 2014.
  10. ^ a b Edwards, Ross (22 February 2015). "Notes on the Maninyas Series". Ross Edwards – Resources. Ross Edwards. Retrieved 26 August 2017.
  11. ^ "Don Banks Music Award". Australian Music Centre. Australian Music Centre – Prizes and Awards – Don Banks Music Award. 2017. Retrieved 26 August 2017.
  12. ^ Cooney, Philip (18 December 2013). "Ross Edwards – I still wake up excited about the score I'm working on". Australian Music Centre – Resonate Magazine. Australian Music Centre. Retrieved 26 August 2017.
  13. ^ "Australian Honours Database". It's An Honour. Australian Government Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. 1997. Retrieved 26 August 2017.
  14. ^ Bennie, Angela (16 October 2006). "Written with the stars in mind". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 26 August 2017.
  15. ^ "Making a birdsong and dance". The Age – Entertainment – Music. The Age Company Ltd. 29 July 2004. Retrieved 26 August 2017.
  16. ^ "Edinburgh pays tribute to Mackerras". Brisbane Times. 3 September 2010. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
  17. ^ Roca, Octavio (18 February 1996). "Stanton Welch Finds His Dream in S.F. / Australian choreographer creates a ballet for Helgi Tomasson". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 26 August 2017.
  18. ^ Oden, Kalyn (27 May 2015). "The Man Behind the Sounds of Zodiac – Ross Edwards". Houston Ballet. Retrieved 26 August 2017.
  19. ^ Edwards, Ross (3 October 2012). "The Moon and I". ABC Classic FM. ABC. Retrieved 26 August 2017.
  20. ^ Moffatt, Steve (13 July 2016). "Double slice of heaven from Amy Dickson and Sydney Symphony". The Daily Telegraph. Sydney. Retrieved 26 August 2017.
  21. ^ Paget, Clive (24 April 2017). "Review – Musica Viva Festival 2017, Concert 4". Limelight. Retrieved 26 August 2017.
  22. ^ Edwards, Ross. Reflections Transforming Art (ed. Nigel Hoffman) 4.1 (1992a): 28–30.
  23. ^ Featherstone, Don. The Dance of Nature. 1995. Clips may be viewed here
  24. ^ a b c Edwards, Ross (November 2017). "Address to the conference on belonging". Ross Edwards – Resources. Ross Edwards. Retrieved 26 August 2017.
  25. ^ Koehne, James. A sense of place. CD liner notes: Edwards and Sibelius violin concertos. Canary Classics, 2011
  26. ^ Cooney, Philip. Beyond sacred and maninya: developments in the music of Ross Edwards between 1991 and 2001. PhD thesis. University of Newcastle, 2003.
  27. ^ Williams, Graham. Life in Balance. Lifeflow Meditation Centre, Adelaide.
  28. ^ . Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) | Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS) | Australian Music Centre (AMC). April 2010. Archived from the original on 30 July 2010. Retrieved 25 March 2016.
  29. ^ "2003 Winners – Classical Music Awards". Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA). Retrieved 17 November 2010.
  30. ^ "2003 Finalists – Classical Music Awards". Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA). Retrieved 17 November 2010.
  31. ^ "2005 Winners – Classical Music Awards". Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA). Retrieved 17 May 2010.
  32. ^ "2006 Finalists – Classical Music Awards". Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA). Retrieved 17 May 2010.
  33. ^ "2007 Winners – Classical Music Awards". Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA). Retrieved 3 May 2010.
  34. ^ "2008 Winners – Classical Music Awards". Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA). Retrieved 3 May 2010.
  35. ^ "2008 Finalists – Classical Music Awards". Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA). Retrieved 3 April 2010.
  36. ^ "Performance of the Year". Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) | Australian Music Centre (AMC). 2011. Retrieved 25 March 2016.
  37. ^ "Award for Excellence in Music Education". Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) | Australian Music Centre (AMC). 2011. Retrieved 25 March 2016.
  38. ^ "2012 Work of the Year – Orchestral". Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) | Australian Music Centre (AMC). 2012. Retrieved 25 March 2016.
