Ian Munro (pianist)
Encyclopedia
Ian Munro is an Australia
n pianist
, composer
, writer and music educator. His career has taken him to over 30 countries in Europe, Asia, North America and Australasia.
in 1963, and attended Scotch College
(1975–80) and the Victorian College of the Arts
(1981–83). His early piano training was in Melbourne with Rodney Hurst, Marta Rostas (a pupil of Béla Bartók
), Deirdre Vadas and Roy Shepherd (a pupil of Alfred Cortot
) and he had further study in Vienna
, London
and Italy
with Franz Zettl, Noretta Conci, Guido Agosti
and Michele Campanella
.
, he won the ABC Instrumental and Vocal Competition (now the ABC Young Performers Awards) in 1982. He won major prizes at the 1985 Maria Canals International Music Competition, the 1987 Leeds International Piano Competition
, the 1987 Vianna da Motta International Music Competition
and the 1987 Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition
in Italy.
His solo repertoire includes both rare and unusual works of the 19th and 20th centuries (such as those by his compatriots Katharine Parker
, Ernest Hutcheson
and Arthur Benjamin
) and he also has a special interest in new music. He has premiered or commissioned works by Peter Sculthorpe
, Elena Kats-Chernin
(her second piano concerto), Roger Smalley
, John Woolrich
, Andrew Ford
(The Waltz Book, a series of 60 waltzes lasting one minute each), Gordon Kerry, Ann Ghandar, Raffaele Marcellino, Ross Edwards
and Dmitri Yanov-Yanovsky, from whom he commissioned the piano cycle Silhouettes. These pieces were dedicated to significant 20th century composers such as Debussy
, Gershwin
, Ives
, Ravel
, Schnittke
, Stravinsky
– and John Cage
, which in true Cage style consisted of 33 seconds of silence.
During his time in Hobart he created and played a series of four recitals 'One Hundred Nineteens' in 1999, comprising one work from each year of the 20th century. In 2003, he performed a piano recital to an audience representing a wide range of Sydney
's music community, commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Bechstein
presence in Australia. He has over 40 piano concerti in his repertoire, which includes the standard repertoire as well as such pieces as Hans Werner Henze
's epic concerto Requiem. He has performed with all the major orchestras in Australia, as well as orchestras in New Zealand, the Czech Republic, Poland, Italy, Portugal, Russia, the USA, and China, and in the UK (the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia, English Chamber Orchestra, London Mozart Players, BBC Concert Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra). He has broadcast widely for the BBC.
Ian Munro has accompanied singers such as Gerald English
and Yvonne Kenny
. In chamber music he has appeared alongside artists such as Leslie Howard
, David Pereira
, Ruggiero Ricci
, Erich Gruenberg
, Daniil Shafran
, Oleh Krysa
, Krszysztof Smietana, Karina Georgian, Jane Manning
, the Australia Ensemble
, the Medici, Belcea and Goldner String Quartet
s, the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet, and the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra. He is a Director of Musica Viva Australia
and a member of the Artistic Committee of Chamber Music Australia.
Munro has a special interest in the music of Arthur Benjamin
as a result of meeting Benjamin's pupil Joan Trimble in 1990, and has recorded many of his little-known piano pieces. For his Benjamin recordings, he has also written a short biography of the composer, filling a serious gap in the literature. His other writings include a biography of Katharine Parker
.
Ian Munro has recorded a wide range of music for ABC Classics
, Hyperion
, Cala, Naxos
(including Marco Polo), Tall Poppies
and Alto. His recordings include his own realisations of some unfinished piano pieces by Franz Schubert
; and Russell Gilmour's Keating
Tangos and Whitlam
Rags projects. Other composers represented in his recordings include Albéniz
, Arensky
, Don Banks
, Beethoven
, Lennox Berkeley
, Brahms
, Nigel Butterley
, Chopin
, Ross Edwards
, César Franck
, Gershwin
, Peggy Glanville-Hicks
, Stephen Heller
, Keith Humble, Adolf Jensen
, Gordon Kerry, Liszt
, Litolff
, David Lumsdaine
, Martinů
, Mendelssohn
, Mozart
, Jean Louis Nicodé
, Henryk Pachulski
, Katharine Parker
, Vincent Plush, Saint-Saëns
, Peter Sculthorpe
, Roger Smalley
, Zygmunt Stojowski
, Carl Vine
, Martin Wesley-Smith
, and Malcolm Williamson
. A recording of six concerti with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra for ABC Classics has been lost.
