Iain Grandage : Represented Artist
|
Random Audio Sample: Corrugation (quintets: flute, clarinet, percussion, violin, cello) by Iain Grandage, from the CD Classic Kids: Sounds Like Australia |
- Browse works by Iain Grandage
- Browse articles by and about Iain Grandage
- Browse events featuring music by Iain Grandage

Photo: Marnie Richardson
Artist website: http://www.iaingrandage.com
Iain Grandage recently completed a five year tenure as Artistic Director of the Perth Festival (2020-2024) where he was celebrated for bringing a sweeping sense of place to the Festivals he curated, with a strong commitment to Noongar artists and stories standing alongside events of scale like Highway to Hell. Previously, he has been Artistic Director of the Port Fairy Spring Music Festival, curated the fine music program for the Adelaide Festival (Chamber Landscapes), been Composer in Residence with the WA Symphony Orchestra, been awarded an Honorary Doctorate from UWA, received the prestigious Sidney Myer Performing Arts Award and been West Australian of the Year for Arts & Culture in 2023.
He has conducted orchestras in London, Berlin, Amsterdam and around Australia for projects with artists including Gurrumul, Kate Miller-Heidke, Meow Meow and Tim Minchin. As music director, he has won Helpmann Awards for his work with Meow Meow's Little Match Girl, Sydney Theatre Company's The Secret River and was music director and arranger for Opera Australia's critically lauded new opera The Rabbits by Kate Miller-Heidke and Lally Katz. He has conducted and presented for the Sydney Symphony Orchestra Education program and is a highly regarded communicator on music and the arts more broadly.
Iain's concert works have been performed in Australia and around the world. Highlights include the Victorian Opera production of his opera The Riders, based on the Tim Winton novel and Towards First Light, for the Centenary of ANZAC day in 2016 with text by Kate Mulvany. He was also attached to the Tim Minchin-led animated feature for Dreamworks called Larrikins , working alongside Hans Zimmer. He has collaborated with Steve Pigram, Mark Atkins and Richard Tognetti on the ACO's multimedia presentation The Reef, as well as with the late Barry Humphries and Meow Meow for the ACO's Weimar Cabaret. He recently wrote the music for the hugely popular Australian film Runt, for which he received the WA Screen Industry Award for best Score.
Iain Grandage — current to January 2025
Awards & Prizes
Year | Award | Placing | Awarded for |
---|---|---|---|
2015 | Art Music Awards: Work of the Year: Vocal/Choral | Winner | The Riders |
2012 | Art Music Awards: Work of the Year: Vocal/Choral | Finalist | Blackwood |
2009 | Ian Potter Music Commission | Emerging Composer Fellowship | $20,000 to produce chamber music series Indian Ocean Songs |
2009 | Classical Music Awards - Best Composition by an Australian Composer | Finalist | Black dogs |
2002 | Helpmann Awards | Winner, Best Original Score | Cloudstreet |
Selected Commissions
Work | Commission Details | |
---|---|---|
|
Night after bushfire (soprano with string quartet) | Commissioned by Katie Noonan. |
|
Suspended : orchestra | Commissioned by HUSH Music Foundation. |
|
Sleep (mezzo-soprano with full orchestra) | Commissioned by Symphony Australia as part of the 2004 Composer Attachment Program with WASO |
|
The Rabbits : opera | Commissioned by Perth International Arts Festival and Melbourne Festival |
![]() |
Overt : full orchestra (2024) | Australian Youth Orchestra |
![]() |
Dances with devils : Concerto for percussion and orchestra (2015) | Commissioned by Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. |
Analysis & Media
Kit: Wheatbelt : music study guide / music by Iain Grandage ; study guide by Lorraine Milne.
- Document: Profile – Iain Grandage
- Article: Scored in black and white