Australian Music Centre | Breaking sound barriers

Image: Margaret Brandman  

Margaret Brandman reflects on 75 years of life - and more than 50 years creating music.

What are the chances of meeting the right person at exactly the right moment? What are the chances that a chance conversation at a dinner will lead to new compositions, concerts and an ARIA No. 1 album? Or that a meeting on a train, just months before your 75th birthday concert, will provide the final performer you need? And what are the chances that, after more than five decades as a composer, performer and music educator, you would find yourself standing on the stage at Carnegie Hall? Apparently, quite good - if you are open to synchronicity.

In September 2026, I celebrated my 75th birthday and more than 50 years in music, with friends and family at a special concert at Mosman Art Gallery. It was a wonderful opportunity to look back over a life filled with music, friendships, collaborations and, above all, extraordinary coincidences. There was another reason to celebrate. I was delighted to be selected as a finalist in the AWMA Awards Lifetime Achievement category, with the awards ceremony to be held in Brisbane on 27 May 2027. Turning 75 has prompted me to reflect on the remarkable chain of chance encounters that has shaped my musical journey. In fact, there have been so many that I have started writing my next book, What Are the Chances? - A Lifetime of Joyous Synchronicities. When I look back, I realise that many of the most significant moments in my musical life were never planned. They simply happened.

A mentor, a publisher and a beginning
One of the earliest important connections was with composer and music educator Dulcie Holland. In 1975, I served with Dulcie on the Fellowship of Australian Composers committee. She became a valued musical mentor and, through her introduction, I was connected with Castle Music, who became my publishers in the 1970s.

A holiday in Armidale
In 2001, while on holiday in Armidale, I had chance encounter with opera singer Désirée Regina who happened to be staying at the same hotel. That chance encounter became the beginning of a long and fruitful musical friendship. Over the years, Désirée and I have presented concerts together and collaborated on Songs of Love and Desire, a song cycle based on her lyrics. What began as a meeting while I was away on holiday developed into an enduring creative partnership.

And then came my connection with pianist Irma Enriquez. At the Music Teachers' Association 100th anniversary dinner at Parliament House in 2012, I happened to be seated at the same table as pianist Irma Enriquez, who performs Latin American classical music with violinist Henry Avila. Knowing that I was a composer, Irma's opening question was wonderfully direct: "Have you composed any Latin American works?" Indeed I had. Among them was Jucaro Rhumba, a piano solo that was already included in the AMEB 'Piano for Leisure' Grade 6 syllabus. That one question led to new works for violin and piano, and in 2013 Irma and Henry performed my violin compositions while Désirée sang our songs at the first of many concerts, at the Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre in Penrith.
Little did I know that Jucaro Rhumba would eventually take me much further.

From Jucaro Rhumba to La Vida Apasionada
Almost a decade later, in 2021, violinist Vov Dylan contacted me about the violin and piano version of Jucaro Rhumba d'Amor, which he was recording with pianist John Martin.
Vov then asked me to arrange the piece for his Palace Orchestra ensemble. Once I completed the arrangement, he suggested something much bigger: why not turn the idea into a suite of Latin-inspired dances? He commissioned me to compose them. The result was La Vida Apasionada, a suite of eight works. Vov and his ensemble performed the suite at the Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre in 2025 at the launch of the album of the same name. The album reached No. 1 on the ARIA charts in the month of its release. And the story still wasn't finished.

In November 2026, my 'cello arrangement of Bossa Sonora, from the suite, was recorded for Parma Recordings' Resurgence Vol. 2 by American cellist Ovidiu Marinescu and pianist Carl Cranmer.
The work was performed at Carnegie Hall in New York. I was in attendance for the concert and, in a moment I could never have planned, I was invited onto the stage with the performers to share in the acclaim. From a Latin-inspired piano piece to Carnegie Hall. What are the chances?

