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Bruce Crossman : Represented Artist

I see the spiritual essence in my own work as an expression of a Christian faith whereby composition becomes a deep-felt emotion and spiritual sensibility linking heaven and earth.

Random Audio Sample: Back to the centre (solo piano) by Bruce Crossman, from the CD Double resonances


Photo of Bruce Crossman

Photo: Tod Clarke

Artist website: http://brucecrossman.com

Bruce Crossman's sound world embraces Asian traditional musics, free form improvisation and European influenced interval-colour sonority towards a personal Pacific identity. Peter Sculthorpe, Chou Wen-chung and Chinary Ung have influenced Crossman's Pacific-based aesthetic.

His music explores Asian-Pacific influences such as Japanese, Korean, Chinese and Filipino gongs and chant resonances with harmonic colour sonority emphasis in Shy Like Blushing Flowers (2017), Gentleness-Suddenness (2012), Double Resonances (2008) and Daragang Magayon Cantata (2001). Crossman's aesthetic is influenced by cross-disciplinary ideas from Chinese esthetics, Japanese aesthetics and architecture, Filipino-Australian poetry, abstract and traditional East Asian visual arts.

Crossman's music has been featured throughout the Asia-Pacific region including at the ISCM World Music Days (Beijing, Sydney), Tongyeong International Music Festival (Korea), Asian Composers League Festival (Taiwan), Asian Music Week (Japan), Tunugan (Philippines), Puente Festival Interoceánico (Chile), and Pacific Rim Music Festival (USA). He has won a number of awards including the Queensland Philharmonic's Corbould Prize and a Finalist Nomination for 'Vocal or Choral Work of the Year' at the 2007 Australian Classical Music Awards. Filigree Films have published a DVD of the music-theatre work Gentleness-Suddenness (2014). Wirripang have released several discs of his music including an album of compositions, Double Resonances (2008), and one of piano improvisations with multi-instrumentalist Michael Atherton, Resophonica (2009). Navona Records (USA) have released his albums Living Colours: Pacific Sounds and Spirit (2017) and Heaven to Earth Border House (2021).

As a composer-researcher he has organized multiple research projects linking practice and scholarship with international linkage and publication outcomes (performance-based and refereed). Highlights include, working with Grawemeyer Award winner Chinary Ung (USA) at Aurora Festival 2008 and invitations as a Collaborator, Aichi University of the Arts, Japan in 2015, Composer, National Sun Yat-sen University, Taiwan in 2019, Scholar/Artist-in-Residence, Seoul National University, South Korea in 2022, and advisory work for the Rockefeller Foundation in New York (USA).

Crossman was born in Auckland in 1961. He studied composition with Ross Edwards, Andrew Schultz, David Blake and Jack Speirs. His qualifications include a Doctor of Creative Arts from Wollongong University, Master of Philosophy from York University and Master of Music (Distinction) from Otago University. He holds the positions of Associate Professor (Music), Discipline Leader (Music and Music Therapy), and Coordinator of Composition in the School of Humanities and Communication Arts at Western Sydney University.

Crossman writes: 'I see the spiritual essence in my own work as an expression of a Christian faith whereby composition becomes a deep-felt emotion and spiritual sensibility linking heaven and earth. The aim of my creativity is to generate spiritual presence through stillness with colour-energy that speaks of the Asia-Pacific.'


Bruce Crossman — current to November 2022

Studied with

Jack Speirs (1980 - 1985)

David Blake (1987 - 1990)

Andrew Schultz (1996 - 2000)

Ross Edwards (1998 - 2000)

 

Influenced by

Peter Sculthorpe (1990 - 2000)

Chinary Ung (1990 - 2018)

Chou Wen-chung (1990)

 

Collaborated with

Jim Franklin (2004 - 2014)

Michael Atherton (2006 - 2009)

Claire Edwardes (2008 - 2018)

Ian Stevenson (2008 - 2017)

Peter Neville (2009 - 2017)

James Cuddeford (2013)

Michael Kieran Harvey (2013 - 2016)

Simon Killalea (2013 - 2018)

Katia Beaugeais (2014 - 2018)

Tristram Williams (2015 - 2017)

Hong Kong New Music Ensemble (2016 - 2018)

Chiu Tan Ching (2017 - 2018)

Kate Fagan (2017 - 2018)

Anna Fraser (2017 - 2018)

Hyelim Kim (2017 - 2018)

Ying Liu (2017 - 2018)

Linda Yim (2017 - 2018)

 

Teacher/Influence on

Petar Jovanov (2009 - 2014)

Daniel Portelli (2010 - 2012)

Selected Commissions

  Work Commission Details
Digital sheet music sample Not Fading Resonance : for solo piano (2023) Not Fading Resonance was written as a sixtieth birthday present for my friend and musical collaborator, the pianist Michael Kieran Harvey.
Digital sheet music sample Hoheub : Every Last Breath (2023) Hoheub: Every Last Breath was composed as part of a film collaboration between Korea and Australia
Digital sheet music sample Entangled Stillness : for solo piano (2023) Commissioned by the Australian pianist, Vanessa Sharman for a Tall Poppies compact disc recording in 2024.
Digital sheet music sample Dancing Deep-Sadness : for sting orchestra (2022) commissioned by Dr. Andrián Pertout for the 2022 PUENTE Festival Interoceánico: Encuentro interoceánico de culturas (2022 BRIDGE Interoceanic Festival: Interoceanic Meeting of Cultures), Valparaíso, Chile, 8 November—12 November, 2022
Digital sheet music sample Bower : Keobeu Nolae (2022) Written for Lee Eonhwa (solo sanjo gayageum) for her doctoral recital at the Korean Music Department, College of Music, Seoul National University
Digital sheet music sample Mahk Intensity within Orange Vibrancy : for Solo Haegeum (2022) Professor Noh Eunah (Korean Music Department, College of Music, Seoul National University)