Competition and Composition: New Music for Schools, a partnership between
Education Queensland and the Young Conservatorium Griffith University was the project that precipitated
the writing of the work. I wanted to 'give' the piece to schools to try to elicit some consideration of
new music for band and as part of the ongoing project that this was, to give new music to schools
through their participation in a competition where the prize was a new piece. I wrote the work while
artist in residence at the Taipei American School in early 2002.
Premiere
17th of November of 2002 at the Queensland Conservatorium NEW!
Concert at the South Bank Piazza.
Subsequent performances:
Western International Band Clinic, Seattle, Washington, USA - 24 November 2003
Taipei American School, Taipei, Taiwan - April 16 2010
Various school and community band performances related to inclusion on select repertoire lists
for contest and festival
Publisher
Brolga Music Publishing Company, Brisbane, Australia
www.brolgamusic.com in 2003
Recorded during October 2002 by the Conservatorium Wind Orchestra at the Queensland Conservatorium
Griffith University.
Responses/Outcomes
The work has been performed both in Australia and in the USA. The premiere in the USA was at the
Western International Band Clinic at Seattle, Washington on the 24th of November 2003. The verbal
responses have been considerate but modest in number. It has featured on festival lists around the
country (Music Fest - Queensland, Melbourne Schools Band Festival - Victoria).
Reflections
I like this piece very much. It has energy, quirkiness and a celebratory
mood about it. It mixes contemporary concert band scoring with both jazz and rock influences and the
hint of table and the West Indies or West Africa. I would like to do it with the vocal part I have
written as well. One day!