  39. ^ "2012 Work of the Year – Vocal or Choral". Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) | Australian Music Centre (AMC). 2012. Retrieved 25 March 2016.
  40. ^ "Work of the Year – Orchestral". Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) | Australian Music Centre (AMC). 2013. Retrieved 25 March 2016.
  41. ^ "Award for Excellence by an Individual". Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) | Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS) | Australian Music Centre (AMC). 2015. Retrieved 25 March 2016.
  42. ^ "Search – Classic 100 Archive – ABC Classic FM". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 11 November 2017. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
  43. ^ "News and events". The University of Sydney. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
  44. ^ "Don Banks Music Award: Prize". Australian Music Centre. Archived from the original on 18 August 2015. Retrieved 2 October 2017.

External links edit

ross, edwards, composer, ross, edwards, born, december, 1943, australian, composer, wide, variety, music, including, orchestral, chamber, music, choral, music, children, music, opera, film, music, distinctive, sound, world, reflects, interest, deep, ecology, b. Ross Edwards AM born 23 December 1943 is an Australian composer of a wide variety of music including orchestral and chamber music choral music children s music opera and film music His distinctive sound world reflects his interest in deep ecology and his belief in the need to reconnect music with elemental forces as well as restore its traditional association with ritual and dance He also recognises the profound importance of music as an agent of healing His music universal in that it is concerned with age old mysteries surrounding humanity is at the same time connected to its roots in Australia whose cultural diversity it celebrates and from whose natural environment it draws inspiration especially birdsong and the mysterious patterns and drones of insects As a composer living and working on the Pacific Rim he is aware of the exciting potential of this vast region 1 2 Ross EdwardsAMBorn23 December 1943Sydney AustraliaParent s Frank Edwards Majorie RobertsonRelativesGeorge Robertson Great grandfather Contents 1 Early life and education 2 Musical career 2 1 Significant events 2 2 Collaborations 3 Musical style and philosophy 3 1 Early period the influence of the natural world 3 2 Austerity and contemplation the Sacred Series and beyond 3 3 The Maninya style the dance of nature 3 4 Diversity and eclecticism 4 List of works 4 1 Orchestral 4 1 1 Symphonies 4 1 2 Concertos 4 1 3 Other orchestral works with soloist 4 2 Vocal 4 3 Choral 4 4 Opera dance and music theatre 4 5 Instrumental music 4 6 Keyboard music 4 7 Ensemble music 5 Awards nominations and accolades 5 1 APRA AMC Art Music Awards 5 2 Don Banks Music Award 6 Personal life 7 References 8 External linksEarly life and education editRoss Edwards was born and raised in Sydney Australia His parents were Frank Edwards an engineer 3 and Marjorie Robertson His great grandfather was the publisher George Robertson of Angus amp Robertson Drawn to music at an early age his first attempts at composition date from his fourth year but it was not until the age of 13 when taken to a concert by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra by his aunt that featured Beethoven s Fifth Symphony and Liszt s First Piano Concerto 3 that he became intensely aware of his vocation to become a composer 4 Edwards attended Sydney Grammar School 5 self published source which did not offer music at the time At 15 years of age Edwards was granted permission to enter the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music to study piano oboe harmony counterpoint and theory during lunch hours and weekends 4 In 1963 after being awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship to the University of Sydney he enrolled in a Bachelor of Arts degree but became frustrated and dropped out after a year Due to the benevolent intervention of composers Peter Sculthorpe and Peter Maxwell Davies he was able to earn a scholarship and complete a Bachelor of Music degree at the University of Adelaide s Elder Conservatorium in 1969 where his teachers included Peter Maxwell Davies then composer in residence Sandor Veress and Richard Meale 3 During vacations he worked as assistant to Peter Sculthorpe gaining