ClassicalQueer podcast August 2021

I was lucky enough to be a guest on ClassicalQueer's Podcast with Sammi Jane Smith & Jacob Caines.

I got the chance to talk about my music, my practice as a musician and programmer, and talk about the queer threads that influence my creativity.

ClassicalQueer is a space to highlight the lives of 2SLGBTQ artists working in the classical arts. CQ interviews musicians, poets, theatre workers, administrators, conductors, dancers, and anyone else that has an interesting story. Be sure to check out their Facebook and Instagram, and below is a link to all their other awesome podcasts.

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A composer a week: Elisabeth Lutyens

Elisabeth Lutyens has held an important place in my musical heart since I was quite young. I first heard about her in an interview with the composer Alison Bauld on Andrew Ford’s The Music Show. Alison talked about her time studying with Lutyens, and I think they played a piece of hers. I think they also mentioned that Elisabeth had worked with Dylan Thomas, who I was obsessed with in high school. I sought out some of Elisabeth’s music - a tricky thing to do with very few recordings around of it and not a lot of acknowledgment of her in musicological writing of the time.

She had an amazing career across a number of musical areas, putting her tense, extreme style to some very well done horror movie scores.

I tracked down this interview with her with the BBC in 1970, speaking some great truths about the discussion around female composers and the choice we’ve made to be a composer, and entitlement that can follow an artist.

As I mentioned, her work is a little hard to find, especially in Australia. I doubt many of her works have been performed here. She also seems to get a bad wrap because of her introduction of the 12 tone method to the UK and the sour reaction people have to this music.

Works of Elisabeth’s I would recommend would be the 2nd Chamber Horn Concerto & Quincunx.

A composer a week: Thea Musgrave

I’ve always loved Thea Musgrave’s music. I discovered her music through her fantastic Horn Concerto, written for the late amazing Barry Tuckwell. I heard it probably in the late 90s, on Andrew Ford’s stalwart, The Music Show.

Her idea of “dramatic abstract” has been really influential on my work, and her exploration of the individual against the crowd, in her operas and concertos, has been really influential on my work. One example I’ve explored and been kind of obsessed with is the amazing moment in the Horn Concerto where the 8 Horn players of the orchestra go around the auditorium and the room is enveloped in the sound of the horn. It’s a really cool moment!

My suggested listening - Horn Concerto & Clarinet Concerto.

A composer a week: Elisabeth Lutyens

Elisabeth Lutyens has held an important place in my musical heart since I was quite young. I first heard about her in an interview with the composer Alison Bauld on Andrew Ford’s The Music Show. Alison talked about her time studying with Lutyens, and I think they played a piece of hers. I think they also mentioned that Elisabeth had worked with Dylan Thomas, who I was obsessed with in high school. I sought out some of Elisabeth’s music - a tricky thing to do with very few recordings around of it and not a lot of acknowledgment of her in musicological writing of the time.

She had an amazing career across a number of musical areas, putting her tense, extreme style to some very well done horror movie scores.

I tracked down this interview with her on the BBC in 1970, speaking some great truths about the discussion around female composers, the choice we’ve made to be a composer, and entitlement that can follow an artist.

As I mentioned, her work is a little hard to find, especially in Australia. I doubt many of her works have been performed here. She also seems to get a bad wrap because of her introduction of the 12 tone method to the UK and the sour reaction people have to this music.

Works of Elisabeth’s I would recommend would be the 2nd Chamber Horn Concerto & Quincunx.