Tony Lewis : Represented Artist
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Random Audio Sample: Dancing on rainbows (koto music) by Tony Lewis, from the CD Koto dreaming |
Photo: Mayu Kanamori
Tony Lewis is a percussionist, composer, recording producer, ethnomusicologist and music educator with over forty years of professional experience. Based in Sydney, he specialises in contemporary cross-cultural music forms, and music for dance and theatre. He performs with the acclaimed eclectic music trio Waratah and in a number of freelance contexts.
Throughout his work, Lewis has been committed to the creation of new Australian music with diverse cultural origins. His most recent published work is Manus Diaboli for five recorders, commissioned and published (OMP26) by Orpheus Music and premiered in Armidale in January 2015. He has composed major works for the Aboriginal National Theatre Trust (Munjong, Victorian Arts Centre 1990), the One Extra Company (Dancing Demons, Indonesian tour 1991), the Chrissie Parrott Dance Company (Satu Langit, Perth Festival 1994), Matthew Doyle and Dhamor Percussion (Wirid-jiribin, the Lyrebird, Festival of the Dreaming 1997), Sadari Theatre Company (Ching-kom Dari, Seoul 2001), Dharawal Dreaming (with Sandy Evans, Satsuki Odamura and Matthew Doyle for Jeonju-Sori Festival, Jeonju, South Korea 2006), Miss Tanaka (by Australian playwright John Romeril, composed with Matthew Doyle and Hiromichi Sakamoto, for Youki-Za Japanese marionette theatre company, Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre 2012).
He has also composed numerous smaller works for small, mid-range and independent dance and theatre companies and individual artists, including a large body of work for the Aboriginal Islander Dance Theatre, Sydney, from 1986-88. In addition he has composed for koto virtuoso Satsuki Odamura and many works for his own performing groups Waratah, Sangam and Dhamor Percussion.
Lewis has performed with many of Australia's leading contemporary and cross-cultural music, dance and theatre groups, and with many visiting international artists - including Sangam, Tal Vad, B'tutta, Caroline Lynn's World Edge, The Renaissance Players, Southern Crossings, Nakisa, REM Theatre, the One Extra Company, The Great Bowing Company, Sandy Evans, Matthew Doyle, Satsuki Odamura, Riley Lee, Mark Atkins, Michael Atherton and Jeannie Lewis.
He has toured internationally to perform, study, teach, and/or conduct cultural exchange projects in many parts of Africa, Asia and the Pacific, and in Indigenous communities around Australia. He appeared as a soloist at the Commonwealth Drum Festival in Auckland, 1990, and was Musical Director of the Asian segment of the Opening Ceremony of the Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games.
Lewis has a PhD in ethnomusicology from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney, achieved through research into the garamut (log drum) music of Baluan Island, Manus Province, Papua New Guinea. He has lectured in music at Macquarie University, the University of New England and the University of Western Sydney. He currently writes and delivers lecture material in music and ethnomusicology for a number of tertiary institutions in Australia.
Tony Lewis — current to June 2016