ROSS EDWARDS
Ross Edwards received his early musical education at The Sydney Conservatorium, completing his Master of Music degree at The University of Adelaide and graduating as Doctor of Music from The University of Sydney. His teachers have included Peter Sculthorpe, for whom he later worked as an assistant, Richard Meale, Sandor Veress and Peter Maxwell Davies, with whom he studied in Adelaide and again in London in the early 1970s. Returning to Australia, he held teaching positions at The University of Sydney and a lectureship at The Sydney Conservatorium, before becoming a freelance composer in 1980. Among many awards, he cites two Keating Fellowships in the 1990s as having been crucial to his development.
One of Australia's best known and respected composers, Ross Edwards has created a unique sound world by which he seeks to help reconnect music with elemental forces and restore such qualities as ritual, spontaneity and the impulse to dance. Intensely aware of his vocation as a composer since early adolescence, he has largely followed his own direction, shunning sensible career moves and depending on his music to have the strength to speak directly. He takes very seriously what he believes to be his responsibility to make the most effective use of one of the planet's most powerful forces to communicate vividly and widely at the highest possible artistic level. His music, universal in that it is concerned with the age-old mysteries surrounding humanity, is at the same time deeply connected to its roots in Australia, whose cultural diversity it celebrates, and from whose natural environment it draws its ethos - as well as many of its shapes and patterns - from such sources as birdsong and the mysterious drones of summer insects. Edwards' belief in the healing power of music is reflected in a body of contemplative works inspired by sounds of the Australian landscape.
Ross Edwards' compositions, which are performed worldwide, include five symphonies, concertos, orchestral, chamber and vocal music, children's music, film scores, opera and music for dance. Works designed for the concert hall sometimes require special lighting, movement, costume and visual accompaniment – notable examples are his Fourth Symphony, ‘Star Chant' and his Oboe Concerto ‘Bird Spirit Dreaming'. Based in Sydney and the Blue Mountains, he is married with two grown-up children. Increasingly prolific, his recent works include a Clarinet Concerto for David Thomas and the Melbourne Symphony, and ‘Tucson Mantras', commissioned by the Tucson Winter Chamber Music Festival, Arizona, where it was premiered in March 2008 to great acclaim. Also in 2008, he completed the score for U.S. choreographer Nicolo Fonte's new ballet, The Possibility Space, for the Australian Ballet, and a string quartet for Musica Viva and the Goldner Quartet.
Ross Edwards' music is mainly published by Ricordi London. For more information and a catalogue of works and recordings, see his website www.rossedwards.com
PERFORMANCES
| MONTH | DAY | PERFORMANCE | VENUE |
| September | 10 | Symphony: The Promised Land (BBC National Orch of Wales, Hoddinott Hall, Cardiff) |
Vale of Glamorgan Festival |
WORK
ORCHESTRAL MUSIC
Bird Spirit Dreaming - Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra (2002) 18'
2,1,2,2 – 2 – perc, harp, celeste, strings
Chorale and Ecstatic Dance (Enyato I) (1993) 14'
arranged for string orchestra
Concerto for Guitar and String Orchestra (1994-95) 18'
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (1982) 20'
3.3.3.2 – 4.3.3.1 – perc(2) - strings
Dancing Light (1999) 5'
for string orchestra
Emerald Crossing (1999) 7'
for piano and string orchestra