As festival director, he presided over the 'Pian' e Forte' piano festival in Hobart in 1997, during which seven recitals comprising the complete works for piano duet by Franz Schubert
were presented. In 2002 he directed the Domaine Chandon Yarra Valley Festival for Musica Viva.
between 1995 and 1999, then joined the staff at the University of New South Wales
and at the Australian National Academy of Music
. He has taught masterclasses in Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Thailand and for eleven consecutive years at the Dartington International Summer Festival
in the UK.
International Piano Competition, the 2003 Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition, the 2004 Symphony Australia
Young Performer of the Year Awards, the 2008 New Zealand Kerikeri National Piano Competition, and the 2008 Sydney International Piano Competition
.
for composers in Belgium
(2003), with his piano concerto Dreams, which then became a set piece for the twelve finalists in the piano section of that year's competition. The work was broadcast across Europe on radio and television, and was performed in Russia, although it has yet to receive a performance in Australia.
Being a parent himself, Ian Munro has an interest in music for children, as reflected in the Children's Concerto (1999) and Lucy's Book (1993–2006). Other works include Drought and Night Rain (2005), O Traurigkeit (2006), and Blue Rags (2005), which was nominated for the APRA
Orchestral Work of the Year 2006 and has been recorded for ABC Classics
. There is also a piano quintet called Divertissement sur le nom d'Erik Satie
(2006), telling the story of a day in the life of Satie. A piano trio, Tales from Old Russia was written in 2008. He is currently writing a song cycle for Elizabeth Campbell, a chamber symphony for the Australia Ensemble
and a piece for Richard Tognetti
and the Australian Chamber Orchestra
. He has also been commissioned to write two string quartets and a second piano quintet.
As well as commissioning rags from other composers, Ian Munro has written his own rags, such as Bad Girl Rag, dedicated to William Bolcom
.
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n pianist
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
, composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
, writer and music educator. His career has taken him to over 30 countries in Europe, Asia, North America and Australasia.
Biography
Ian Munro was born in MelbourneMelbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
in 1963, and attended Scotch College
Scotch College, Melbourne
Scotch College, Melbourne is an independent, Presbyterian, day and boarding school for boys, located in Hawthorn, an inner-eastern suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia....
(1975–80) and the Victorian College of the Arts
Victorian College of the Arts
The Faculty of the VCA and Music is a faculty of the University of Melbourne, in Victoria . VCAM is located near the Melbourne central business district, on two campuses, one - the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music - on the Parkville campus of the University of Melbourne, and the other - the...
(1981–83). His early piano training was in Melbourne with Rodney Hurst, Marta Rostas (a pupil of Béla Bartók
Béla Bartók
Béla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and is regarded, along with Liszt, as Hungary's greatest composer...
), Deirdre Vadas and Roy Shepherd (a pupil of Alfred Cortot
Alfred Cortot
Alfred Denis Cortot was a Franco-Swiss pianist and conductor. He is one of the most renowned 20th-century classical musicians, especially valued for his poetic insight in Romantic period piano works, particularly those of Chopin and Schumann.-Early life and education:Born in Nyon, Vaud, in the...
) and he had further study in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
with Franz Zettl, Noretta Conci, Guido Agosti
Guido Agosti
Guido Agosti was an Italian pianist and piano teacher.Agosti was born in Forlì in 1901. He studied piano with Ferruccio Busoni, Bruno Mugellini and Filippo Ivaldi, earning his diploma at age 13. He studied counterpoint under Benvenuti and literature at Bologna University. He commenced his...
and Michele Campanella
Michele Campanella
Michele Campanella is an Italian pianist who specialises in the music of Franz Liszt, and is also a conductor.Campanella was born in Naples in 1947. He won the Alfredo Casella Prize at age 19, after studying with Vincenzo Vitale...
.