valuable insight into the working life of a composer 6 A further Commonwealth Scholarship enabled Edwards to complete his studies with Peter Maxwell Davies in London in 1970 earning a Master of Music degree 3 after which he spent 18 months composing at a remote Yorkshire farmhouse Today Edwards holds higher doctorates from the Universities of Sydney and Adelaide 7 Returning to Sydney in 1970 Edwards taught in the Music Department of Sydney University and in 1974 married Helen Hopkins one of his students 8 In the same year he became a lecturer in the Sydney Conservatorium s School of Composition remaining there until 1980 when he began working as a freelance composer and lecturer Working from their home in the coastal village of Pearl Beach Edwards and his wife Helen a piano teacher led an idyllic and productive life until the education of their two children necessitated moving back to Sydney in 1984 Musical career editReclusive by nature Ross Edwards has largely eschewed following a career path as such neglecting to promote his work and responding mainly to the inner dictates of his vocation Based in Sydney and often retreating to work in the Blue Mountains west of the city he has an acute sense of place and belonging claiming to draw on his experience as a composer living and working in Australia and relating to the world from an Australian perspective 9 Far from being isolationist however the surface of Edwards music is often highly eclectic making oblique references to many cultures in what he describes as an intuitive search for unity within diversity 9 He has also stated that underlying all his music the natural environment remains the supreme generative force 10 In spite of his natural reticence Edwards works have been featured at such international music festivals as the Vale of Glamorgan Festival Wales the Edinburgh International Festival the Australian Festival of Chamber Music Townsville the Mostly Mozart Festival New York the City of London Festival the Darwin International Guitar Festival the Canberra International Music Festival the Adelaide Festival the Melbourne Festival the Tucson Winter Chamber Music Festival Arizona International Society for Contemporary Music Festivals in Stockholm Basel Warsaw and Sydney and the Festivals of Sydney and Perth Significant events edit Significant events include the award of a joint Australian Broadcasting Corporation Australian Bicentennial commission to compose the violin concerto Maninyas 1988 5 the Australia Council s Don Banks Music Award 1989 11 Australian Creative Keating Fellowships in 1990 and 1995 12 and award of the Order of Australia AM 1997 13 The composition of Dawn Mantras Sydney s contribution to the millennium celebrations was telecast worldwide to an audience of billions attracting great international acclaim 14 In 2007 he was Musica Viva Australia s Featured Composer Collaborations edit In 2005 Edwards oboe concerto Bird Spirit Dreaming originally composed for oboist Diana Doherty and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra had its US premiere by Doherty the New York Philharmonic and Lorin Maazel after which it was toured worldwide and received enthusiastically 15 Another notable success was the 2010 UK premiere of the violin concerto Maninyas given at the 2010 Edinburgh International Festival by its dedicatee Dene Olding the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Vladimir Ashkenazy 16 This work has also gained international popularity through choreography for dance notably by Stanton Welch for the San Francisco Ballet 17 Another Welch Edwards collaboration the ballet Zodiac was successfully premiered by the Houston Ballet in 2015 18 Edwards music with its unique rhythms has a natural affinity with dance Another important collaboration with Australian saxophonist Amy Dickson who now lives in London has produced three new works the saxophone concerto Full Moon Dances 2012 19 the double concerto Frog and Star Cycle for whose 2016 premiere Dickson was paired with the Scottish percussionist Colin Currie and accompanied by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra 20 and Bright Birds and Sorrows which Dickson premiered at the 2017 Musica Viva Festival in Sydney with the Elias String Quartet visiting from the UK 21 Musical style and philosophy editEarly period the influence of the natural world edit In the early 1970s Edwards experienced an unexpected crisis Disenchanted by