Graham Hair
Born in Geelong, composer Graham Hair has received numerous commissions from such organisations as Duo Contemporain and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1990 he took up the position of Gardiner Professor at the University of Glasgow.
Since 2000, Graham Hair has divided his time between Scotland, Australia and the United States. During this time he has been Professor of Music at Glasgow University and Visiting Professor at Monash, ANU and Radford, and has conducted several composition and performance projects in Boston.
He became Professor Emeritus toward the end of 2008, after which he continued research projects in all three countries, including an ARC-funded project on aspects of microtonal music based in Wollongong and an empirical musicology project (using scientific methods to investigate aspects of musical performance) based in Glasgow University's Engineering School and funded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Aspects of his research are documented at the Network for Interdisciplinary Studies in Science, Technology and Music.
Most of his music over the last twenty years has been for women's voices, accompanied by harp, piano, percussion, duo, string quartet, ensemble or orchestra, including the ensembles Scottish Voices (which he directs), Halcyon (Sydney), Pandora's Vox (Boston) and Mockingbirds (San Francisco). More information about them is available on Scottish Voices.
His orchestral piece Into the Shores of Light (inspired by poems of Australian poet Mark O'Connor) was released by ERM in Virginia in 2007. Since 1990 he has been based in Glasgow. Before that he was Head of Composition at the Sydney Conservatorium (1980–1990), and taught at La Trobe University (1975–1980). He was born in Geelong in 1943.
Compositions by Graham Hair 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.
The Hands the Dream
Sydney pianist Daniel Herscovitch specialises in contemporary repertoire. This debut disc presents solo piano works he has chosen by six Australian composer colleagues.
Other credits
Australian Cello
Sydney-based Danish cellist Georg Pedersen’s first solo disc centres on three major Australian works for solo cello by Banks, Kos and Whitehead. The Kos and Whitehead pieces were written especially for him.