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Photo: John McCrae

Margaret Brandman's career in music as composer, pianist, recording artist, music educator, arranger, and author of music education publications spans over 50 years. Her award-winning compositions receive live performances and airplay both in Australia and internationally. La Vida Apasionada suite for small ensemble, commissioned in 2021 by Vov Dylan, was performed on the 26th of March this year (2025) by Vov Dylan and the Palace Orchestra, at the Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre in Penrith at the LA VIDA APASIONADA album launch concert. The album released on the Ambition Label (AMB 292), achieved number one position in the ARIA classical/crossover charts that same week. Vov Dylan and his ensemble performed five works from the album for 2MBS Fine Music 102.5 SHOWCASE program that will go to air on Mother's Day 11th May 2025.

In addition Vov Dylan and Margaret Brandman will both be presenting a session on Australian compositions, featuring Margaret's works for the Australian String Teacher's Association (AUSTA) conference at Sydney Conservatorium in Sydney in July 11-12.

Silver Winds suite, commissioned in 2024 by UK Flautist Mark Underwood, will be premiered by the 'Silver Winds Ensemble' - Mark Underwood (flute) with Margaret Brandman (piano) on the 18th of May, 2025 at the Mosman Art Gallery Grand Hall, with a second performance on the 25th of May for 'Classics at Picton'. Flautist James Fortune will be joining Margaret and Mark to perform her compositions arranged for two flutes and piano.

Bossa Sonora, Margaret's version for 'cello with piano has been recorded by American artists Ovidiu Marinescu ('cello) and Carl Cramer (piano) for Parma Recordings' Resurgence Vol.2 (nv6729). The album is scheduled for international release on the 11th of July and Bossa Sonora will be performed by the recording artists on November 11th at Carnegie Hall.

Australian Guild of Music and Speech 2025 Piano Syllabus. Margaret performed her unique jazzy arrangement of Waltzing Matilda, which is now included in the AGMS 6th Grade Piano Odyssey publication, at the AGMS Spotlight on Pedagogy session in February this year. The guild, the members of which are highly supportive of Australian composers, has selected over 40 of Margaret's works for their 2025 syllabus.

In July 2024 Warm Winds in Havana Suite for String Quartet with optional percussion, published by Furore Music (Germany) (fue10423), was selected by the American String Teacher's Association ASTA for their virtual summit. The Brisbane based 'Cerulean Collective' string ensemble, will perform the Australian premiere of Warm Winds in Havana at a concert in Brisbane later this year.

Brandman has twice won the Artemis 'Women in Action' Film Festival - Women Powered Music award for 'Best Foreign Composition'. In 2021 she received the award for her Symphonic Tone Poem SPIRIT VISIONS. In 2019 she received the award for her Firestorm Symphony (III) 'All the Trees are Growing' from her SENSATIONS - Wind, Waves, Birds and Fire album (nv6041). Both works were performed and recorded by the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra (MPO) for albums produced by Parma Recordings USA.

Born in 1951 into a musical family, Brandman studied accordion and piano from the age of four, taking up guitar and clarinet in her teens. Her education, supported by formal studies in piano, clarinet, harmony, and composition at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, covered many styles of music from Classical through to Jazz and Latin-American.

Brandman was awarded a scholarship to the University of Sydney, where she studied composition with Peter Sculthorpe. In 1975 she was awarded a Bachelor of Music (Composition), having already acquired her Associate Performer degree and Teacher of Pianoforte diploma. She has since also been awarded the F.Comp.ASMC, F.Mus.Ed.ASMC and L.Perf.ASMC degrees from the Australian Society for Musicology and Composition, Hon.FNMSM (UK), and the Dip.E in Piano Pedagogy of the World Piano Teacher's Association (Serbia).

To date PARMA RECORDINGS (USA) have produced five albums of Brandman compositions: Symphonic Chronicles Vol.2 (nv6584), a multi-composer album that includes her orchestral work Gentle Summer Rain. Sensations - Wind, Waves, Birds, and Fire (nv6041) featuring one hour and nineteen minutes of her celebrated orchestral and chamber works; Polarities Vol.2 (nv 6353) a multi-composer album that includes her award-winning orchestral work Spirit Visions; Abrazo (ar0001), a multi-composer album recorded in Cuba, that includes her suite Warm Winds in Havana for saxophone quartet and percussion; and The Cosmic Wheel of the Zodiac (nv6160) a cycle of 12 songs, one for each sign of the Zodiac, composed to the lyrics of Astropoet Benita Rainer. This work was performed and recorded by the Prague Mixed Chamber Choir in 2017.