the European music of the time which was itself in crisis due to the waning of the Modernist movement he found himself unable to compose for several years 22 Having returned to Australia due to the terminal illness of his mother and while lecturing at the Sydney Conservatorium he moved in 1974 with his wife and infant son to the village of Pearl Beach north of Sydney where his sister in law had a holiday house 23 Pearl Beach which adjoined the Brisbane Water National Park buzzing with wildlife had an immediate effect on him and his work The summer days were swathed in the drones of cicadas with their mysteriously abrupt starts and stops and at evening the insects would start up I was entranced by the insect chorus because it seemed to be on the verge of conveying some profound message which was ultimately elusive All the temporal relationships in my music the relative lengths of phrases and sections are influenced by these ancient voices whose near symmetries and inconsistently varied repetitions often seem close to our inherited musical syntax I don t doubt that over the millennia such voices have generated much of the world s music and it s not hard to detect their presence in various surviving folk and religious traditions 24 Austerity and contemplation the Sacred Series and beyond edit The result of Edwards move to Pearl Beach was a leap from the fierce complexity of some of his earlier work to a series of austere meditative compositions e g Tower of Remoteness 1978 and Etymalong 1984 which became known as his Sacred Series based on close listening to and absorption of the complex sound of the natural environment combined with his reading of Zen texts and commentaries 3 To Edwards surprise these skeletal compositions found favour with the apostles of Orthodox Modernism 24 unaware that their position was being quietly subverted It became vividly apparent however when in 1982 his Piano Concerto burst upon the scene Some other pieces I wrote in the 1980s however ruffled establishment feathers both here and abroad and all but destroyed my reputation as a so called serious composer The most notorious example is without doubt my Piano Concerto composed in Pearl Beach in 1982 My original intention for this work was to compose something stark and introspective but some unseen force seemed to dictate otherwise In what seemed like a moment of sheer revelation the outside world burst in on me and I suddenly became aware that I had the extraordinary privilege of living in a paradise of sun blessed ocean and joyously shrieking parrots gyrating in the warm air and that this ecstasy simply had to be transmitted through music Conformist critics especially English ones gave me hell but fortunately the public responded positively and this remains one of my most popular pieces 24 What followed was a process of integrating extreme positions of gradually developing a musical language that spoke both to Edwards himself and through him to those prepared to listen In the 1980s the response to his music began to gain momentum divided between the enthusiasm of those who perceived it as fresh direction a statement of independence from the impetus of cultural globalism and those who saw it as a betrayal of Modernist idealism 25 Edwards largely stayed aloof from these so called style wars seeking his own instinctual voice in the midst of controversy The Maninya style the dance of nature edit Throughout the 1980s the shapes rhythms and temporal relationships Edwards subconsciously gleaned from walking in the Brisbane Water National Park began increasingly to inform the structure and texture of his music which took on the character of angular animated chant with subtly varied repetition of rhythmic cells over elaborated drones This dance chant as he called it sometimes mistakenly aligned with the minimalist movement was closely examined by Paul Stanhope who claimed that it suggested ritualistic behaviour 3 Edwards description of it as his maninya style originates from a spontaneously conceived nonsense text which he set to music in Maninya I 1986 and which was to spawn a series of maninya pieces culminating in the Maninyas violin concerto of 1988 While its quirky rhythms and chirpy pentatonic melodic shapes are antithetical to the austere spiritual quietude of the sacred series the maninya style also has its origin in nature bringing the drones of insects and cicadas the calls of birds and the mysterious