Pianist
While studying at the Victorian College of the ArtsVictorian College of the Arts
The Faculty of the VCA and Music is a faculty of the University of Melbourne, in Victoria . VCAM is located near the Melbourne central business district, on two campuses, one - the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music - on the Parkville campus of the University of Melbourne, and the other - the...
, he won the ABC Instrumental and Vocal Competition (now the ABC Young Performers Awards) in 1982. He won major prizes at the 1985 Maria Canals International Music Competition, the 1987 Leeds International Piano Competition
Leeds International Pianoforte Competition
The Leeds International Piano Competition informally known as The Leeds takes place every three years in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was founded in 1961 by Marion, Countess of Harewood and Fanny Waterman, who is today its Chairman and Artistic Director. The competition was first held in 1963...
, the 1987 Vianna da Motta International Music Competition
Vianna da Motta International Music Competition
The Vianna da Motta International Music Competition was first constituted in 1957 in Lisbon in honor of José Vianna da Motta by his disciple Sequeira Costa, who remains its president; this inaugural edition was won by Naum Shtarkman. The competition, a member of the World Federation of...
and the 1987 Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition
Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition
The Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition is a music competition for young pianists that takes place in Bolzano, Italy.-History: The first Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition was organized by Cesare Nordio in 1949 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the death of pianist and...
in Italy.
His solo repertoire includes both rare and unusual works of the 19th and 20th centuries (such as those by his compatriots Katharine Parker
Katharine Parker
Katharine Parker was an Australian composer.Parker, was born Catherine Parker at Lake River near Longford, Tasmania. From 1904 to 1906 she studied for a diploma in Music in Melbourne. At the inaugural Australian Exhibition of Women's Work she won the Piano Solo Gold Medal...
, Ernest Hutcheson
Ernest Hutcheson
Ernest Hutcheson was an Australian pianist, composer and teacher.Hutcheson was born in Melbourne, and toured there as a child prodigy. He later travelled to Leipzig and entered the Leipzig Conservatorium at the age of fourteen to study with Carl Reinecke and Bernhard Stavenhagen, a pupil of Franz...
and Arthur Benjamin
Arthur Benjamin
Arthur Leslie Benjamin was an Australian composer, pianist, conductor and teacher. He is best known as the composer of Jamaican Rhumba, composed in 1938.-Biography:...
) and he also has a special interest in new music. He has premiered or commissioned works by Peter Sculthorpe
Peter Sculthorpe
Peter Joshua Sculthorpe AO OBE is an Australian composer. Much of his music has resulted from an interest in the music of Australia's neighbours as well as from the impulse to bring together aspects of native Australian music with that of the heritage of the West...
, Elena Kats-Chernin
Elena Kats-Chernin
Elena Kats-Chernin is an Australian composer.Elena Kats-Chernin was born in Tashkent , and migrated to Australia in 1975.-Europe:...
(her second piano concerto), Roger Smalley
Roger Smalley
Roger Smalley AM is a British-Australian composer, pianist and conductor. Professor Smalley is currently a Senior Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Western Australia in Perth and Honorary Research Associate at the University of Sydney.-Biography:Smalley was born in Swinton, Lancashire,...
, John Woolrich
John Woolrich
John Woolrich is a British composer. He was BBC Radio 3 'Composer of the Week' in March 2008, involving the broadcast of over 4 hours of his music in one week.-External links:**...
, Andrew Ford
Andrew Ford
Andrew Ford is an English and Australian composer, writer and radio presenter.He was Composer-in-residence with the Australian Chamber Orchestra , held the Peggy Glanville-Hicks Composer Fellowship from 1998 to 2000 and was awarded a two-year fellowship by the Music Board of the Australia Council...
(The Waltz Book, a series of 60 waltzes lasting one minute each), Gordon Kerry, Ann Ghandar, Raffaele Marcellino, Ross Edwards
Ross Edwards
Ross Edwards is a former Western Australian and Australian cricketer.Edwards played in 20 Tests for Australia, playing against England, West Indies and Pakistan. He also played in nine One Day Internationals including the 1975 Cricket World Cup series...
and Dmitri Yanov-Yanovsky, from whom he commissioned the piano cycle Silhouettes. These pieces were dedicated to significant 20th century composers such as Debussy
Claude Debussy
Claude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...