AUSTRALIAN RECORDINGS: 'La Vida Apasionada', (AMB292) an eight-movement Latin-American dance suite recorded by violinist Vov Dylan and the Palace Orchestra has been released by Ambition Records as part of the NOUVEAU AUSTRALIAN CLASSICS collection and is available in stores around Australia. The album also includes Violin and Piano duets of 'In Two Minds' and 'The Ram in Spring' performed by Vov Dylan and composer Margaret. The violin and piano adaptations of the suite, also recorded by Vov and Margaret, are available on CD and as streams through Margaret's Gig-Alliance artist page. The suite has also been arranged for 'Cello with Piano, for Two Flutes and Piano, and for Solo Piano. All works are on the AMC's recommended HSC and VCE lists. The complete solo piano setting of the suite is included in the AGMS syllabus for L.Mus candidates. The Ensemble version of the suite was the featured album on Fine Music 102.5 in March 2025 while The Violin and Piano duet Album was featured on Fine Music 102.5 in June 2024. The video of the TRIO arrangements of the suite, presented at the World Piano Teacher's Association online conference in October 2022, is now also available from the Bloomsbury Video Library. The premiere performance of the sextet arrangement of the complete suite, by the Vov Dylan Palace Orchestra, at Margaret Brandman's HIGHLIGHTS & PREMIERES concert on the 18th of September 2022 in the Grand Hall at Mosman Art Gallery, received a standing ovation.

CELLO WORKS: In 2021 three works in her Cello Sensations series were released on the ModernClassicalx label: Lady of Grace, As Blue as Turquoise Pearls, and Jucaro Rhumba D'Amor. In 2022 she recorded five additional 'cello works for her BINNA BURRA DREAMING album released by Ambition Records AMB201: Binna Burra Dreaming, Four Castles of Stone, Ariel's Dream, Universal Truth Remains, Snowgums in Silver Moonlight. The album also includes a bonus track: the premiere live performance of As Blue as Turquoise Pearls. All works were recorded by 'cellist Ariel Volovelsky together with Margaret on piano. Fine Music Magazine reviewer Paul Cooke wrote: ' the album is a pure delight to listen to' (April 2023). Subsequently, the album charted as number one in both the ARIA classical and Classical Crossover charts in the week of the 24th of April 2023. As mentioned above, the most recent recording, is that of Bossa Sonora, by the American 'cellist, Ovidiu Marinescu on Resurgence Vol.2

SONGS AVAILABLE VIA STREAMING; Songs of Love and Desire, written to the lyrics of mezzo-soprano Désirée Regina; In the Shadow of Uluru sung by soprano Ayse Göknur Shanal; Cosmic Wheel of the Zodiac twelve songs performed by the Prague Mixed Chamber Choir; Find my own Place - concert video on YouTube

CONCERTS and AIRPLAY 2025

1) Vov Dylan Ensemble - LA VIDA APASIONADA album launch concert. JSPAC Penrith 26th of March

2) Vov Dylan Ensemble - LA VIDA APASIONADA selections for 2MBSFM Showcase 11th of May

3) Silver Winds Ensemble - 'Bach to Brandman and Beyond'. Mosman Art Gallery Grand Hall May 18th

4) Silver Winds Ensemble - 'Bach to Brandman and Beyond'. Classics at Picton May 25th

5) Vov Dylan Ensemble - LA VIDA APASIONADA complete suite- Humpf Hall - June 15th 2025

6) Ovidiu Marinescu and Carl Cramer - Bossa Sonora - Carnegie Hall 11th of November

CONCERTS 2024

1) Hooked on Flutes, performed three Zodiac works plus 'Bossa Sonora' from the La Vida Suite

13th April Greenwich UK

2) Mirabilis Collective, performed As Blue as Turquoise Pearls, in Perth 16th June

3) Mirabilis Collective, performed As Blue as Turquoise Pearls, a second time in Perth 31st July

4) Beecroft Orchestra, Fiesta de la Luz, commissioned by the Beecroft Orchestra, premiered at a concert presented in the Cheltenham Girls High School's performance hall 22nd of September 2024

CONCERTS 2023

1) Binna Burra Dreaming, Album launch concert - Humpff Hall in Allambie Heights - 26th of March

2) The Century of Australiana Concert presented by FAMS Musical Society on the 25th of June.

Margaret was the featured composer. She was invited to introduce her five songs with Australian themes, perform her 'Tango Apasionada' piano solo, and accompany two of the singers.

3) International concerts in Amsterdam 9th and 10th of September: Two concerts of her compositions for voice, violin, and piano, were presented with Soprano Elisabeth van der Gulik, and violinist Leon Bartlesman. Margaret performed as soloist, and piano associate for the concerts.

4) Hooked on Flutes, performed three of Margaret's Cosmic Wheel of the Zodiac works arranged for two flutes and piano in concert in Gravesend UK on the 23rd of September 2023.

5) The Sydney Conservatorium Clarinet Choir conducted by Peter Anthony Smith, performed Margaret's Look Around suite.25th of October

RECENT EXAM SYLLABUS INCLUSIONS

1) The Australian Guild of Music and Speech have selected over 40 of Margaret's piano works for their 2025 syllabus. Her arrangement of Waltzing Matilda is included in their Piano Odyssey 6th grade publication

2) 'When Spirits Soar' for Soprano Saxophone with piano ABRSM (UK) 8th-grade Syllabus 2022

3) 'Jucaro Rhumba D'Amor' for Violin with Piano, 2022 AMEB 7th grade violin syllabus and publication.

View performances of Margaret Brandman's works on YouTube.

Margaret Brandman's "music is melodious and intricate, beautifully played.... pieces straddle that indefinable line between jazz and contemporary classical / new music." Jane Mann, London Jazz News 2017

Margaret Brandman — current to April 2025