Elliott Gyger
Elliott Gyger was born in Sydney, and has been writing music since about the age of ten. His compositional and research interests include the creation of a purely musical sense of drama and narrative, and the multilayered interplay of music and text.
He holds degrees in composition from the University of Sydney and Harvard University. His composition teachers have included Ross Edwards, Peter Sculthorpe, Bernard Rands and Mario Davidovsky. His music has been played by many of Australia’s major performing groups, including the Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras, as well as North American ensembles such as the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, Columbia Sinfonietta, Collage, and the Emerson, Mendelssohn and Ying Quartets.
Among his major works are the “nocturnal concerto for orchestra” Deep and dissolving verticals of light (1994); A wilderness of mirrors (1996), for E flat clarinet and large ensemble; si doux (1997), commissioned by the Australia Ensemble; Polishing Firewood (2001), for the New York New Music Ensemble; and From the hungry waiting country (2006), for Halcyon. Premieres have included a celesta concerto entitled Angels and Insects (2010); voice (and nothing more) (2011), for San Francisco-based choir Volti; and In Praise of Sandstone (2012), to words by John Tranter, for solo voices, choir and percussion ensemble. His “dialogue for orchestra” on air (2011) was awarded the Sydney Symphony 80th Anniversary Composition Prize, receiving its first performances with the SSO under Vladimir Ashkenazy in March 2012. giving voice (2012), for mezzo-soprano and five instruments, was awarded the 2013 Paul Lowin Song Cycle Award.
Elliott Gyger was Assistant Professor of Music at Harvard from 2002 to 2007, and has taught at the University of Melbourne since 2008, where he is Senior Lecturer in Composition.
Elliott Gyger is featured on the following titles
Bushfire Dreams
Four marvellous works by Melbourne composers appear here in superb performances by the Ormond Quartet, resident at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music between 2016 and 2018. Lotte Betts-Dean joins them for Katy Abbott’s work.
From the Hungry Waiting Country
Three astounding works by Elliott Gyger are presented by Halcyon, featuring the thrilling voices of Jenny Duck-Chong and Alison Morgan with some of Australia’s best performers. Challenging music that rewards every listen, full of mystery and glistening textures, its narrative holds you to the end.
Compositions by Elliott Gyger 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.
Inspirations
They say there is nothing new under the sun. New works of art challenge this notion. In this piano recording by Ian Holtham, all the works, commissioned from his Melbourne composer colleagues, are responses to major works in the piano literature. Something new has arisen, phoenix-like, out of something old.
Mere Bagatelles
As an overview of Australian composition in the 90s, this CD could not be bettered: a musicianly survey of short piano works, with performances of real authority.
Elliott Gyger also appears on
The Edge
This music was written for an IMAX film about the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. The film concerns itself with the environment, the ancient Aboriginal presence and the recently discovered prehistoric Wollemi Pines.
Other credits
There Came a Wind like a Bugle: Chamber Music by Nigel Butterley
Chamber works spanning some thirty years by Nigel Butterley, one of Australia’s finest composers, for soloists, song and choir.