Maria Grenfell

Last updated

Maria Grenfell (born 1969) is an Australian music teacher and composer.

Contents

Early life and education

Maria Grenfell was born in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia in 1969. She grew up and was educated in Christchurch, New Zealand, [1] where she graduated from the University of Canterbury with a Master of Music degree. [2] She subsequently went to the US, where she completed a Master of Arts at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, and a doctorate from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, while also lecturing in music there. [3] While in the USA she was taught by Stephen Hartke, Erica Muhl, James Hopkins, and Morten Lauridsen in Los Angeles, and Joseph Schwantner and Samuel Adler in Rochester, New York. [3]

Career

Grenfell allows her work to be influenced by poetic, literary and visual sources but also by non-Western music and literature. [3] Grenfell has been a violinist with the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra and the New Zealand Youth Orchestra, and has performed bowed piano with the University of Southern California Percussion Ensemble.

In Spring of 2013 Grenfell was a visiting professor at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas. In the Fall of 2019, Grenfell served as Kerr Composer-in-Residence at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. [4]

In 2020 Grenfell composed the score for the ABC documentary Quoll Farm. It was recorded with performers from the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. [5] As of 2021 she is an associate professor at the Conservatorium of Music at the University of Tasmania. [2]

Awards

Her awards include the Jimmy McHugh Composition Prize and the Halsey Stevens Prize from the University of Southern California, the Composers’ Association of New Zealand Trust Fund Award and the University of Otago's prestigious Philip Neill Memorial Prize. [6] Winner of the Tasmanian State Award for Ten Suns Ablaze in 2013, and Spirals in 2018 at the Australian Art Music Awards. [7]

Personal life

Grenfell lives in Hobart, Australia, with her husband, guitarist David Malone, and their two children. [8]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Douglas Lilburn</span> New Zealand composer (1915–2001)

Douglas Gordon Lilburn was a New Zealand composer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Sculthorpe</span> Australian composer (1929–2014)

Peter Joshua Sculthorpe was an Australian composer. Much of his music resulted from an interest in the music of countries neighbouring Australia as well as from the impulse to bring together aspects of Aboriginal Australian music with that of the heritage of the West. He was known primarily for his orchestral and chamber music, such as Kakadu (1988) and Earth Cry (1986), which evoke the sounds and feeling of the Australian bushland and outback. He also wrote 18 string quartets, using unusual timbral effects, works for piano, and two operas. He stated that he wanted his music to make people feel better and happier for having listened to it. He typically avoided the dense, atonal techniques of many of his contemporary composers. His work was often characterised by its distinctive use of percussion. As one of the compositional pioneers of a distinctively Australian sound, Sculthorpe and his music have been likened to the role played by Aaron Copland in America's musical coming of age.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raffaele Marcellino</span> Australian composer (born 1964)

Raffaele Marcellino is an Australian composer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra</span> Symphony orchestra based in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra (TSO) is a symphony orchestra based in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. It is the smallest of the six orchestras established by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matthew Dewey</span>

Matthew Ingvald Dewey is an Australian classical music composer, singer, and music producer.

Constantine Koukias is a Tasmanian composer and opera director of Greek ancestry based in Amsterdam, where he is known by his Greek name of Konstantin Koukias. He is the co-founder and artistic director of IHOS Music Theatre and Opera, which was established in 1990 in Tasmania's capital city, Hobart.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Zealand Symphony Orchestra</span> National symphony orchestra of New Zealand

The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra (NZSO) is a symphony orchestra based in Wellington, New Zealand. The national orchestra of New Zealand, the NZSO is an autonomous Crown entity owned by the New Zealand Government, per the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra Act 2004. It is currently based in the Michael Fowler Centre and has frequently performed in the adjacent Wellington Town Hall before it was closed in 2013. It also performs in Auckland, Christchurch and Dunedin.

Michael Robert Garth Lampard is an Australian opera singer, conductor and composer born in Hobart, Tasmania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brenton Broadstock</span> Australian composer

Brenton Thomas Broadstock is an Australian composer. He was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia on Australia Day in 2014 for "significant service to music as a composer, educator and mentor".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Teddy Tahu Rhodes</span> New Zealand baritone opera singer

Teddy Tahu Rhodes is a New Zealand operatic baritone.

