2014 Commissions

Recent compositions include “Song of The Virtues” for the Song Company (poetry by Chris Mansell), “28” for the NOISE, “Echo” for choreographer Amy Mauvan, “Morphic” for choreographer Sarah-Vyne Vassallo and DirtyFeet, “Seven Stations” for Halcyon and Chronology Arts. He has also worked with the Goldner Quartet and Alicia Crossley. Has been released on labels Vexations840, Hospital Hill and the New Music Network and has been released by Alicia Crossley independently. His music has been broadcast on ABC Classic FM, FineMusic FM, Eastside Radio, Fbi Radio, and stations in New Zealand and France. In 2014 he plans to complete his candidature for a Masters in Music (composition) at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music under supervision of Matthew Hindson. 

The piece performed by the Pemulwuy treble boys choir is in collaboration with Michelle Leonard and Moorambilla Festival

His pieces are popular choices for ensembles and conductors who enjoy new Australian works. They have been performed as far afield as Yorkminster and Southwark Cathedrals in the United Kingdom and at large choral events such as Boyz Bizz, Queensland and choral festivals in Mackay and Rockhampton.

Will also has a strong passion for music education and works full-time teaching classroom music and piano. He conducts a number of choirs from treble boys and changing voice men right through to adult community choirs. He sings regularly in Resonance of Birralee and Queensland Kodaly Choir and is honoured to be have been commissioned for the Pemulwuy National Male Voice Festival. 

Words by John O'Brien

Through the hush of my heart in the spell of its dreaming

Comes the song of a bush boy glad-hearted and free;

Oh, the gullies are green where the sunlight is streaming,   

And the voice of that youngster is calling to me.
It is calling to me with a haunting insistence,   

And my feet wander off on a hoof-beaten track,

Till I hear the old magpies away in the distance   

With a song of the morning that's calling me back.
It is calling me back, for the dew's on the clover   

And the colours are mellow on mountain and tree;

Oh, the gold has gone gray in the heart of the rover   

And the bush in the sunshine is calling to me.
It is calling to me, though the breezes are telling   

Gay troubadour tales to the stars as they roam;

For the tapers are lit in the humble old dwelling   

And the love that it sheltered is calling me home.
It is calling me home - but the white road lies gleaming   

And afar from it all must I tarry and. dree;

Just an echo far off, in the hush of my dreaming   

Annie Kwok was awarded her Bachelor of Music (Piano Performance) from the Adelaide University Elder Conservatorium, and her Graduate Bachelor of Education in Secondary Arts from the University of South Australia. Annie has been on staff with the South Australian Public Primary School’s Music Festival [2000-2004], Young Adelaide Voices [1999-2012], and Brighton Secondary Special Interest Music School [2004-2013]. At the beginning of this year, she accepted a teaching position at the Sydney Conservatorium High School. Her passion for choral excellence and the positive holistic development of her students inspired her to embark on a Master of Education in 2013. Her focus will be "The Power of Positive Interaction in the Teenage Choral Experience.”

Annie is truly excited by children’s and youth choirs, always inspired by their spirit, possibility and sound. She won the Open Composition section of the 2005 Young Composer’s Award and was the inaugural winner of the 2006 Gondwana Voices Composition Award. Her works have been performed in Adelaide, Toowoomba, Sydney, Melbourne + Brisbane as part of choral festivals such as the South Australian Public School’ Music Festival, ANCA Sing-Out, Choralfest and Pemulwuy, as well as being actively sought out for primary and secondary school music programs. She was the 2011-12 Composer-in-Residence for Young Adelaide Voices, composing works for the 6 choirs under the whimsical title of "Heart, Connection + Identity." Annie is delighted to be the Composer-in-Residence for the Sydney Children’s Choir in 2014.

The lyrics of this piece read like a love song; as meant for someone special. However, the original intent was for the words to be as an acknowledgement or personal “prayer” to each of the choristers to remind them of how essential, individual + valued they are. I was thinking about the fragility and beauty of the changing voice in parallel with the development of identity during the teenage years, and how surprising, challenging, and ultimately extraordinary a journey it can be. These words are to remind us, and the choristers, of how unique they are.

“No two snowflakes are alike in formation, each made individual and unique. And while the universe may draw them on the same journey, each takes a different path. Perfectly imperfect, exquisite and beautiful.” [Unknown author]

Sherelle Eyles was awarded her Bachelor of Music with First-Class Honours from the University of Sydney having studied performance with Neta Maughan and Pamela Page, and Australian music studies with composers Peter Sculthorpe, Ross Edwards and Anne Boyd. She won a scholarship to the Royal College of Music London where she passed her Master of Music degree and Postgraduate Performance Diploma with distinction. In London, she studied piano performance and piano accompaniment with many internationally recognized performers including Irina Zaritskaya, Geoffrey Parsons and Robert Tear (Royal Opera House London) and was selected from international auditions to attend the Britten-Pears School for Advanced Musical Studies, studying Wolf Lieder with repetiteur Martin Isepp (Metropolitan Opera, New York). She has performed as part of the Park Lane Group Young Artists’ Recitals at Royal Festival Hall London where she gave the London premiere of Sculthorpe’s Simori, was a finalist in the Royal Overseas League Competition London, as well as being guest artist with the Swedish Helios Quartet performing Timothy Salter’s Piano Quintet at the Fast Forward Contemporary Music Festival London. - See more at: http://www.sherelleeyles.com/about-us/#sthash.EjSbuG6p.dpuf

Sherelle has lectured at the University of Queensland in music history and compositional techniques, and at national conferences, and has adjudicated eisteddfods and prizes. She has given numerous Pre-Concert Talks for The Queensland Symphony Orchestra and Queensland Philharmonic Orchestra and has reviewed classical concerts for The Courier Mail. Sherelle composes children’s choral pieces that have been performed by children’s choirs across Australia, several of which are published in Mark O’Leary’s Young Voices of Melbourne Choral Series. Her choral songs have been sung at Out of the Box Festival, Brisbane 2012­; The State Choral Festival of Victoria, 2011; The Next Generation Sings Festival, Gold Coast 2012; and Young Voices Choral Festival; and have won first prize in the Under 12s Championships at the National Choral Eisteddfod, Canberra 2012. Further performances include Junior Gondwana (Sydney Children’s Choir) at the Summer Music Camps, January 2013; and chosen set choral piece of the National Choral Eisteddfod, Canberra, 2013 and the Western Australia Massed Choirs Festival 2014; and she has been commissioned by Brisbane Grammar School for the Pemulwuy Male Voice Festival 2014. 

Daniel Brinsmead (b. 1988) is a graduate of the School of Music at the Australian National University where he received a Bachelor of Music with Honours for performance studies in Classical Voice.  His choral compositions and arrangements have been performed by school, university, community and professional choirs in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia.  He was selected as 1 of 8 winners from 918 worldwide entries to record his composition Come Sleep for the Abbey Road Anthem Competition in 2011 to celebrate the studio’s 80th anniversary.  This recording was conducted and performed by Eric Whitacre and his singers.  Since then he has been featured as the composer-in-residence at Border Music Camp and has been invited to conduct his music across Australia. 

Daniel is the choir master of several choirs in Canberra, Australia, a singing and piano tutor, baritone soloist, accompanist, composer, arranger and orchestrator.