Peter Schaefer : Represented Artist
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Random Audio Sample: breath of time : (electronic piece from 'time breathing') by Peter Schaefer, from the CD Peter Schaefer Ensemble. |
Email:
Artist website: http://www.purusa.net
Purusa/Peter Schaefer is an Australian sitarist/composer/artist
with dual East/West training in the traditions of such teachers
as Indian sarode master the Ali Akbar Khan and composer Peter
Sculthorpe, together with studies in Western and Chinese visual
art. His music has been performed, recorded and broadcast in
Australia and overseas both by his own ensembles and such
classical performers as the Seymour Group; Petra, Gagliano and
Elektra String Quartets; and state symphony orchestras.
Born in Sydney and studying Western instruments and music theory
from an early age, he later studied composition with Peter
Sculthorpe at the University of Sydney (where he was first
exposed to the breadth of world music, particularly that of
India, by visiting teachers such as rudra veena master Asad Ali
Khan and carnatic violinist professor T.N. Krishnan); completing
Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Music (honours) and teaching
degrees, and later a Doctorate in Creative Arts at the University
of Wollongong.
He has also pursued ongoing study of visual art, focusing on a
fusion of Western art styles and Chinese brush painting
techniques, using the same collage/open-form approach which is
the basis of his music composition.
All of his sitar study has been within the Maihar gharana,
founded by Allauddin Khan (guru of Ali Akbar Khan and Ravi
Shankar); including such teachers as Alan Posselt (student of
Allauddin Khan and Radhka Moitra) and Ashok Roy (Ali Akbar sarode
disciple) in Australia; Krishna Chakravarty (Ravi Shankar
disciple) in India; Ali Akbar Khan in America; and, most
recently, with Dr Chandrakant Sardeshmukh (Ravi Shankar
disciple). As sitar soloist he has performed in Australia, India
and America, absorbing to date a core repertoire of several
hundred ragas.
In addition to continuing with mainstream classical/new music
composition, he has developed performance pieces fusing diverse
elements (Indian/Western; composed/improvised;
acoustic/electronic) within an evolving conception of sitar
performance combining traditional Indian forms, diverse world
music traditions (such as jazz, African, East Asian and
Australian Aboriginal musics), and modular modal/harmonic
structures (for which he has coined the term "haraga").
Accordingly he has performed with various ensemble lineups including Indian, East Asian and Aboriginal performers, and musicians from Western classical and jazz backgrounds. He is presently engaged with a further fusion of these elements in ongoing recording/performace projects bringing together his three main creative preoccupations: performance, composition and visual art.
Peter Schaefer — current to April 2017
Selected Commissions
Work | Commission Details | |
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spans : chamber ensemble (1989) | Commissined by 2MBS FM, Sydney |