temporal proportions into the concert hall Edwards also notes that he had become fascinated by the music of the Sufis and the African mbira and that these may have been influential 10 From this time Edwards language though firmly rooted in the Australian bush begins to look outward and bear traces of an eclectic attitude to come The maninya style has persisted throughout his work as has the sacred each increasingly infiltrated by symbols from and references to other cultures which preserve a reverence for the Earth Whereas Edwards early maninya pieces tended to be static ritualistic blocks of sound Edwards began in the 1990s a series under the generic title enyato also extracted from the 1981 nonsense poem and given to connote contrast The enyato pieces are typically in two movement form the first slow introductory the second lively dance like Examples are Prelude and Dragonfly Dance 1991 for percussion ensemble and Blackwattle Caprices 1998 for solo guitar In his study Beyond Sacred and Maninyas Philip Cooney maintains that these pieces may be seen as move towards a fusion of opposites a steady progression towards the world of the later symphonies and concerti where Edwards has been concerned with achieving greater richness and breadth 26 Diversity and eclecticism edit Since the turn of the 21st century Edwards music especially in his diverse larger scale works has begun to integrate the many consistent elements of his earlier work ranging from childlike simplicity embellished Eastern pentatonicism medieval Western modality fragments of plainchant occasional outbursts of expressionistic angst complex textures which include the development of motives and Western counterpoint Eastern heterophony and a deep spiritual dimension with both Eastern and Western overtones There are allusions to indigenous music but not direct quotations where the didjeridu occurs its function has always been discussed between composer and performer To these he has often added theatre and ritual costume lighting and dance most manifest in such orchestral works as Bird Spirit Dreaming 2002 Full Moon Dances 2012 and Frog and Star Cycle 2015 Cultural symbols such as the Virgin Mary and her Eastern equivalent Guanyin goddess of compassion make frequent appearance in the guise of the Earth Mother protector and nurturer of the environment Edwards work has always had a strongly ecological focus Behind the vivid surface activity however the mysterious Australian bush is always present as a constant backdrop providing unity and coherence In the 1970s Edwards attunement to the sounds of nature in a mindful meditative way had a powerful effect on his music He came to regard the sacred pieces as sonic contemplation objects 3 similar to the honkyoku repertoire of the Japanese shakuhachi Years later he re established contact with Dr Graham Williams a friend from student days who had given up his career as a pianist to train as a meditation teacher in the Burmese and Tibetan traditions Williams who as director of the Lifeflow Meditation Centre in Adelaide and was developing a uniquely Australian form of meditation perceived that all of Edwards music possessed a quality that naturally induced a meditative state 27 List of works editOrchestral edit Mountain Village in a Clearing Mist 1972 Veni Creator Spiritus for string orchestra 1993 Chorale and Ecstatic Dance for string orchestra 1994 Chorale and Ecstatic Dance for full orchestra 1995 White Ghost Dancing 1999 rev 2007 Emerald Crossing 1999 Entwinings for string orchestra 2016 Dances of Life and Death for wind orchestra 2017 Symphonies edit Symphony No 1 Da Pacem Domine 1991 Symphony No 2 Earth Spirit Songs 1996 97 Symphony No 3 Mater Magna 1998 2000 Symphony No 4 Star Chant 2001 Symphony No 5 The Promised Land 2005 Concertos edit Concerto for Piano and Orchestra 1982 Maninyas Concerto for Violin and Orchestra 1981 88 Arafura Dances Concerto for Guitar and String Orchestra 1995 Bird Spirit Dreaming Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra 2002 Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra 2007 Full Moon Dances Concerto for Saxophone and Orchestra 2011 Frog and Star Cycle Double Concerto for Saxophone and Percussion 2015 Other orchestral works with soloist edit Yarrageh Nocturne for Percussion and Orchestra 1989 The Heart of Night for shakuhachi and orchestra 2004 5 Spirit Ground for violin and orchestra 2010 Vocal edit The Hermit of