ERICA KENNEDY violin
ELIZABETH SELLARS violin
HELEN IRELAND viola
ZOE KNIGHTON cello
2021 COMPOSER DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM CONCERT
6.00pm (AEDT), 24 November 2021•live streamed
Ceridwen McCooey, 2021 Composer Development Program participant
CERIDWEN MCCOOEY 1999-
Too Late for Dancing (composed 2021)
i. What Might Be
ii. Perhaps
iii. If Only
“I recently read a poem by Margaret Atwood called ‘Late Poems’ and recorded myself reading it. I then dictated the rhythm of my speech to create the opening rhythm of my work that begins with the first violin and is echoed by the other instruments. The poem I read by Atwood discusses the idea of things being ‘too late’ and other forms of loss and I wanted to respond to the poem, particularly the line that reads:
‘It’s late, very late;
too late for dancing.
Still, sing what you can.
Turn up the light: sing on,
Sing: on.’
In the last two years I have come to realise how much dancing helps me, and others, to cope. Under the restrictions imposed by COVID-19, when we couldn’t dance, I realised how much I missed it and how helpful it is for me and other young people. Dancing is often a reminder of what we have, and not being able to do that at the time was a stark reminder of what we had lost. It made me think about the irony of something being so joyful, such as dancing, also being a way to cope with overwhelming pain. “Too Late For Dancing” is my attempt to capture that dual feeling of joy and pain commingling in a musical form.”
When Ceridwen was nine, she decided to play the cello after being told she was too small for double bass. She began writing for cello whilst attending the Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School where she investigated the practice of improvisation in cello repertoire. She was lucky enough to be selected for the Melbourne Recital Centres’ three-year scholarship program Accelerando, an opportunity Ceridwen feels shaped her love of contemporary music performance. In 2019 Ceridwen was awarded the Kate Flowers Memorial Scholarship through the University of Melbourne for a performance demonstrating the relationship between cello and looper. She was awarded the Allan Zavod Performers award for her performance of an original composition also for solo cello and looper called The Conference of the Birds. This work became Ceridwen's debut Album which was released in early 2021 with New York based label Rhodium. In 2020 Ceridwen was commissioned by Arts Centre Melbourne to write a work as part of Memory: 5x5x5 and most recently she participated in a mentorship program with the Australian Art Orchestra. Ceridwen hopes to continue her studies at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music in her Honours year and is also looking into a masters in composition abroad.
EUGENE BALL 1972-
Kaleidoscope (composed 2021)
“Kaleidoscope: an everchanging tumble of light, colour, shape, and pattern. Dropped, shattered: a dysfunctional reflection of beauty past.”
As one of Australia’s most active and versatile trumpet players, Eugene has toured nationally and internationally with some of Australia’s most highly acclaimed groups, including The Hoodangers, the Andrea Keller Quartet, Vince Jones, the Allan Browne Quintet, the Australian Art Orchestra, the Black Arm Band, the Bamboos, You and I, and Dan Sultan.
As well as being a sought after performer, Eugene is a prolific and accomplished composer and arranger whose work has featured on countless recordings and television and film productions, including projects for the Black Arm Band, Kate Ceberano, Eddie Perfect, Ali McGregor, Cezary Skubiszewski, Cornel Wilczek, and Paul Grabowsky.
Eugene has received commissions from the Australia Council for the Arts; The Australian Art Orchestra; Monash and Melbourne Universities; Blackburn, Eltham and Balwyn High Schools; The Melbourne Festival; the Four Winds Festival; and the West End Composers’ Collective.
In addition to performing and writing, Eugene currently lectures in the Bachelor of Music, Melbourne Polytechnic, and is Artistic Co-Director of the esteemed Wangaratta Festival of Jazz and Blues.
Eugene Ball, 2021 Composer Development Program participant
Hana Lavers, 2021 Composer Development Program participant
HANA LAVERS 1999-
teeth. (composed 2020)
“My string quartet was my final major work for my degree, and I wanted to challenge myself and write music which does not come naturally to me, but is always my favourite to listen to: fast, energetic, and intense. The harmony bounces between octatonic scales and tonal centres purely on what felt natural, and ends in a clean Eb major because I believe it is the best major key (flats are better than sharps, four is too many, two too few). The title “teeth.” was slapped onto the finished work before submission, but conveys the piece neatly. It's mean and unrelenting and intentionally unnerving while taking joy in that space of discomfort, to then finally allow relief. As the quartet put it nicely, ‘it has a bite’.”
