Login

Enter your username and password

Barry McKimm, (born Melbourne 1941) commenced his professional music career in 1958 as a trumpet player working in theatre and jazz.

McKimm's early compositions were in the form of jazz and non-jazz improvised music using graphic or structural methods of notation. These graphic scores are available from the composer. Throughout the1960s he gained a reputation for innovative jazz. In 1968 he was appointed third trumpet with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO).

From 1970 he composed music in exact notation forms, rather than using improvisational graphic structures. He composed works for orchestral colleagues - concertos, string trios, brass quintets - choral works, songs, piano pieces, and works for a variety of non-traditional instrumental groups.

His Tuba Concerto for concert band; Piccolo Concerto; Ash Wednesday for brass band; Andante Tranquillo for tuba and piano; Albedo Acoustica piano duet; A Song of Swans for concert band; Faces in The Street - a song cycle for soprano narrator, and piano; Lamentations - a symphony in five movements for two brass bands and male choir and Cornet Concerto for brass band have been performed and recorded in Australia and overseas. Recordings, both concert recordings and sampled recordings, are available on McKimm's Soundcloud page.

In 1983 he was commissioned to compose his first major brass band work Ash Wednesday. This work was selected as the A-grade test piece for the National Band Championships in 1985 and 1988. Since then, nine compositions have been selected or commissioned as test pieces for the Nationals.

McKimm's awards include the Dorian Le Gallienne Award (1978), the Clarinet and Saxophone Society of Victoria Award (1984), the inaugural ANA Composition Award (1985), and the AMC Award for Most Distinguished Contribution to the Presentation of Australian Music in Victoria (1988).

He retired from the MSO in 1997, and has since composed many new works. In 1998 was appointed Music Director for the Eltham Concert Band (ECB), a position he held until 2005. During this period he composed, orchestrated and arranged a large body of works (over 200) for community music groups: concert band, soloists, and choirs.

McKimm is an eclectic composer. He composes for specific projects, composer residencies, commissions or by requests. His work covers a diverse range, including works for students of all levels from primary school to tertiary and from non-professional community ensembles to high level professional orchestras and chamber groups. He has written concertos for many solo instruments, such as tuba, piccolo, viola, bass clarinet, euphonium, trombone and trumpet. Governed by the conditions of the project - e.g. available instruments, duration, level of performance, venue etc. - some works are abstract, some lyrical, some in between. McKimm's aim is to engage and challenge performers and audience.

Barry McKimm — current to February 2017