Andrew Ford
Andrew Ford is an Australian composer, writer and broadcaster whose work ranges from chamber and vocal scores to opera and piano cycles. He has won the Paul Lowin Prize for the song cycle Learning to Howl and a Green Room Award for the opera Rembrandt’s Wife.
His music has been played throughout Australia and in more than 40 countries around the world. He was composer-in-residence with the Australian Chamber Orchestra (1992–94) and has held the Peggy Glanville-Hicks Fellowship (1998–2000) and a two-year fellowship from the Music Board of the Australia Council (2005–06).
A former academic, Ford has written widely on all manner of music and published six books, most recently The Sound of Pictures: listening to the movies from Hitchcock to High Fidelity (2010). He has written, presented and co-produced four radio series, including Illegal Harmonies and Dots on the Landscape, and since 1995 he has presented The Music Show each Saturday morning on ABC Radio National.
Artist's website: www.andrewford.net.au
Andrew Ford is featured on the following titles
Australian Premières, Vol. 2
This CD proves a concerto can be recorded with a soloist and a digital orchestra, and at the same time brings to light four remarkable works never recorded before, two of them never performed. Patiently languishing in archives, they can now see the light of day.
The Waltz Book
The Waltz Book is an impressive achievement by any standard. Andrew Ford has composed a set of 60 waltzes to a commission from pianist Ian Munro, organised so that they are exciting and make a coherent whole.
Credit: Liner Notes
Icarus
The Icarus myth has long drawn Andrew Ford, and this disc gathers the works it inspired. The Kowmung Music Festival Players appear alongside Terra Australis, recorded at the Aspen Festival.
Harbour
This CD features the remarkable voice of the septuagenarian tenor Gerald English in works written especially for him by Andrew Ford. A star-studded gathering of musicians accompanies him and also plays three solo works.
Composer
Andrew Ford: Whispers
The highlights of this disc are the works written for tenor Gerald English. Its success led to a further project in 1998 gathering all the works Ford had composed for him.
Compositions by Andrew Ford also appear on
Kingfisher
This CD is the result of a daring project to commission 21 composers to write new works for Halcyon's two singers, Jenny Duck-Chong and Alison Morgan. Presented over two concerts in their 15th anniversary year, and then recorded at Trackdown.
Close Your Eyes and I'll Close Mine: Lullabies Old and New
Lullabies (or berceuses) have been around as long as humans have been singing their children to sleep. This CD presents a unique collection of mostly modern lullabies, many written for this project.
The Metallic Violins
This CD is crammed with world premiere performances and scintillating playing. These two violinists inspired wonderful new works by Australian composers, yielding the first recording of Australian music for two violins, from Hindson’s raunchy title piece to Finsterer’s dreamy Spherica I.
Credit: Liner Notes
Coil: Australian Music for Solo Percussion
Claire Edwardes had already marked the Australian contemporary music scene after the ABC Young Performer of the Year award in 1999 and the Freedman Fellowship in 2005. Back from European study and performance, she was active in new-music ensembles and building a solo career.
Water Settings: Australian Music for Percussion Duo
Match is a new Australian percussion duo featuring two of the country’s finest players: Daryl Pratt, Head of Percussion at the Sydney Conservatorium and a prolific composer, and Alison Eddington of Synergy Percussion. Most of the programme is by Pratt.
Electric Cello
David Pereira plays solo Australian cello works, each scored for cello with pre-recorded tape or delay. The Wesley-Smith and Ford pieces are world premiere recordings.
Still Life: Australian Music for Viola
This is the third solo viola disc on Tall Poppies, and one of the few such albums ever issued in Australia. Patricia Pollett is widely regarded as among the country’s finest musicians, and the violist who has done most to draw new works for the instrument.
Lift Off: Australian Piano Music for Children
An engaging collection of piano music by Australian composers written to spark young imaginations. Elpis Liossatos, an Australian pianist then living in Greece, brings charm and enthusiasm to these performances.
An Australian Collection
Nineteen tracks drawn from the Tall Poppies catalogue, chosen to show the range and depth of Australian composition and performance across the label’s first decade.
Spinning: New Australian Flute Music
Geoffrey Collins has single-handedly shaped the Australian flute repertoire, and this is his third solo recording. Five of these works were written for him, and they show how freely composers respond to his playing.
Stroke
A striking programme of contemporary Australian piano music, superbly played by New York–based Australian pianist Lisa Moore. Smetanin's formidable title work, among the most demanding in the repertoire, was captured here in a single take.
Christmas under Capricorn
The Australian Youth Orchestra, conducted by Graham Abbott, plays nineteen Christmas carols arranged for orchestra by Australian composers. Two carols appear in paired settings, inviting comparison. Listenable festive music, easy to give as a gift.
Other credits
Schumann: Lieder
Gerald English, then in his seventies, was still singing magnificently. Here he joins Perth-based pianist and composer Roger Smalley, whose work as an accompanist is little known. This is the first of several Tall Poppies projects featuring English.