Visitors to Australia are astounded to find that in Australia, First Nations cultures and musics are denigrated, neglected, tokenised and buried in a flood of foreign music shows. When they come to Australia they see foreign music prioritised, honoured, and… Continue reading

After The Song Company’s successful September – October 2022 tour of Songs from the Heart received rave reviews from Classikon’s Pepe Newton and Sydney Arts Guide’s Lynne Lancaster, The Song Company’s live recording of the Cell Block Theatre production (with… Continue reading

I originally composed Kaouwi Two Children Cooee as a simple children’s song. The transliterated word Cooee comes from the Dharug Aboriginal language, the First Contact Australian Aboriginal language of the place the English renamed Sydney, the Country of the Dharug-speaking… Continue reading

At Newcastle’s Christ Church Cathedral on 29 September 2022, The Song Company premiered Songs from the Heart, a mainstage program of twenty four SSAATTBB choral responses to the 2017 Uluru Statement from the Heart from three Australian First Nations composers… Continue reading

. . . Ngarra Burria . . . to listen to sing . . . Continue reading

https://the.song.company/reviews/songs-from-the-heart-2022 The Song Company’s upcoming Songs from the Heart tour in September-October 2022, with commissioned music by Sonya Holowell and myself, and two co-composed pieces from Anmatjere Arrernte singer singwriter Rhubee Neale, is designed as a musical interface between Australia’s… Continue reading

In March 2021 Dr. Sally Walker, a flute lecturer at the Australian National University, commissioned me to rearrange the third movement of my Kooranginy Suite (2017) for flute and harp. My rearrangement was performed by harpist Emily Granger and flautist… Continue reading

Today I attended an ANU Music School Postgraduate Zoom Seminar, to hear brilliant Australian flautist Sally Walker speaking about her wide ranging work as a performer, conference presenter, music teacher and author. Sally’s versatile performance repertoire includes early music, flute… Continue reading

It seems that the ongoing Coranavirus pandemic has woken Australians up to the important role that local community and country based music can play, in maintaining human mental health and community peace. Dreaming, performing, and paying attention to community music… Continue reading

As Australia comes to terms with COVID-19 protocols, musicians and composers are working out how to “do” music online. This photo of the first Ngarra Burria concert at Eora Aboriginal College in 2017, shows how Australian Indigenous and immigrant origin… Continue reading

In 1788 the British arrived in Australia, bringing European music with them. Attempts were made – in bungling, unsuccessful ways – to connect with the Dharug speaking tribes they encountered. As Aboriginal hunting grounds were stolen, and disease decimated the… Continue reading