"I am a Sydney-based Japanese Australian Composer, with interests in the dramatic and emotional works of the late 19th century, and the use of harmony in contemporary classical pieces. I started learning the piano aged 4 or 5, and learnt the fundamentals of piano and musical language early (with much, MUCH assistance and perseverance from mum - thanks mum). After having a mid-life musical crisis at the tender age of 14 I dramatically quit piano lessons, but within a year came back to music with a driven passion not only for playing but also for composing. With much help and lessons from amazing, talented people such as Alexandra Zachary, John Spence, all my teachers at the Con and the unwavering support from and patience of my parents, I am currently finishing up my composition degree at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Special thanks to Carl Vine who (though with love) harshly mentored me last year, and without him my string quartet would be rubbish.”
A. D. K. VOLTZ 1999-
String Quartet No. 1 (composed 2020)
“This First String Quartet is, for me, a more intimate extension of concepts explored in my oboe concerto, Expressions on Solitude. My extrovert and introvert are in constant competition. Secretly, I think introvert wins out - but there's a sort of hollow quality to this quartet, so maybe it's a pyrrhic victory.
Otherwise, I have recently found much enjoyment in writing music without any distinct narrative structure, instead concentrating on form and proportion. This is not to say my work is now suddenly uninspired; indeed, it remains deeply personal. But through exploring processes that are without concrete – or at least authorial – meaning, thus rendering those processes entirely interpretive, one creates a powerful experience for individuals, not just audiences.
While the traditional string quartet is a work of multiple movements, I am content with the First’s length. This is a prologue.”
Alexander Voltz's work takes inspiration from myth, politics and the historic, whilst also deconstructing and challenging the human condition. His music has been performed and supported by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Opera Queensland, Australian National Academy of Music, Flinders Quartet, Australian Youth Orchestra, Queensland Youth Orchestras, The University of Queensland and others. He has collaborated with musicians including Graham Abbott, Susan Ellis, Alex Raineri and Bradley Voltz.
22-year-old Voltz was a winner in Artology's 2015 Fanfare Competition (Sydney) and reached the semi-finals of the Bartok World Composition Competition (Budapest) in both 2018 and 2020. He was awarded The University of Queensland's Prize for Composition in 2019 and 2021. In 2018, he conducted several performances of his chamber symphony Sontsovka across North Queensland. Voltz attended the Australian Youth Orchestra's 2020 National Music Camp as a composition participant, and was engaged with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra's Cybec 21st Century Composers' Program also in that year. His chamber opera, Edward and Richard: The True Story of the Princes in the Tower, premiered in July 2021 in Brisbane.
Voltz wrote pieces for Brisbane Boys' College while he was a student there, including his cohort's graduation song. He is enrolled at The University of Queensland, where he studied viola performance under Patricia Pollett, and then studied composition with Robert Davidson as the primary focus of his Bachelors of Music (Hons). His Honours thesis investigated harmonic language within his music, and argued that contemporary art music composers should aspire towards authenticity, rather than originality or imitation. Voltz has also benefited from the mentorships of several other leading Australian composers, including Brenton Broadstock AM, Melody Eötvös, Nicole Murphy and Cathy Likhuta. Voltz also studies a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Ancient History/History and Writing. He has penned articles for Limelight Magazine and 4MBS Classic FM.
As a violist, Voltz is an alumnus of the Queensland Youth Symphony and the University of Queensland Symphony Orchestra. He has performed under several renowned Australian conductors, including John Curro AM MBE and Richard Gill AO, and has undertaken international tours to Germany, China and the United States.
Voltz lives in Brisbane, Australia. He signs his work A. D. K. Voltz, and is currently the youngest composer represented by the Australian Music Centre - though probably not for long!
Alexander Voltz, 2021 Composer Development Program participant
Mark Vendy, 2021 Composer Development Program participant
A sometime 'cellist (dabbled with violin). Part-time radio producer, programmer and announcer (35-years). No keyboard skill. Favourite composer: Hector Berlioz.
Music education: La Trobe University, 1975-6 (Keith Humble and Warren Burt). Joined the workforce, late-1976.
1987-89: part-time assistant to New Symphony Orchestra ("NSO"), Melbourne, (musical director, Maestro Enzo Marciano). With the NSO, produced Berlioz' Grande messe des Morts (Requiem); in 1989, produced concert for the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution (Melbourne Tennis Centre) - soloists from the US, Belgium and Australia, two military bands, orchestra and 800-voice choir.
1973 : first compositions.
1988: Australian concert pianist, Joyce Greer de Holesch, recorded short piano pieces; the NSO ran-through first concert overture.
1993 - 2015: no composing.
Since 2015: composed three string quartets; string chamber music; an orchestral suite arranged from the piano music of American composer, Barry Pasicznyk; a suite for string orchestra and flutes; as well as other music for orchestra; and, music for brass ensemble, organ and chorus.
10/12/16: excerpt from Fanfare (for brass band, organ and percussion) opened the 'School of Hard Knocks' annual Christmas concert (Melbourne Town Hall).