Green Light Four Poems of Michael Dransfield 1979 Maninya I 1981 Maninya V 1986 Maninya VI 1995 Christina s Lullaby 2010 Five Senses Five Poems of Judith Wright 2012 Choral edit Five Carols from Quem Quaeritis 1967 Eternity 1973 Ab Estatis Foribus 1980 Flower Songs 1986 7 Dance Mantras 1992 Dawn Mantras 1999 Dawn Canticle 2000 Mountain Chant Three Sacred Choruses 2002 3 Southern Cross Chants 2004 Mantras and Alleluyas 2007 Mass of the Dreaming 2009 Sacred Kingfisher Psalms 2009 Miracles 2014 Opera dance and music theatre edit Christina s World chamber opera to libretto by Dorothy Hewett 1983 Sensing dance video with Graeme Murphy and the Sydney Dance Company 1992 Maninyas ballet to Edwards violin concerto Maninyas choreographed by Stanton Welch for the San Francisco Ballet 1996 The Cries of Australia with Barry Humphries 1997 Koto Dreaming for the 2003 Asian Music and Dance Festival Sydney To the Green Island orchestral score for Nicolo Fonte s ballet The Possibility Space for The Australian Ballet 2008 Zodiac orchestral score choreographed by Stanton Welch for the Houston Ballet 2015 Instrumental music edit Bagatelle for oboe and piano 1968 Monos I for solo cello 1970 The Tower of Remoteness for clarinet and piano 1978 Marimba Dances 1982 Ten Little Duets for treble instruments 1982 Ecstatic Dances for two flutes or flute and clarinet 1990 Ecstatic Dance arranged for two woodwinds or two strings Prelude and White Cockatoo Spirit Dance Enyato II for solo violin or solo viola 1993 Ulpirra for a solo woodwind 1993 Guitar Dances for solo guitar arr Adrian Walter 1994 Four Bagatelles for oboe and clarinet 1994 Enyato IV for bass clarinet and marimba 1995 Raft Song at Sunrise for solo shakuhachi 1995 Binyang for clarinet and percussion 1996 Blackwattle Caprices for solo guitar 1998 Two Pieces for Solo Oboe 1 Yanada 2 Ulpirra 1998 Djanaba for guitar and marimba also arr for two guitars 2002 Prelude and Laughing Rock for solo cello 1993 2003 Water Spirit Song from Koto Dreaming for solo cello and various solo woodwinds 2003 More Marimba Dances 2004 Two pieces for Organ 2004 Nura sonata for flute and piano 2004 The Harp and the Moon for solo harp 2008 Mystic Spring Songs and Dances for a Treble Woodwind 2009 Exile for violin and piano 2010 Melbourne Arioso for solo guitar 2016 Keyboard music edit Monos II for solo piano 1970 Five Little Piano Pieces 1976 Kumari for solo piano 1980 Three Little Piano Pieces for the Right Hand Alone 1983 Etymalong for solo piano 1984 Three Children s Pieces 1 Fipsis 2 Gamelan 3 Emily s Song 1983 Pond Light Mantras for two pianos 1991 Three Australian Waltzes 1 Sassafras Gully Waltz 3 Sandy Stone s Waltz 1997 8 A Flight of Sunbirds Nine Bagatelles for Four Hands 2001 Mantras and Night Flowers 9 bagatelles for solo piano 2001 Two Pieces for Organ 2004 Piano Sonata 2011 Bird Morning for two pianos and didjeridu 2015 Sea Star Fantasy piano solo 2015 Lake Dreaming for two pianos 2017 Ensemble music edit Laikan sextet for flute clarinet percussion piano violin and cello 1979 Maninya II for string quartet 1982 Withdrawn and partly incorporated into String Quartet No 3 see below Reflections sextet for piano and percussion 1985 Maninya III for wind quintet 1985 later incorporated into Incantations see below Prelude and Dragonfly Dance for percussion quartet 1991 Chorale and Ecstatic Dance for string quartet Also known as Enyato I 1993 Veni Creator Spiritus for double string quartet 1993 Arafura Dances arranged for harp and string quartet 1995 Tyalgum Mantras for variable ensemble 1999 Piano Trio 1999 Emerald Crossing for piano quartet 1999 Later incorporated into Piano Quartet see below Dawn Mantras for shakuhachi tenor saxophone or cor anglais didjeridu percussion child soprano children s choir men s choir 1999 Enyato V for flute guitar percussion violin and cello 2001 Island Landfall for flute clarinet piano 2 violins viola and cello 2003 Incantations for wind quintet 2006 String Quartet No 1 Sparks and Auras 2006 revised 2009 String Quartet No 2 Shekina Fantasy 2008 revised 2010 String Quartet No 3 Summer Dances 2012 Gallipoli for string quartet 2014 Animisms suite for flute clarinet percussion violin and cello 2014 Bright Birds and Sorrows suite for soprano saxophone and string quartet 2015 Voice of the Rain for shakuhachi and string quartet 2016 Piano Quartet 2017 Awards nominations and accolades editAPRA AMC Art Music Awards edit The APRA AMC Art Music