, Gershwin
George Gershwin
George Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known...
, Ives
Charles Ives
Charles Edward Ives was an American modernist composer. He is one of the first American composers of international renown, though Ives' music was largely ignored during his life, and many of his works went unperformed for many years. Over time, Ives came to be regarded as an "American Original"...
, Ravel
Maurice Ravel
Joseph-Maurice Ravel was a French composer known especially for his melodies, orchestral and instrumental textures and effects...
, Schnittke
Alfred Schnittke
Alfred Schnittke ; November 24, 1934 – August 3, 1998) was a Russian and Soviet composer. Schnittke's early music shows the strong influence of Dmitri Shostakovich. He developed a polystylistic technique in works such as the epic First Symphony and First Concerto Grosso...
, Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
– and John Cage
John Cage
John Milton Cage Jr. was an American composer, music theorist, writer, philosopher and artist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde...
, which in true Cage style consisted of 33 seconds of silence.
During his time in Hobart he created and played a series of four recitals 'One Hundred Nineteens' in 1999, comprising one work from each year of the 20th century. In 2003, he performed a piano recital to an audience representing a wide range of Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
's music community, commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Bechstein
C. Bechstein Pianofortefabrik
C. Bechstein Pianofortefabrik AG is a German manufacturer of pianos, established in 1853 by Carl Bechstein.-Before Bechstein:...
presence in Australia. He has over 40 piano concerti in his repertoire, which includes the standard repertoire as well as such pieces as Hans Werner Henze
Hans Werner Henze
Hans Werner Henze is a German composer of prodigious output best known for "his consistent cultivation of music for the theatre throughout his life"...
's epic concerto Requiem. He has performed with all the major orchestras in Australia, as well as orchestras in New Zealand, the Czech Republic, Poland, Italy, Portugal, Russia, the USA, and China, and in the UK (the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia, English Chamber Orchestra, London Mozart Players, BBC Concert Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra). He has broadcast widely for the BBC.
Ian Munro has accompanied singers such as Gerald English
Gerald English
Gerald English is an English-born Australian-resident tenor. He has performed operatic and concert repertoire, is a recording artist, and has been an academic....
and Yvonne Kenny
Yvonne Kenny
Yvonne Kenny AM is an Australian soprano, particularly associated with Handel and Mozart roles.Born in Sydney, she first studied at the University of Sydney in science, hoping to become a biochemist, but decided to pursue a career in music instead...
. In chamber music he has appeared alongside artists such as Leslie Howard
Leslie Howard (musician)
Leslie Howard AM is an Australian pianist and composer. He is best known for being the only pianist to have recorded the complete solo piano works of Franz Liszt, a project which included more than 300 premiere recordings...
, David Pereira
David Pereira
right|250pxDavid Pereira is an Australian classical cellist, considered one of the finest working today. He was Senior Lecturer in Cello at the Canberra School of Music from 1990-2008....
, Ruggiero Ricci
Ruggiero Ricci
Ruggiero Ricci is an Italian-American violinist known for performances and recordings of the works of Paganini. He was born in San Bruno, California. Ricci's brother was cellist and his sister Emma played violin with the New York Metropolitan Opera.He is the son of Italian immigrants. His...
, Erich Gruenberg
Erich Gruenberg
Erich Gruenberg is an Austrian-born British violinist and teacher.He was born in Vienna in 1924 and studied there and at the Jerusalem Conservatory. He led the Palestine Broadcasting Corporation Orchestra 1938-45. He has lived in London since 1946. In 1947 he won the International Carl Flesch...
, Daniil Shafran
Daniil Shafran
-Early years:Daniil Shafran was born in Petrograd in 1923. Even from before his birth he was surrounded by music. His mother and father were music students when he was born. His father, Boris Shafran, went on to be principal cellist of the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra and his mother, Frida...
, Oleh Krysa
Oleh Krysa
-Early life:Oleh Krysa was born in Uchanie, now Gmina Uchanie in the Lublin Voivodeship, Poland, into a family of Ukrainian aristocrats. In 1945, as a result of the so-called Operation Vistula, Oleh's family found itself in Lviv, where he grew up and spent his school years.Although none of the...
