Login

Enter your username and password

May Catherine Vivienne Howlett (née Bird) was born on April 10, 1931, in Subiaco, Western Australia. She won various scholarships including a secondary studentship to study Music at Melbourne University Conservatorium (majoring in Pianoforte and Singing), graduating in 1954 with a Bachelor of Music, and obtaining a Diploma of Education the following year. She received extra-mural coaching in composition with Mr. Arthur Nickson, appeared in several plays at the Union Theatre, and became controversial president of the Fine Arts Club during her undergraduate days.

Until her marriage in 1961, which took her to New Guinea, Howlett led a busy life as a recitalist, accompanist and ensemble pianist, and as a teacher. She was also called upon to direct school musicals, in order to break down entrenched attitudes towards 'classical' music and musicians, especially in young males of the time, which were extremely negative. Male-dominated bias on the staffs of government schools made her self-imposed task, often, extremely difficult.

Howlett received her first commission in 1971, for a cantata to be performed at the inaugural concert of the Canberra New Music Society. Now the mother of two children, she was active once more in recital, frequently on ABC radio, in productions of the Canberra Repertory Company and the newly-formed Opera Group, as well as in running a high-profile teaching practice, and being involved with the Canberra School of Music. Six Meditations on the Katha Upanishad was well-received, and she was offered the first composition scholarship at the School.

Fate intervened and, after a slow recovery from a serious operation Howlett landed in Sydney, early in 1973, to tour with Young Opera for the Arts Council of N.S.W., and to appear in an ABC TV opera production Malcolm Williamson's Violins of St. Jacques. With her children to support, Howlett turned to acting and, over the next twenty-odd years appeared in many top-rating TV shows and series, six films, at various music clubs as well as in stage productions ranging from contemporary drama to satirical revue, from Leagues Club musicals and cabaret to touring as Barry Humphries' associate artist/pianist, and taking her original one-woman show to Carnegie Recital Hall in N.Y.

In 1987, for the first time in fifteen years, Howlett was able to turn once more to composition. Another choral piece, Ashes of Roses,was requested by Gaudeamus for its Bicentennial tour; the live recording was broadcast repeatedly in composer programs on 2MBS/FM along with compositions such as the children's version of the opera The Boy Who Wasn't There, and the Flute Suite Exhibits, now featured on CDs by separate artists. The Flute Suite is also played on ABC radio, and featured on audio tours at the National Gallery of Victoria as background music to their exhibition, Australian Impressionism - a welcome development, as Howlett is particularly interested in fusions of the various art and theatrical forms.

1988 saw Howlett involved in major productions for the N.S.W. Department of Education in a variety of capacities. In 1989, she designed and initiated two Statewide programs in drama the State Drama Camp (1989) and the State Drama Festival (1990), on a regional basis; these programs are still in operation, as are the Ensemble programs.

In 1996, she was the recipient, with Audley Green, harpsichordist, of an artist-in-residency at Bundanon, Arthur Boyd's Trust property on the Shoalhaven, to workshop Howlett's work-in-progress, Fantasia, for harpsichord, viola and cello. Along with a number of other instrumental works, such as the string quartet To Times Recalled, the Fanta-si-a was published by Grevillea editions and is available through the Australian Music Centre. As well as instrumental and vocal works, the Keys Press now publishes Howlett's piano works, such as Passing the Tower of Aggrievements, Stimmungen, and the latest, Reminiscence, included in the volume, Tribute, a momento mori for composer Miriam Hyde.

In 2006, Howlett graduated with a MA in Music from Macquarie University with a thesis entitled 'The Production of a Contemporary Chamber Opera', which was accompanied by a revised score, with piano reduction and workshop recording of her chamber opera, The Boy Who Wasn't There.

Howlett works only with acoustic instruments, and, due to her background, is particularly interested in vocal writing and music which, although not always grateful to the ear, is basically of the lyrical tradition. Howlett seeks to explore the more unusual aspects of an instrument (including the voice - e.g. Chataka Bird, the last movement of her song cycle Secrets, for soprano voice) as in Sacred Grove, for bassoon and marimba, without straining for attenuated effects, although some of her compositions may, if occasion demands, challenge her philosophy.

Biography provided by the composer — current to September 2008