Awards previously Classical Music Awards are presented annually by Australasian Performing Right Association APRA and Australian Music Centre AMC since 2002 They honour the achievements of composers performers and industry specialists in the contemporary classical genre 28 Year Nominee work Award Result2003 Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra Edwards Diana Doherty Best Performance of an Australian Composition 29 WonSong for Emily Edwards 200 Guitar Duo Instrumental Work of the Year 30 Nominated2005 Concerto for Guitar and Strings Ross Edwards Karin Schaupp Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra Richard Mills conductor Orchestral Work of the Year 31 Won2006 Oboe Concerto Edwards Diana Doherty Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Orchestral Work of the Year 32 Nominated2007 Piano Trio Edwards The Australian Trio Instrumental Work of the Year 33 Won2008 Symphony No 4 Star Chant Edwards Fred Watson Adelaide Symphony Orchestra Richard Mills conductor Adelaide Chamber Singers Carl Crossin director Adelaide Philharmonia Chorus Timothy Sexton director Vocal or Choral Work of the Year 34 WonMore Marimba Dances Edwards Instrumental Work of the Year 35 Nominated2011 Kalkadunga Man William Barton Edwards Sarah Hopkins Rosalind Page Dan Walker The Song Company William Barton soloist Performance of the Year 36 NominatedJoan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre Composer in Focus 2010 with Ross Edwards Award for Excellence in Music Education 37 Won2012 Spirit Ground Edwards West Australian Symphony Orchestra Margaret Blades soloist Work of the Year Orchestral 38 NominatedSacred Kingfisher Psalms Edwards The Song Company Work of the Year Vocal or Choral 39 Nominated2013 Full Moon Dances Edwards Sydney Symphony Miguel Harth Bedoya conductor Amy Dickson saxophone Work of the Year Orchestral 40 Nominated2015 Ross Edwards Contribution to Australian chamber music Award for Excellence by an Individual 41 WonIn 2009 ABC Classic FM conducted a listener survey of favourite symphonies entitled Classic 100 Symphony Australian composers were voted in three positions of the top 100 Edwards Symphony No 1 Da pacem Domine was placed at number 67 42 In 2011 ABC Classic FM conducted a listener survey of favourite work of the 20th century entitled Classic 100 Twentieth Century Australian composers were voted in eight positions of the top 100 Two of Edwards works appeared Violin Concerto Maninyas number 45 and Dawn Mantras number 49 In 2016 Ross Edwards was awarded the David Harold Tribe Symphony Award for Frog and Star Cycle Double Concerto for Saxophone and Percussion 43 Don Banks Music Award edit The Don Banks Music Award was established in 1984 to publicly honour a senior artist of high distinction who has made an outstanding and sustained contribution to music in Australia 44 It was founded by the Australia Council in honour of Don Banks Australian composer performer and the first chair of its music board Year Nominee work Award Result1989 Ross Edwards Don Banks Music Award WonPersonal life editRoss Edwards married Helen Hopkins one of his students in 1974 She is currently his manager having spent many years as a piano teacher and has always been a committed supporter of his work They have two children Jeremy and Emily 1 References edit a b Edwards Ross 26 August 2017 Ross Edwards Biography Ross Edwards Retrieved 26 August 2017 Edwards Ross August 2017 Ross Edwards Represented Artist Australian Music Centre Retrieved 26 August 2017 a b c d e f g Stanhope Paul The Music of Ross Edwards Aspects of Ritual Master of Arts Honours Thesis University of Wollongong 1994 a b Murdoch James Australia s Contemporary Composers Macmillan 1972 a b Pleskun Stephen A Chronological History of Australian Composers and their Compositions Volume 2 Xlibris 2012 Hannan Michael Francis Ross Edwards A Unique Sound World APRA March 1986 Southern Cross University 1986 Ross Edwards by Bridget Elliot National Portrait Gallery 2013 Retrieved 26 August 2017 Cummings David International Who s who in Music and Musicians Directory Psychology Press 2000 a b Edwards Ross The tensions of making sacred art in a secular world Component of the Barbara Blackman Lecture Canberra International Music Festival 2014 a b Edwards Ross 22 February 2015 Notes on the Maninyas Series Ross Edwards Resources Ross Edwards Retrieved 26 August 2017 Don Banks Music Award Australian Music Centre