Enyato III (1995) 12'
for orchestra: 3.3.3.3 – 4.3.3.0 – timp.perc(3).harp – strings
The Heart of Night, for shakuhachi and orchestra (2004) 20'
2,2,2,2 – 2,1 (all doubling handbells) – perc. harp, strings
Symphony No. 1 "Da Pacem Domine" (1990-91) 26'
3.3.3.3 – 4.3.3.1 – timp.perc(2).harp.cel - strings
Symphony No. 2 "Earth Spirit Songs" (1996-97) 20'
for soprano and orchestra
3.3.3.3 – 4.3.3.1 – timp.perc(3).harp.pf – strings
Text: Gregorian Chant, Judith Wright, Hildegard von Bingen
Symphony No. 3 "Mater Magna" (1998-2000) 25'
4,4,4,4 – 4,3,3,1 – timp, perc, harp, bell, strings
Symphony No. 4 "Star Chant" (2001) 33'
3,3,3,3 – 4,3,3,0 – timp, harp, 2 pnos, also 2 pre-rec.pnos, perc, pre-rec. glock, strings, SATB chorus
Symphony No. 5 "The Promised Land" (2005) 35'
3,3,3 – 4,3,3,1 – timp., harp, pno/cel. – perc (3) – strings – children' s choir – recorded sounds on CD (Text by David Malouf) – also version for orchestra only
To the Green Island (2008)
Ballet score for orchestra
Veni Creator Spiritus (1998) 16'
arranged for string orchestra
White Ghost Dancing (1999) 8'
2.2.2.2 – 4.2.3.0 – pf(=cel) - strings
ENSEMBLE MUSIC
Arafura Dances
For harp and string quartet
Dance Fanfare (1999) 2'
for brass quintet (2 trumpets, horn or alto trombone, tenor trombone and tuba)
Chorale and Ecstatic Dance (Enyato I) (1993) 12'
for string quartet
Emerald Crossing (1999) 7'
for piano quartet (piano, violin, viola, cello)
A Flight of Sunbirds (2001) 10'
for piano duet
Pond Light Mantras (1991) variable duration
for two pianos
Prelud and Dragonfly Dance (1991) 8'
for percussion quartet
Sanctuary (1995) variable duration
for two pianos and gongs (2 players)
Sparks and Auras (2006) 15'
for string quartet
String Quartet No.2 (2009)
for string quartet
Tyalgum Mantras (1999) variable duration
for shakuhachi, didjeridu and two percussionists
Veni Creator Spiritus (1993) 15'
for double string quartet
2.2.2.2.0
INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC
Three Australian Waltzes (1997-98) 5'
1. Sassafras Gully Waltz
2. Sandy Stone's Waltz
3. Annandale Waltz
for solo piano
Four Bagatelles (1994) 4'
for oboe and clarinet
Binyang (1996) 8'
for clarinet and percussion
Black Mountain Duos (1992) 8'
for two cellos
Blackwattle Caprices (1998) 8'
for solo guitar
Booroora (1987) 5'
for clarinet, percussion and double bass
Djanaba (1997) 4'
for two guitars
Ecstatic Dances (1990) 9'
for two flutes
Ecstatic Dance II (1990) 6'
for two violins or two violas or violin and viola or violin and cello
Emily's Song (from Three Children's Pieces)
Enyato II (1994) 9'
for solo viola
Enyato IV (1995) 7'
for bass clarinet and percussion
Enyato V (2001) 15'
for flute, guitar, percussion, violin, cello
Guitar Dances (1994) 10'
for solo guitar (arr. Adrian Walter)
Ten Little Duets (1982) 10'
for two treble instruments
Mantras and Nightflowers (2001) 18'
for solo piano
More Marimba Dances (2004) 8'
for solo percussion
Nura (2004) 11'
for flute and piano
Two Pieces for Solo Oboe (1993-1998) 5'
1. Yanada
2. Ulpirra
Piano Trio (1997) 15'
for piano, violin and cello
Prelude and Laughing Rock (1993) 5'
for solo cello
Raft Song at Sunrise (1995) 8'
for solo shakuhachi
Ulpirra (1993) 2'
for a solo treble woodwind
White Cockatoo Spirit Dance (1994) 6'
for solo violin
VOCAL MUSIC
Dance Mantras (1992) variable duration
for 6 voices and drum
Text: Gregorian chant
Dawn Canticle (2000) 5'
for SA chorus
Eternity (1973) 25'
For SATB chorus, brass sextet, organ and 2 percussionists (text: New Testament)
Mountain Chant – Three Sacred Choruses (2003) 14'
for SATB chorus
Nos qui vivimus (1995) 5'
for tenor and cello
Southern Cross Chants (2004) 19'
For six, twelve, eighteen or twenty-four voices
