Chester Schultz : Represented Artist
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Random Audio Sample: Full fathom five : Ariel's song from 'The Tempest' : Full fathom five by Chester Schultz, from the CD O for a muse of fire |
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Chester Schultz, born in Victor Harbor in 1945, has been at Port
Adelaide with his wife Liz since 1977, raising two daughters
there. His music is eclectic, coloured by the experience of
living in a disadvantaged area and for several years in a small
intentional community. Lifelong experience as accompanist
includes chamber music, stage, singers, choirs and churches. A
lover of words, he sometimes writes his own texts or scripts, and
uses music to say things and enlarge our sympathies. He speaks
often of Australia: the land, its history, society, and people on
the margins.
His works range through environmental sound, songs in both
classical and popular styles, choral and chamber music, musical
theatre, and free improvisation, and are written for
professionals, amateurs, children, and sometimes untrained
performers. Songs in contemporary style for worship are collected
in the CD/songbook Jesus, Still Lead On.
He has performed Six Poems of Judith Wright with
baritone Robert Dawe, arranged magpie song for piano, reflected
on homeland in the choral folksong cantata Songs Further
Out, and again in the soundscape album Within Our Reach:
a symphony of the Port River; and in Ngartong for
12 cellos, excerpts of which toured internationally in 1987. The
cycle These Legends, Love: six Auden songs was premiered
by Norma Knight and Malcolm Day in 2008.
Experiences with the Centre for Aboriginal Studies in Music -
studying under Dr Catherine Ellis, urban elder Leila Rankine, and
Anangu songmen from Indulkana - began a long-term association
with Indigenous people. This bore fruit in the ground-breaking
collaborative survey of Indigenous music Our Place, Our
Music (Aboriginal Studies Press 1989); and the collaborative
Music Is Our Culture, premiered by four Indigenous CASM
staff with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra under Richard Mills at
the 1998 Adelaide Festival. In company with Nunga elders he has
researched and celebrated the Indigenous history, languages,
place names and music of the Adelaide region, in publications of
the language reclamation movement such as Kaurna Paltinna: a
Kaurna Song Book (2000), and used them in Songs With the
Nungas and in the musical theatre piece Dancing
Ngutinai.
He studied composition with Jindrich Feld, Peter Tahourdin and
Richard Meale, and took part in the 1973 APRA-CAAC Young
Composers' Training Scheme.
Having majored long ago in history and English literature, he
continues to indulge in social and theological reflection,
especially about justice, peace, the global technocratic bluff,
refugees, and mental health.
Chester Schultz — current to October 2009
Selected Commissions
Work | Commission Details | |
---|---|---|
Assembly lines : a musical thought about schools, for 3-part treble voices, high-school band and pre-recorded soundtrack (1985) | Commissioned by Debbie Niven. |
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