, Krszysztof Smietana, Karina Georgian, Jane Manning
Jane Manning
Jane Manning OBE is an English concert and opera soprano, writer on music, and Visiting Professor at the Royal College of Music. She has been described by one critic as "the irrepressible, incomparable, unstoppable Ms...
, the Australia Ensemble
Australia Ensemble
Australia Ensemble @UNSW is an Australian Chamber Group active since 1980.The group was founded after a proposal put to the University of New South Wales by musicologist Roger Covell and clarinettist Murray Khouri, then colleagues at the University. Since that time it has occupied a prominent...
, the Medici, Belcea and Goldner String Quartet
Richard Goldner
Richard Goldner was a Romanian-born, Viennese-trained Australian violist, pedagogue and inventor. He founded Musica Viva Australia in 1945, which became the world's largest entrepreneurial chamber music organisation. The Goldner String Quartet was named in his memory.-Biography:Richard Goldner...
s, the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet, and the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra. He is a Director of Musica Viva Australia
Musica Viva Australia
Musica Viva Australia is the oldest independent performing arts organisation in Australia and the world's largest entrepreneur of chamber music. It was formed in 1945 in Sydney by violist Richard Goldner...
and a member of the Artistic Committee of Chamber Music Australia.
Munro has a special interest in the music of Arthur Benjamin
Arthur Benjamin
Arthur Leslie Benjamin was an Australian composer, pianist, conductor and teacher. He is best known as the composer of Jamaican Rhumba, composed in 1938.-Biography:...
as a result of meeting Benjamin's pupil Joan Trimble in 1990, and has recorded many of his little-known piano pieces. For his Benjamin recordings, he has also written a short biography of the composer, filling a serious gap in the literature. His other writings include a biography of Katharine Parker
Katharine Parker
Katharine Parker was an Australian composer.Parker, was born Catherine Parker at Lake River near Longford, Tasmania. From 1904 to 1906 she studied for a diploma in Music in Melbourne. At the inaugural Australian Exhibition of Women's Work she won the Piano Solo Gold Medal...
.
Ian Munro has recorded a wide range of music for ABC Classics
ABC Classics
ABC Classics is the classical music record label within the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. It is internationally recognised as Australia's premier classical music label, with a catalogue of more than 500 titles...
, Hyperion
Hyperion Records
Hyperion Records is an independent British classical record label.-History:The company was named after Hyperion, one of the Titans of Greek mythology. It was founded by George Edward Perry, widely known as "Ted", in 1980. Early LP releases included rarely recorded 20th century British music by...
, Cala, Naxos
Naxos Records
Naxos Records is a record label specializing in classical music. Through a number of imprints, Naxos also releases genres including Chinese music, jazz, world music, and early rock & roll. The company was founded in 1987 by Klaus Heymann, a German-born resident of Hong Kong.Naxos is the largest...
(including Marco Polo), Tall Poppies
Tall Poppies Records
Tall Poppies Records is an Australian record label founded in September 1991 to present Australian music and musicians by musician and recording producer Belinda Webster. It records art music, both classical or jazz, and focuses on Australian music...
and Alto. His recordings include his own realisations of some unfinished piano pieces by Franz Schubert
Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
; and Russell Gilmour's Keating
Paul Keating
Paul John Keating was the 24th Prime Minister of Australia, serving from 1991 to 1996. Keating was elected as the federal Labor member for Blaxland in 1969 and came to prominence as the reformist treasurer of the Hawke Labor government, which came to power at the 1983 election...
Tangos and Whitlam
Gough Whitlam
Edward Gough Whitlam, AC, QC , known as Gough Whitlam , served as the 21st Prime Minister of Australia. Whitlam led the Australian Labor Party to power at the 1972 election and retained government at the 1974 election, before being dismissed by Governor-General Sir John Kerr at the climax of the...
Rags projects. Other composers represented in his recordings include Albéniz
Isaac Albéniz
Isaac Manuel Francisco Albéniz y Pascual was a Spanish Catalan pianist and composer best known for his piano works based on folk music idioms .-Life:Born in Camprodon, province of Girona, to Ángel Albéniz and his wife Dolors Pascual, Albéniz...
