Last Blues:
Continuum Sax and Match Percussion.
Building upon a previous collaboration with Match
Percussion, this concert features the world premiere of
Brian Howard’s Last Blues, an ambitious and
intriguing score for violin, saxophones and percussion
inspired by a poem by Cesare Pavese. Match
Percussion and Continuum Sax will be joined by the
inspiring violinist Natsuko Yoshimoto and conducted by
Roland Peelman. This concert will be presented by the New
Music Network in its 2010 concert series.
Program:
Damien Ricketson: New work for saxophone Quartet
Albert Ayler: The Truth is Marching In - Improvisation for
sax quartet and percussion
Brian Howard: Last Blues for solo violin, saxophone quartet
and percussion duo
Personnel:
Continuum Sax
MATCH Percussion: Daryl Pratt and Alison Pratt
Violin: Natsuko Yoshimoto
Conductor: Roland Peelman
Stage
Requirements:
Extensive Percussion Set Up
12 Music Stands
Premiere Performance: Scheduled for August 2010.
Associate
Artist Biographies:
Match Percussion
Daryl Pratt is a percussionist and Chair
of the Percussion Unit at The Sydney Conservatorium of
Music since 1991. He also teaches in the Composition and
Jazz Units and conducts the Modern Music Ensemble.
Pratt’s broad musical background has an emphasis in
contemporary ‘classical’ music and jazz. His
most recent creative project involves compositions and
performances with MATCH Percussion, a duet he founded with
his wife Alison Pratt in 2001. Since formation they have
embarked on tours in Australia and the USA and released the
CD Water Settings (Tall Poppies, 2005). His career includes
numerous solo, chamber and orchestral recordings on labels
such as ABC, Lovely, Naxos, CRI, Rufus Records, EFA,
VoxAustralis, Fleur de Son Classics, and Tall Poppies. His
compositions for percussion are featured on the Tall
Poppies CD Pratt’s Alchemy. Other compositions
include works for chamber ensemble and voice.
Pratt was a member of Sonor, directed by Bernard Rands
(1977-1984), co-founded Pipeline with Simone deHaan
(1987-1995) was a member of The Australia Art Orchestra,
director Paul Grabowsky, (1994-2001), AtmaSphere, with
David Jones (1991-) and The Chad Wackerman Group (1997-).
In the early 1990s he formed the electric Jazz group Sonic
Fiction and released CDs between 1993 and 1997 on Tall
Poppies and NAXOS.
Alison Pratt
Perth born and educated Alison Pratt (nee Eddington) has
been working as a free-lance percussionist since 1990. With
a BMUS in Performance from WA Conservatorium - Edith Cowan
University, and a Graduate Diploma in Performance from The
Sydney Conservatorium of Music, she was the first
percussionist to win the ABC Young Performer of the Year in
1995. In 1996 Alison won the Arts category in Western
Australia for the Young Australian of the Year. In 2000 she
was awarded a Grant from the Australia Council and studied
for six months at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm
with Anders Loguin, Artistic Director of the Kroumata
percussion ensemble.
Alison performs with Australia’s leading orchestras
and ensembles including The Sydney Symphony Orchestra, The
Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra, The Australian
Chamber Orchestra, The Seymour Group, The Song Company and
The Australian Art Orchestra. Alison has performed and
toured in North America, Europe and Asia with Graham
Murphy’s Sydney Dance Company since the creation of
‘Free Radicals’ in 1996, a work featuring three
percussionists. She has been a member of Synergy Percussion
since 1997 and is a founding member of MATCH Percussion
with Daryl Pratt. Alison has appeared on television for the
ABC and has recorded with The Sydney Symphony Orchestra,
The Song Company, Match and Synergy. In 2002 she was the
featured soloist with the Western Australian Orchestra in
the Australian premier of Michael Torke’s percussion
concerto, ‘Rapture’.
Natsuko Yoshimoto
Natsuko has won many prizes in international competitions
including the Wieniawski, the Yehudi Menuhin and the Tibor
Varga and in 2007 she was presented with the Iwaki Award
for outstanding achievement as a Japanese artist. In great
demand as a soloist, she has appeared with many world
renowned orchestras including the London Symphony
Orchestra, Philharmonia (London), Halle Orchestra,
Odense Symphony (Denmark), Tokyo Symphony Orchestra,
Tokyo Philharmonic, Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa, Hong Kong
Sinfonietta and Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Natsuko has
appeared frequently at major international festivals
throughout Europe, U.S.A, Asia and Australia.
Natsuko is currently the concertmaster with the Adelaide
Symphony Orchestra and has given many world premieres of
works by Australia's most prominent composers and has
recorded for Virgin Classics, ABC Classics, Melba Records
and Tall Poppies. In 2001 she became the leader of
the Australian String Quartet and later the Grainger
Quartet in 2006.
Roland Peelman
Acclaimed musician of great versatility, Roland Peelman was
born in Flanders, Belgium and has been active in Australia
over 20 years as a conductor, pianist, artistic director
and mentor to composers, singers and musicians alike. He
has received numerous accolades for his long-standing
commitment to The Song Company and the creative arts in
Australia, receiving the NSW Award for “the most
outstanding contribution to Australian Music by an
individual’ in 2005. In 2006 he was named
‘musician of the year’ by music critic Fred
Blanks in the Sydney Morning Herald and again featured as
one of Sydney’s top twenty musicians at the end of
2007.
His overview and understanding of the music canon is unique
with a repertoire that includes the major classical works
and operas from Mozart to Gerswhin as well as the oeuvre by
Lassus, Monteverdi, Schütz, Purcell and Bach and much of
the new repertoire created overseas and in Australia.
He has worked with most orchestras in Australia and has
conducted an abundance of new work with specialist
ensembles such as Sydney Alpha, Libra and Ictus
(Belgium-Germany) and most recently, Ensemble Offspring.