14/4/19: the opening of Fanfare , arranged for small brass ensemble, was performed at Neckenmarkt, Austria, by brass players from the Bühnenorchester der Wiener Staatsoper, with students from Vienna and Graz.
September, 2019: invited by the director of the, "I fiori della musica" music festival Turin, Italy, to arrange a concerto for piano and string quintet, or, sextet. COVID has intervened.
MARK VENDY 1957-
Interesting Times, movement IV Stamp Dance (composed 2020)
“This score was written in optimism: that Covid was on the wane and that we might be able to put it behind us?! Alas, 2021 has proven to be a bit of a 'killjoy'. Nonetheless, we can all use some energy: Stamp Dance is nothing, if not energetic!
During the writing, the obvious impact on our way of living, in ways that may be unprecedented (except during international conflict?), became reflected in the title, "Interesting Times" (understatement?). The quartet is in four movements: I – Overture; II – Dissonante; III - Lento funebre; and, IV - Stamp Dance.
Overture introduces most of the musical ideas and material that will inform the later movements. A descending three note figure, played by violins over dissonant cello and viola, opens the score – this figure (motif), in varied form, recurs throughout this and each movement - and is insistent. The beginning of Overture is marked, “Inquietate” ("unsettled"), a description also appertaining in the beginning of year 2020.
The second movement, Dissonante, is built over an insistent, march-like rhythm (it is marked "tempo giusto" ("in exact time")). This movement proceeds without pause after Overture and grows out of the short melody first heard in the Allegro section of that movement (violin II), paired with a secondary motif, also drawn from Overture. As the title indicates, the score is dissonant but lively, with plenty of major seconds and sevenths to get your teeth into!
Lento funebre, the third movement of Interesting Times is the longest. It opens (fortissimo) immediately after Dissonante, by reminding us of the three-note motif in Overture (descending), and, progresses to a dolorous melody on viola that freely inverts that motif (ascending). Technically the movement is the most straight forward, with long pedals, however, it requires true musicianship to bring out its very intense, emotional and dramatic qualities. The sort of music that one might best 'feel' and 'experience' by closing one's eyes and deeply focussing on the unfolding soundscape.
Flinders Quartet was gracious enough to allow me to choose the movement to be showcased in workshop and performance and, whilst it was hard to leave out the others (especially the funebre), I selected Stamp Dance, the last movement. This finale contains references to all the other movements.
The movement is, almost certainly, the most difficult to 'pull off', requiring first quality technical skill with attention to ensemble and balance, maintained at a lively pace. There is little writing in chords and the instrumental lines are frequently in opposition to one another, rhythmically and melodically. Having said so, nonetheless the score of this quartet is not about 'effects' and should sound both conventional yet different (idiosyncratic).
Stamp Dance begins with a rhythmical ascending figure, on viola and cello, the violins respond, similarly, and the instruments work-up a short introduction. This ascending figure holds the movement together and will act as a bridge to many of the 'scenes' comprising the movement, and is, itself, reworked from a dotted rhythm underpinning the second part (allegro)in Overture.
Before long, the dance begins (vivace), on violins, to the rhythmical (syncopated) accompaniment of the viola and cello (the resulting sound of the rhythm inspired the title of this movement - stamp dance).
Violin I plays a phrase based on the introduction that includes a reference to another phrase first encountered in Overture ("con nobile"), this is juxtaposed with a competing phrase, based on the three-note motif (Violin II). The second phrase is passed to the viola, opposite a fragmented first violin and greater complexity in the underlying rhythm.
After building to a climax and general pause, the movement resumes with references to elements of the third and second movements before a new theme is introduced (on viola) that emerges, fully, on cello. Almost immediately, the dotted rhythm from the introduction leads to a reminiscence of the allegro from Overture before a restatement of the new theme.
After another appearance of the dotted rhythm, the three-note motif is heard sul ponticello and the dance breaks out once more (in F minor). This sequence culminates in the combining of many elements: the new theme (violin I); the funebre theme, from movement III, (cello and violin II); and elements of the dance theme (viola). After another bridge, the dance returns, reintroduced on cello, in the home key, and the movement heads to its conclusion.
After the final climax and a second general pause the dotted rhythm makes a 'forbidding' return - to be answered by the final cadence, in cautious but optimistic spirit!”
Flinders Quartet profoundly values the support of all its sponsors, patrons and advisors; a full list of which is available here.
Sincere thanks to the sponsors, partners and patrons of this year’s Composer Development Program:
City of Melbourne, Besen Family Foundation, Victorian Womens’ Trust, and All That We Are
The 2021 Composer Development Program is presented in association with Team of Pianists and the National Trust of Australia (Victoria)