, Arensky
Anton Arensky
Anton Stepanovich Arensky -Biography:Arensky was born in Novgorod, Russia. He was musically precocious and had composed a number of songs and piano pieces by the age of nine...
, Don Banks
Don Banks
Donald Oscar Banks was an Australian composer of concert, jazz, and commercial music.He initially studied at the University of Melbourne, then moved to London where he studied with Mátyás Seiber...
, Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
, Lennox Berkeley
Lennox Berkeley
Sir Lennox Randal Francis Berkeley was an English composer.- Biography :He was born in Oxford, England, and educated at the Dragon School, Gresham's School and Merton College, Oxford...
, Brahms
Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
, Nigel Butterley
Nigel Butterley
Nigel Henry Cockburn Butterley AM is an Australian composer and pianist.-Life and career:Butterley learnt to play the piano at the age of five. He attended Sydney Grammar School, but as music wasn't taught at the school at that time, he also sought training from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music....
, Chopin
Frédéric Chopin
Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano"....
, Ross Edwards
Ross Edwards
Ross Edwards is a former Western Australian and Australian cricketer.Edwards played in 20 Tests for Australia, playing against England, West Indies and Pakistan. He also played in nine One Day Internationals including the 1975 Cricket World Cup series...
, César Franck
César Franck
César-Auguste-Jean-Guillaume-Hubert Franck was a composer, pianist, organist, and music teacher who worked in Paris during his adult life....
, Gershwin
George Gershwin
George Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known...
, Peggy Glanville-Hicks
Peggy Glanville-Hicks
Peggy Glanville-Hicks was an Australian composer.- Biography :Peggy Glanville-Hicks was born Melbourne in 1912. At age 15 she began studying composition with Fritz Hart in Melbourne...
, Stephen Heller
Stephen Heller
----Stephen Heller was a Hungarian composer and pianist whose career spanned the period from Schumann to Bizet, and was an influence for later Romantic composers.-Biography:...
, Keith Humble, Adolf Jensen
Adolf Jensen
Adolf Jensen was a German pianist, composer and music teacher, and was the brother of Gustav Jensen who was a violinist and composer.-Biography:...
, Gordon Kerry, Liszt
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
, Litolff
Henry Charles Litolff
Henry Charles Litolff was a piano virtuoso, composer of Romantic music and music publisher.Litolff was born in London, the son of a Scottish mother and an Alsatian father...
, David Lumsdaine
David Lumsdaine
David Lumsdaine is an Australian composer. He studied at the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music . He moved to England in 1952 and for a while shared a flat with fellow expatriate, the poet Peter Porter, with whom he collaborated on several projects including the cantata Annotations of...
, Martinů
Bohuslav Martinu
Bohuslav Martinů was a prolific Czech composer of modern classical music. He was of Czech and Rumanian ancestry. Martinů wrote six symphonies, 15 operas, 14 ballet scores and a large body of orchestral, chamber, vocal and instrumental works. Martinů became a violinist in the Czech Philharmonic...
, Mendelssohn
Felix Mendelssohn
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Barthóldy , use the form 'Mendelssohn' and not 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives ' Felix Mendelssohn' as the entry, with 'Mendelssohn' used in the body text...
, Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
, Jean Louis Nicodé
Jean Louis Nicode
Jean Louis Nicodé was a Prussian pianist, composer and conductor.He was born in Jersitz . He was initially taught by his father, an amateur violinist, pianist, conductor and composer...
, Henryk Pachulski
Henryk Pachulski
Henryk Pachulski was a Polish pianist, composer and teacher who spent most of his life in Russia....
, Katharine Parker
Katharine Parker
Katharine Parker was an Australian composer.Parker, was born Catherine Parker at Lake River near Longford, Tasmania. From 1904 to 1906 she studied for a diploma in Music in Melbourne. At the inaugural Australian Exhibition of Women's Work she won the Piano Solo Gold Medal...
