Resonate Magazine | Australian Music Centre

Douglas Knehans's work Three Psalms for a cappella SATB choir has been awarded third prize at the 1st international Musica Religiosa composition competition in Czech Republic.

Natalie Williams has won the Iron Composer instant composition contest at Baldwin-Wallace College in Ohio, US. The secret ingredient, according to Williams, was 'Sticks and Stones - as in, actual pebbles, rocks and branches'. The winning composition was written for flute, cello, and the sticks/stones, played by one percussionist. Williams's Five Bagatelles for Piano Solo have been accepted for performance in Hannover, Germany, in 2011. The work was awarded the second prize in the Plathner's Eleven Composers Competition 2010.

The Tura New Music Composition Prize has been awarded to Kynan Tan. This prize for 'the most outstanding final year composition student' is a commission to create a new work to be presented during the 2011 Tura program.

Julian Yu's piano album The Young Person's Guide to Composition - variations on Twinkle Twinkle Little Star has recently been released by Zen-On Music Japan. This informative, humorous guide to musical composition takes the simple theme from Mozart's early piano variations and presents it in many different styles from species counterpoint to classical harmony; from Minuet to Habanera; and from Bach through Schoenberg to the present day. Each variation shows a different compositional idea or technique. Some samples of the work are available on Youtube, and a CD is scheduled for release next year on Fontec label.

Andrián Pertout has been awarded the Friends & Enemies of New Music Composition Prize (New York, USA) for Cinq petites mélodies for Pianoforte (2008). The work was commissioned by Julian Burnside QC for performance by Michael Kieran Harvey and will now receive its American premiere in New York during the upcoming Friends & Enemies of New Music 2011 concert season. Recent commissions include a work for tamburica orchestra, also commissioned by Julian Burnside QC, as well as a work for robot orchestra commissioned by the Logos Foundation (Ghent, Belgium) with funds provided by Arts Victoria. In the final months of 2010 Pertout will be travelling to Santiago, Chile on two occasions: to attend the X Festival Internacional de Música Electroacústica de Santiago - Ai-maako 2010 for a performance of Le petit agneau for harmonic and polytonal bells for 12 speakers, and also to attend four concert performances of Navigating the Labyrinth for String Orchestra by the Orquesta de Cámara de Chile conducted by Basel-based Rodolfo Fischer.

It has been a busy couple of months for Topology: following concerts with drummer/composer Grant Collins, and a new show for Brisbane Festival, Topology received a very warm welcome and standing ovations at the Salihara Arts Festival in Jakarta, Indonesia. The band had a busy schedule in October, with the Timor cultural concert Scope of Hope and the launch of a composition education partnership with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra.

David Hush's Prelude and Fugue and Chronicles received their first performances by the Orana Trio in July. The premieres were given in a concert that formed part of the 2010 Sydney Cancer Conference hosted by the University of Sydney. The 'darkness' of the Prelude (C minor) followed by the 'light' of the Fugue (C Major) had a special relevance to a conference devoted to finding a cure for cancer. A video of the Prelude and Fugue (solo piano version) is available on YouTube.

The Australian Chamber Orchestra has compiled a list of all Australian works commissioned and performed by the ACO. Since its founding in 1975, the orchestra has presented 1700 performances of over 250 works by 80 Australian composers - of these the ACO has most frequently championed the work of Carl Vine, Brett Dean, Roger Smalley and Peter Sculthorpe. The list is available online.

Kate Moore's music installation Rain Project was included in an art event at The Korzo Theater in The Hague in October, along with other installations about the subject of water and time. Rain Project was performed by an ocean of voices from the ASKO chamber choir, the Uisce vocal ensemble and different choirs from The Hague.