Matthew Ingvald Dewey (born 1984) is an Australian classical music composer, singer, and music producer. [1]
Matthew Dewey is an Australian composer [1] [2] and music producer who studied composition with Professor Douglas Knehans at the University of Tasmania and composition/theatrical design/singing with Greek-Australian composer/designer Constantine Koukias. His very early years were spent training with the IHOS Music Theatre Laboratory [3] in the creation of new musical-theatrical works, and this early exposure led to a career that flourished at a young age. In 2003 he sang the bass role in the Australasian premiere of Hydrogen Jukebox by Philip Glass. [4]
He works mostly in concert music and opera/music-theatre and has been involved in the premieres of more than 20 new works [5] as a principal performer and singer, and numerous other productions variously as composer, orchestrator, conductor and compositional assistant. [5] [6] He currently works as the Music Director for ABC Classic FM in Sydney. [7]
Dewey has worked with a wide variety of genres and materials.
He has composed various songs including two cycles utilising text by the esteemed expat South African poet Anne Kellas: [11] Isolated States and Notes for Mount Moono; and two song suites based on the work of his brother, entitled Elegy and Compass. The latter was commissioned and premiered by the Sydney Children's Choir. [12]
His chamber works include two pieces written for the Seymour Group: A Dance on Five Claps and Voyage, the latter of which was written for the Seymour Group in conjunction with the internationally renowned bass-clarinettist Harry Sparnaay; [13] Flight and Reverie which premiered at the University of Hawaii; [14] and Entropic Visions which was given by Joshua Rubin [15] at the Lincoln Center in New York.
Dewey's First Symphony (for string orchestra) dealt with emotions surrounding the Port Arthur Massacre. [16] The symphony was inspired by Tasmanian playwright Tom Holloway's play Beyond the Neck . [17]
He has also worked as a singer, premiering a number of roles and new works by Australian and International composers. [18]
Philip Glass is an American composer and pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century. Glass's work has been associated with minimalism, being built up from repetitive phrases and shifting layers. Glass describes himself as a composer of "music with repetitive structures", which he has helped to evolve stylistically.
Thomas Joseph Edmund Adès is a British composer, pianist and conductor. Five compositions by Adès received votes in the 2017 Classic Voice poll of the greatest works of art music since 2000: The Tempest (2004), Violin Concerto (2005), Tevot (2007), In Seven Days (2008), and Polaris (2010).
Raffaele Marcellino is an Australian composer.
Lazar "Larry" Sitsky is an Australian composer, pianist, and music educator and scholar. His long term legacy is still to be assessed, but through his work to date he has made a significant contribution to the Australian music tradition.
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.
Jonathan Dove is an English composer of opera, choral works, plays, films, and orchestral and chamber music. He has arranged a number of operas for English Touring Opera and the City of Birmingham Touring Opera, including in 1990 an 18-player two-evening adaptation of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen for CBTO. He was Artistic Director of the Spitalfields Festival from 2001 to 2006.
Richard John Mills is an Australian conductor and composer. He was the artistic director of Victorian Opera from 2013-2023, and formerly artistic director of the West Australian Opera and artistic consultant with Orchestra Victoria. He was commissioned by the Victoria State Opera to write his opera Summer of the Seventeenth Doll (1996) and by Opera Australia to write the opera Batavia (2001).
Michael Robert Garth Lampard is an Australian opera singer, conductor and composer born in Hobart, Tasmania.
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Robert Jarman is an Australian theatre artist based in Hobart, Tasmania. Primarily a director and actor, he is also a writer and designer.
David Sawer, is a British composer of opera and choral, orchestral and chamber music.
The Lunch Box is a chamber opera by Thai composer Thanapoom Sirichang and Thai librettist Bringkop Vora-Urai. Composed entirely in Tasmania under the guidance of IHOS Artistic Director Constantine Koukias, The Lunch Box may be the first opera sung in Thai to blend traditional Thai music and contemporary Western opera.
Prayer Bells is a choral concert piece by Tasmanian (Australian) composer Constantine Koukias featuring dozens of handbells cast for the celebration of Australia's 2001 Centenary of Federation. Also comprising three solo cantors and a small male choir, the one-hour work premiered at the Federation Festival of Melbourne in 2001. Since then it has been performed in Australia in Launceston, Canberra, Adelaide, Melbourne, Hobart, Wollongong and Sydney. It had its USA premiere at the Chicago Cultural Center.
IHOS Music Theatre and Opera is a Tasmanian opera company that was established in Hobart in 1990, by composer and artistic director Constantine Koukias, and production director Werner Ihlenfeld. It specializes in creating original music-theatre and opera works.
Australian classical music has developed from early years in the Australian colonies, until today. Today, each state has an orchestra and there are many major venues where classical music is performed.
Kelly Tang is a Singaporean composer known internationally for his wind band, chamber and orchestral works. For his contributions to the local music scene, Tang was conferred the Cultural Medallion in 2011.
George Ellis is an Australian conductor, composer and orchestrator. He presents concerts for international events with a broad range of styles from classical to pop/rock and jazz as well as presenting orchestral concerts for young audiences. He also lectures in conducting at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, and is a regular presenter of Sonic Journey for ABC Radio Sydney’s program with Simon Marnie.