, Vincent Plush, Saint-Saëns
Camille Saint-Saëns
Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns was a French Late-Romantic composer, organist, conductor, and pianist. He is known especially for The Carnival of the Animals, Danse macabre, Samson and Delilah, Piano Concerto No. 2, Cello Concerto No. 1, Havanaise, Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, and his Symphony...
, Peter Sculthorpe
Peter Sculthorpe
Peter Joshua Sculthorpe AO OBE is an Australian composer. Much of his music has resulted from an interest in the music of Australia's neighbours as well as from the impulse to bring together aspects of native Australian music with that of the heritage of the West...
, Roger Smalley
Roger Smalley
Roger Smalley AM is a British-Australian composer, pianist and conductor. Professor Smalley is currently a Senior Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Western Australia in Perth and Honorary Research Associate at the University of Sydney.-Biography:Smalley was born in Swinton, Lancashire,...
, Zygmunt Stojowski
Zygmunt Stojowski
Zygmunt Denis Antoni Jordan de Stojowski was a Polish pianist and composer.-Life:Born near the city of Kielce, Stojowski began his musical training with his mother, and with Polish composer Władysław Żeleński. In Kraków, as a seventeen-year-old student, he made his debut as a concert pianist...
, Carl Vine
Carl Vine
Carl Vine is an Australian composer of contemporary classical music.-Career:Vine was born in Perth, Western Australia. When he was ten years old, he took up the piano. An adolescent encounter with Karlheinz Stockhausen inspired a period as a teenage modernist, a direction which he abandoned in 1985...
, Martin Wesley-Smith
Martin Wesley-Smith
Martin Wesley-Smith is an Australian composer with an eclectic output ranging from children's songs to environmental events. He works in a range of musical styles, including choral music, operas, computer music, music theatre, chamber and orchestral music, and audiovisual pieces which bring words,...
, and Malcolm Williamson
Malcolm Williamson
Malcolm Benjamin Graham Christopher Williamson AO , CBE was an Australian composer. He was the Master of the Queen's Music from 1975 until his death.-Biography:...
. A recording of six concerti with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra for ABC Classics has been lost.
As festival director, he presided over the 'Pian' e Forte' piano festival in Hobart in 1997, during which seven recitals comprising the complete works for piano duet by Franz Schubert
Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
were presented. In 2002 he directed the Domaine Chandon Yarra Valley Festival for Musica Viva.
Teacher
Ian Munro headed the piano department at the Tasmanian Conservatorium of MusicTasmanian Conservatorium of Music
The Tasmanian Conservatorium of Music forms part of the faculty of Arts at the University of Tasmania. It is a music training institution with courses and specializations in classical and contemporary music, music education, technology and composition....
between 1995 and 1999, then joined the staff at the University of New South Wales
University of New South Wales
The University of New South Wales , is a research-focused university based in Kensington, a suburb in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia...
and at the Australian National Academy of Music
Australian National Academy of Music
The Australian National Academy of Music is Australia's centre of excellence responsible for training the country's finest young musicians. Located in the South Melbourne, Victoria, it is a member of the Australian Roundtable for Arts Training Excellence...
. He has taught masterclasses in Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Thailand and for eleven consecutive years at the Dartington International Summer Festival
Dartington Hall
The Dartington Hall Trust, near Totnes, Devon, United Kingdom is a charity specialising in the arts, social justice and sustainability.The Trust currently runs 16 charitable programmes, including The Dartington International Summer School and Schumacher Environmental College...
in the UK.
Juror
He has been a juror on various competitions, including the 2003 Clara HaskilClara Haskil
Clara Haskil was a Romanian classical pianist, renowned as an interpreter of the classical and early romantic repertoire....
International Piano Competition, the 2003 Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition, the 2004 Symphony Australia
Symphony Australia
- Symphony Services International :Formerly Symphony Services Australia Limited , Symphony Services International has been orchestrating excellence for many years....
Young Performer of the Year Awards, the 2008 New Zealand Kerikeri National Piano Competition, and the 2008 Sydney International Piano Competition
Sydney International Piano Competition
The Sydney International Piano Competition of Australia is a music competition, presented by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in association with the University of Sydney and broadcast live throughout Australia. It is held every four years, over a three-week period in July-August, and is...
.