Australian Music Centre Prizes and Awards Don Banks Music Award 2017 Retrieved 26 August 2017 Cooney Philip 18 December 2013 Ross Edwards I still wake up excited about the score I m working on Australian Music Centre Resonate Magazine Australian Music Centre Retrieved 26 August 2017 Australian Honours Database It s An Honour Australian Government Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet 1997 Retrieved 26 August 2017 Bennie Angela 16 October 2006 Written with the stars in mind The Sydney Morning Herald Retrieved 26 August 2017 Making a birdsong and dance The Age Entertainment Music The Age Company Ltd 29 July 2004 Retrieved 26 August 2017 Edinburgh pays tribute to Mackerras Brisbane Times 3 September 2010 Retrieved 14 November 2020 Roca Octavio 18 February 1996 Stanton Welch Finds His Dream in S F Australian choreographer creates a ballet for Helgi Tomasson San Francisco Chronicle Retrieved 26 August 2017 Oden Kalyn 27 May 2015 The Man Behind the Sounds of Zodiac Ross Edwards Houston Ballet Retrieved 26 August 2017 Edwards Ross 3 October 2012 The Moon and I ABC Classic FM ABC Retrieved 26 August 2017 Moffatt Steve 13 July 2016 Double slice of heaven from Amy Dickson and Sydney Symphony The Daily Telegraph Sydney Retrieved 26 August 2017 Paget Clive 24 April 2017 Review Musica Viva Festival 2017 Concert 4 Limelight Retrieved 26 August 2017 Edwards Ross Reflections Transforming Art ed Nigel Hoffman 4 1 1992a 28 30 Featherstone Don The Dance of Nature 1995 Clips may be viewed here a b c Edwards Ross November 2017 Address to the conference on belonging Ross Edwards Resources Ross Edwards Retrieved 26 August 2017 Koehne James A sense of place CD liner notes Edwards and Sibelius violin concertos Canary Classics 2011 Cooney Philip Beyond sacred and maninya developments in the music of Ross Edwards between 1991 and 2001 PhD thesis University of Newcastle 2003 Williams Graham Life in Balance Lifeflow Meditation Centre Adelaide Classical Awards Australasian Performing Right Association APRA Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society AMCOS Australian Music Centre AMC April 2010 Archived from the original on 30 July 2010 Retrieved 25 March 2016 2003 Winners Classical Music Awards Australasian Performing Right Association APRA Retrieved 17 November 2010 2003 Finalists Classical Music Awards Australasian Performing Right Association APRA Retrieved 17 November 2010 2005 Winners Classical Music Awards Australasian Performing Right Association APRA Retrieved 17 May 2010 2006 Finalists Classical Music Awards Australasian Performing Right Association APRA Retrieved 17 May 2010 2007 Winners Classical Music Awards Australasian Performing Right Association APRA Retrieved 3 May 2010 2008 Winners Classical Music Awards Australasian Performing Right Association APRA Retrieved 3 May 2010 2008 Finalists Classical Music Awards Australasian Performing Right Association APRA Retrieved 3 April 2010 Performance of the Year Australasian Performing Right Association APRA Australian Music Centre AMC 2011 Retrieved 25 March 2016 Award for Excellence in Music Education Australasian Performing Right Association APRA Australian Music Centre AMC 2011 Retrieved 25 March 2016 2012 Work of the Year Orchestral Australasian Performing Right Association APRA Australian Music Centre AMC 2012 Retrieved 25 March 2016 2012 Work of the Year Vocal or Choral Australasian Performing Right Association APRA Australian Music Centre AMC 2012 Retrieved 25 March 2016 Work of the Year Orchestral Australasian Performing Right Association APRA Australian Music Centre AMC 2013 Retrieved 25 March 2016 Award for Excellence by an Individual Australasian Performing Right Association APRA Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society AMCOS Australian Music Centre AMC 2015 Retrieved 25 March 2016 Search Classic 100 Archive ABC Classic FM Australian Broadcasting Corporation 11 November 2017 Retrieved 20 May 2019 News and events The University of Sydney Retrieved 20 May 2019 Don Banks Music Award Prize Australian Music Centre Archived from the original on 18 August 2015 Retrieved 2 October 2017 External links editBiography of Ross Edwards maintained by the Australian Music Centre http www rossedwards com Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Ross Edwards composer amp oldid 1179950835, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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