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Paul Dean : Associate Artist

Random Audio Sample: Sonnet for Christmas (soprano with string quartet) by Paul Dean, from the CD With love and fury


Photo of Paul Dean

Brisbane born and bred clarinetist Paul Dean is widely regarded as one of Australia's foremost musicians in his multiple capacities as soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, composer and Artistic Director. He is Associate Professor and Head of Winds at Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University. He is co-Artistic Director of Ensemble Q with Trish Dean.

Paul was the Artistic Director of the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) from 2010 - 2015 and a Principal Clarinet with the Australian World Orchestra.

Paul was the Artistic Director of the Four Winds Festival and the Tutti Beijing International Youth Music Festival and was also the founder and Artistic Director of the Southern Cross Soloists, the Endeavour Trio, the Bangalow Music Festival and the Sunwater and Stanwell Winter Music School.

Between 1987 and 2000 he was Principal Clarinet with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra and has appeared as soloist with the Orchestra on over 40 occasions. He is a founding member of the Australian World Orchestra. Paul has performed as soloist with the Queensland, Melbourne, West Australian, Adelaide and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras, the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, Auckland Philharmonia and Southern Sinfonia in NZ, and the Trondheim Symfoniker (Norway). As a chamber musician he has been guest artist with the Navarra Quartet, the Doric Quartet, the Heath Quartet, the Australian String Quartet, the Goldner String Quartet, the Grainger Quartet, the Flinders Quartet, and the Tin Alley Quartet. He has performed at many major venues and festivals throughout world including the Oxford May Music Festival, the Huntington Music Festival, Alpine Classic Switzerland, the Australian Festival of Chamber Music, Trondheim Chamber Music Festival, and the Melbourne, Christchurch, Brisbane, Queensland, Perth, and Sydney Festivals.

Paul's recording of the Mozart and Brahms clarinet works for the Melba label, and the clarinet music of English composer Benjamin Frankel for German label CPO have won high praise from critics around the world.

Paul was Composer in Residence with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in 2019 and is 2022 Composer in Residence at the Australian Festival of Chamber Music in Townsville. He has been commissioned to write works for the Australian World Orchestra, Aspen Music Festival (Colorado), the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Q, the Melbourne Ensemble, Ensemble Offspring, Ensemble Francaix, violinists Jack Liebeck and Anthony Marwood, cellists Torleif Thedeen, Trish Dean, Blair Harris and Patrick Murphy, tenor Andrew Goodwin, pianists Daniel De Borah, Alex Rainieri and the Lev Vlassenko Piano Competition, harpist Marshall McGuire, the Brodsky, Goldner and Flinders Quartets, Katie Noonan, the Melbourne Piano Trio, the Seraphim Trio, the Endeavour Trio, Australia Piano Quartet and the Australian Flute Festival. His opera "Dry River Run" commissioned by the Queensland Conservatorium Opera School, premiered in September, 2018 and in 2017 the Queensland Symphony premiered the Orchestral Fragments of the opera. His critically acclaimed 'Symphony' was premiered by the Australian World Orchestra in 2021 and recorded by the Queensland Symphony Orchestra in the same year.

Paul Dean - Short biography

Clarinetist Paul Dean is widely regarded as one of Australia's foremost musicians in his multiple capacities as soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, composer and Artistic Director. He is currently Associate Professor and Head of Winds at Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University, co-Artistic Director of Ensemble Q, founding member of the Endeavour Trio and a member of the Australian World Orchestra. He was a founding member and Artistic Director of Southern Cross Soloists and the Bangalow Music Festival, before his appointment as Artistic Director of the Australian National Academy of Music in Melbourne. As a composer he recently held the title of Composer in Residence for the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and has been commissioned to write works for major artists and orchestras including the Australian World Orchestra, Melbourne, Adelaide and Queensland Symphony Orchestras, and for major international artists including Jack Liebeck, Michael Collins and Torlief Thedeen. He is the conductor of the Queensland Youth Orchestra 2 and the Brisbane Symphony Orchestra.


Biography provided by the composer — current to October 2022

Selected Commissions

  Work Commission Details
Tigerland : chamber ensemble Commissioned by the Southern Cross Soloists for performance in their 'Words and Music' series
Falling ever deeper : flute with piano This work is part of the repertoire for the final of the Australian Flute Festival Open Flute Competition.
Sonnet for Christmas (soprano with string quartet) Commissioned by Katie Noonan.
Digital sheet music sample Suite for clarinet and cello (duos: clarinet, cello) (2019) Commissioned by Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.
Digital sheet music sample Concerto for cello and wind quintet (quintets: brass, string, woodwind) (2018) Commissioned by Ensemble Q.
Digital sheet music sample Jasper and Charlie : a scene from a novel for wind quintet (2015) Commissioned by Peter Jopling

Analysis & Media

- Article: Interrogating the Orchestra