Neil Galanter is an American pianist and composer in Los Angeles, California, who is a leading specialist in researching, recording and performing the works of Iberian/Spanish, Catalan, Belgian, and other European composers including Mompou, Montsalvatge, Granados, Albéniz, Blancafort, Esplá, and Poot. He has also given the Australian, New Zealand, and European premieres of several works of such composers, including a work written for him by the British composer William Blezard in 2001. According to a reviewer of one of his performances on an Australian tour,

Galanter is a very accomplished American pianist ...with a reputation for researching and performing unusual and neglected repertoire. An impressive list of his many and varied academic achievements includes recipient of a Fellowship and Spanish Music Prize two years running from the Government of Spain for extensive research into the origins of Spanish piano music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Southern Gospel Choir</span>

The Southern Gospel Choir is a gospel choir based at the Tasmanian Conservatorium of Music in Hobart, Tasmania, and is directed by Dr. Andrew Legg.

Max Olding AM and Pamela Page were a distinguished Australian husband and wife team of duo-pianists. They performed separately in recitals and as concerto soloists, chamber music performers and accompanists both nationally and internationally, but were best known as a piano duo.

David Porcelijn is a Dutch composer and conductor.

Karin Schaupp is a German-born Australian classical guitarist. She has won APRA Music Awards and ARIA Music Awards.

Andrew Perkins is a New Zealand composer, choral conductor and teacher. He has had a number of works recorded and performed internationally.

Kenneth Young is a composer, conductor, radio presenter and lecturer in composition, conducting and orchestration at the New Zealand School of Music, Massey University and Victoria University of Wellington. As a composer, Young has had works commissioned by New Zealand and Australian orchestras and arts organisations including the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra New Zealand International Arts Festival and Chamber Music New Zealand. He works as a freelance composer and is fully represented by SOUNZ: The Centre for New Zealand Music. In 1976, Young became the principal tuba for the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and first conducted the orchestra in 1985 becoming Conductor in Residence in 1993. In 2001, he resigned from the orchestra to become a full-time conductor, composer and recording artist for orchestras in New Zealand and Australia, as well as engagements in Japan and the United Kingdom. He is well known for his interpretation of Romantic, 20th Century, New Zealand and Australian orchestral repertoire and in 2012 conducted both the winning album, Angel at Ahipara and finalist album, Releasing the Angel, for Best Classical Album at the New Zealand Music Awards. Young has been recorded by EMI, Atoll Records, Continuum, Trust Records, ABC Classics and Naxos and is a frequent presenter on RESOUND, Radio New Zealand Concert introducing and contextualising work from the RNZ archives. In 2004 was awarded the Lilburn Trust Citation in Recognition of Outstanding Services to New Zealand Music.

Carolyn Narelle Watson is an Australian conductor.

Katy Abbott is an Australian composer. Abbott writes music for orchestra, chamber ensemble and voice. Her work reflects her interests in contemporary Australian cultures and often explores notions of home, place, humour and connection.

Holly Phillippa Harrison is an Australian composer based in Western Sydney.

References

  1. "Tune In - Grenfell Rock Hopping". Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
  2. 1 2 "Maria Grenfell – Profiles". University of Tasmania, Australia. 7 July 2011. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
  3. 1 2 3 "Maria Grenfell : Represented Artist Profile". Australian Music Centre. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
  4. "About". Maria Grenfell. Retrieved 30 January 2020.
  5. Eslake, Stephanie (17 March 2021). "Maria Grenfell composed a magical score for new Tasmanian documentary". Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
  6. "| Maria GrenfellVCME" . Retrieved 16 June 2024.
  7. "Maria Grenfell : Represented Artist Profile : Australian Music Centre". www.australianmusiccentre.com.au. Retrieved 16 June 2024.
  8. "Maria Grenfell". Reed Music. 1 April 2010. Retrieved 12 November 2021.