Composer
Ian Munro is the first and only Australian to win the Grand Prix at the Queen Elisabeth Music CompetitionQueen Elisabeth Music Competition
The Queen Elisabeth Music Competition, a founding member of the World Federation of International Music Competitions has been, since its foundation, considered the world over to be one of the most prestigious and most difficult. It is devoted to violin , piano , to composition and to singing...
for composers in Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
(2003), with his piano concerto Dreams, which then became a set piece for the twelve finalists in the piano section of that year's competition. The work was broadcast across Europe on radio and television, and was performed in Russia, although it has yet to receive a performance in Australia.
Being a parent himself, Ian Munro has an interest in music for children, as reflected in the Children's Concerto (1999) and Lucy's Book (1993–2006). Other works include Drought and Night Rain (2005), O Traurigkeit (2006), and Blue Rags (2005), which was nominated for the APRA
Australasian Performing Right Association
The Australasian Performing Right Association is a copyright collective representing New Zealand and Australian composers, lyricists and music publishers. The association's head offices located in Sydney Australia, and it has branch offices in Auckland, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth...
Orchestral Work of the Year 2006 and has been recorded for ABC Classics
ABC Classics
ABC Classics is the classical music record label within the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. It is internationally recognised as Australia's premier classical music label, with a catalogue of more than 500 titles...
. There is also a piano quintet called Divertissement sur le nom d'Erik Satie
Erik Satie
Éric Alfred Leslie Satie was a French composer and pianist. Satie was a colourful figure in the early 20th century Parisian avant-garde...
(2006), telling the story of a day in the life of Satie. A piano trio, Tales from Old Russia was written in 2008. He is currently writing a song cycle for Elizabeth Campbell, a chamber symphony for the Australia Ensemble
Australia Ensemble
Australia Ensemble @UNSW is an Australian Chamber Group active since 1980.The group was founded after a proposal put to the University of New South Wales by musicologist Roger Covell and clarinettist Murray Khouri, then colleagues at the University. Since that time it has occupied a prominent...
and a piece for Richard Tognetti
Richard Tognetti
Richard Leo Tognetti, AO is an Australian violinist, composer and conductor. He is currently Artistic Director and Leader of the Australian Chamber Orchestra and Artistic Director of the Maribor Festival in Maribor, Slovenia....
and the Australian Chamber Orchestra
Australian Chamber Orchestra
The Australian Chamber Orchestra was founded by cellist John Painter in 1975. Richard Tognetti was appointed Lead Violin in 1989 and subsequently appointed Artistic Director....
. He has also been commissioned to write two string quartets and a second piano quintet.
As well as commissioning rags from other composers, Ian Munro has written his own rags, such as Bad Girl Rag, dedicated to William Bolcom
William Bolcom
William Elden Bolcom is an American composer and pianist. He has received the Pulitzer Prize, the National Medal of Arts, two Grammy Awards, the Detroit Music Award and was named 2007 Composer of the Year by Musical America. Bolcom taught composition at the University of Michigan from 1973–2008...
.
APRA Awards
- 2008APRA Awards of 2008The Australasian Performing Right Association Awards of 2008 are a series of awards which include the APRA Music Awards, Classical Music Awards, and Screen Music Awards. The APRA Music Awards ceremony occurred on 16 June at the Sydney Hilton, they were presented by APRA and the Australasian...
Outstanding Contribution by an Individual APRA AwardAPRA AwardsThe APRA Music Awards are several award ceremonies run in Australia and New Zealand by Australasian Performing Right Association to recognise songwriting skills, sales and airplay performance by its members annually....
win for "contribution to Australian performance and composition in 2007", was presented by Australasian Performing Right AssociationAustralasian Performing Right AssociationThe Australasian Performing Right Association is a copyright collective representing New Zealand and Australian composers, lyricists and music publishers. The association's head offices located in Sydney Australia, and it has branch offices in Auckland, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth...
and Australian Music CentreAustralian Music CentreThe Australian Music Centre fosters the development of an Australian music community by providing specialist support to its membership of performers, composers, sound artists, educators, students, and music specialists across Australia and throughout the world.The AMC is the Australian national...
(AMC).