A Facebook message and a family connection
Another extraordinary connection began not in a concert hall, but via Facebook. Baritone Martin Cooke, who has lived in Germany for more than 25 years singing with the Bavarian State Opera Company, contacted me with a question: "Was I related to the pianist Joan Brandman?" Joan was my aunt. Martin had studied singing in Sydney in the 1970s with teacher Evelyn Hall, and Joan had been the accompanist for Evelyn's students. On occasions when Evelyn could not attend the opera using her season ticket, she would give the ticket to Martin, who would accompany my aunt Joan.

Decades later, Martin found me on Facebook. And another musical friendship blossomed. Martin and I have since performed works I composed for him. During a visit to Sydney in 2016, we premiered my Cosmic Wheel of the Zodiac song cycle, composed to the lyrics of astropoet Benita Rainer. But, of course, Benita was another person who had entered my life through an earlier connection.

The Cosmic Wheel
I first met Benita when I was teaching piano to her daughter, Cassandra, while living in Glenbrook in the Lower Blue Mountains. Years later, in 2015, Benita approached me with an original concept: to create a song for each sign of the Zodiac. She devised the inspirational lyrics. I composed the music. The resulting Cosmic Wheel of the Zodiac song cycle was premiered by Martin Cooke in Sydney in 2016. I subsequently arranged the cycle for choir, and in 2017 it was performed and recorded in Prague for Parma Recordings' Navona label. I have also created arrangements of many of the works for different instrumental combinations, including flute, violin and 'cello. Several of the 'cello arrangements appear on my No.1 ARIA-charting album Binna Burra Dreaming, performed by Ari Volovelsky and myself and released on the Ambition label. Once again, one connection had led to another - and another.

The train ride that completed the band
Then came my most recent synchronicity. About three months before my 75th birthday concert, I met cellist Alexandra Boyling on a train travelling around the City Circle in Sydney. A chance meeting on a train. And voila! I found another much needed performer for my concert. The birthday concert brought together musicians from many different chapters of my life. Vov Dylan performed works I had composed for him, including my latest work Towards the Light. Flautist James Fortune performed Music for Single Swingers, which is being recorded by Eliza Shephard for her March of the Women 2026 album. James also performed my arrangement of In Only One Glance from Songs of Love and Desire on alto flute. James and I had previously performed together in the Silver Winds Ensemble in 2025 with UK-based Australian flautist Mark Underwood. Mark, incidentally, had been my classmate at the Conservatorium of Music High School in Sydney in 1968-69. Alexandra Boyling performed the Australian premiere of Bossa Sonora.

The concert also featured Jared Mundell on clarinet performing 2 works from the La Vida Apasionada suite, Nicole Murray-Prior on double bass, Leina Lu on piano, Nick Whiley on baritone and my long-time friend Vincent Lombardo on guitar. And for the finale, we returned to where one of these musical journeys had begun. A fresh ensemble arrangement of Jucaro Rhumba d'Amor brought everyone together, with my brother John Brandman on bongos and Nick Whiley and Linda Lombardo adding percussion. This was a wonderful way to celebrate my 75 musical years.

The music between the moments
Looking back at these stories now, I see a marvellous web of connections:

A mentor introduces a publisher.

A holiday produces a friendship.

A dinner-table conversation leads to new compositions.

A Facebook message uncovers a family connection.

A former piano student's mother becomes a songwriting collaborator.

A violinist discovers a composition and turns it into a major commissioned suite.

A chance meeting on a train completes the ensemble for a 75th birthday concert.

Of course, none of us can know where a meeting or conversation will lead. We can only be receptive to the possibilities when they appear. Perhaps that is one of the great joys of a creative life. We make music. We make plans. But the unexpected encounters often complete the story. At 75, I am still meeting wonderful people, writing new music and discovering new possibilities. So I have decided to embrace the question that has followed me throughout my musical journey: What are the chances? No doubt there are many more surprises still to come!