Classical Music
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Matt Withers: Plenty of Pluck

Keen to raise the profile and expand the repertoire of the classical guitar, Matt Withers formed the Australian Music Composition Competition, and has recorded the 2018 winning works on a new album.

January 23, 2019
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From One Performer to Another: Sally Whitwell

The ARIA Award-winning pianist and composer wants you to broaden your horizons a little every day. I don’t know who coined the term Portfolio Career. Did they want a more glamorous term than freelancing, contracting or muddling along? Whatever you choose to call it, it’s the way that most classical musicians now work. For me, it’s juggling a combination of recording contracts, occasional recitals, commissions to compose new works, some arranging, some choral conducting, a little chamber music, a small teaching studio, and lots and lots of accompanying. It’s a busy life, sometimes complicated, always stimulating and varied, but crucially, it’s a sound vocationally strategy based on having multiple skills at your disposal. If you’re considering becoming a professional classical musician, there are certain skills that will keep you employable and thus help to put you in situations where you feel appropriately challenged. Do your theory homework every day. Every single day as a working musician, I use skills I learnt in theory classes. Having the ability to read a score, hear it in my head and understand how it works without even approaching an instrument or a recording is the most valuable skill in my arsenal. Don’t let your…

March 7, 2016