Australian Music Centre | Breaking sound barriers

Work Overview

In 2021, I was approached by Paul Kildea from Musica Viva Australia to write a piece for Garrick Ohlsson for his 2023 Australian tour. He would be playing music by Franz Liszt, Samuel Barber, Franz Schubert, Alexander Scriabin, and the music of Frédéric Chopin (of which Garrick is a historically notable interpreter). While researching and reflecting on how my creative voice could complement both the program and Garrick's unique pianism, I stumbled on a description of Garrick's playing saying that he possesses a "calmly demanding presence".

My starting point was testing the idea of channeling a piece by a romantic giant, Franz Liszt, which evokes the same descriptors for me, Sposalisio (meaning marriage) from Années de pèlerinage (Years of Pilgrimage) which was inspired by Raphael's high-renaissance painting, 'Sposalisio'. Though this piece bears similar motivic and structural scaffolding to the Liszt, there was a great deal of stylistic tension in its infusion into Convocations.

The word convocation means "to call together a group of people assembled for ecclesiastical or academic purposes". Convocations, therefore, can assemble unlikely, often separated groups of people for intellectual or spiritual pursuits. This project took on the word's spiritual significance in the soundworld created to capture Garrick's essence, and the word's intellectual connotation in how one can organically catalyse music from the unlikely ingredients of an American concert pianist who specializes in the romantic giants and a Tasmanian composer ravenous in the pursuit of the contemporary. Thus, this piece and project became not just a convocation but its plural, Convocations.

Work Details

Year: 2023

Instrumentation: Piano

Duration: 10 min.

Difficulty: Advanced — More rhythmically challenging than technical.

Dedication note: to Garrick Ohlsson and Michele Johns

Commission note: Commissioned by Musica Viva Australia as part of their 2023 season.

I’d like to thank Paul Kildea from Musica Viva Australia for placing his trust in my skills and my process in offering me this commission. My thanks also go to Michele and Stephen Johns for their generous support of this commission, which is a birthday present to Michele. I hope the piece communicates the affection with which it was gifted. Lastly, my gratitude to Garrick Ohlsson, for offering his time, energy, and enormous skill to an untested contemporary work.