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Background
In 1986 Chris Sainsbury won the
Australian Young Composer award for his Jubilant Overture
performed by the ABC Sinfonia at Sydney Town Hall. Also in 1986
his work Horizons was premiered by the Queensland Orchestra
under conductor Richard Mills, in their New Music series. Then in
1987 the Australian Chamber Orchestra under concertmaster Carl Pini
commissioned and premiered his Homage (to T.S Eliot) for
Strings, which was also performed under the subsequent director
Richard Tognetti, and in 1988 the Nouveaux Singers gave repeat
performances of his Cantata Voyage of the Endeavour at
the World Expo Brisbane. Sainsbury highlights:
“The
beginnings of my career were huge in an Australian
context”.
Sainsbury then spent the 1990's
teaching and raising a young family, something he considers crucial
to his music-making. In this time he further honed his skills by
writing much for his own ensemble A Band Called Bouddi (an
'El Cimmaron' line-up). He directed this group from the guitar.
They performed in local venues and festivals around his native
Gosford City on the beautiful Central Coast, north of
Sydney.
And
Then Bigger Things
Guitarists around the world
hail Sainsbury as one of the few contemporary composers who
actually extend them. His ground-breaking work The Luthier -
Concerto for Guitar (composed in 2001) was premiered by Spanish
virtuoso Jose Maria Gallardo del Rey at the Australian Guitar
Festival, Darwin in 2002.
“Truly a fantastic
piece”… Adrian Walter, Artistic Director of the
Festival.
"A whole new language in
guitar music" ... Jose Maria Gallardo del Rey, Spanish virtuoso
and soloist for the premier performance.
Sainsbury conceived the work as
a concerto for the contemporary guitar, not the classical guitar.
And in this piece he established a more personal approach to
orchestration, specifically an orchestration that is subject
driven.
In 2007 as Composer in
Residence with the Gosford City Conservatorium and Orchestra he
wrote the substantial Symphony of the Birds, a work which
uses local bird song as the material for the whole work. He
says, “This work means a lot to me as these birds have been
‘singing me' for years".
And in 2009 during rehearsals
for the premiere of Bushfire – a Concerto for Cor anglais and
Strings the local ranges began to burn. This was written for
Sydney soloist Rachel Tolmie and the Central Coast Concertante
Ensemble. This is a work that explores his 'melod-ercussion', being
bush thumps, scratches, scrapes and bumps with inherent pitch.
"With melod-ercussion you are essentially writing with timbre and
texture". This piece required a new technique of prepared fingers
for the string players. The response?
"This is one of those rare
pieces that connects sound with a place in a beautiful and
meaningful way. It's very real, and I was deeply moved" ...
Robert lloyd, Composer.
In 2009 a Sydney philanthropist
sponsored the recording of his Wellbeing Clarinet
Concertino (from 1993) with the Millenium Symphony
USA.
Sainsbury has also received
frequent invitations and commissions from many and diverse
ensembles and Festivals throughout the world. These include works
for the Newcastle Bi-Centennial Authority and the Blue Mountains
New Music Festival commissioned by Michael Hannan (Sculthorpe
author, composer and pianist), music theatre work (Mudrooroo's
Aboriginal Protestors) for the Sydney and Weimar Festivals
(Performance Space Productions), works for the ground-breaking Duo
Bosgraaf-Elias (Holland) staged throughout Europe and Australia and
for Levande Musik (Sweden), works for specific ABC radio broadcasts
for Australian guitarist Ken Murray (Guitar Lecturer Melbourne
University), and many more.
Visit the Sounds and Scores page to hear sounds and the List
of Works or Current Work for more information.
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