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Brett Dean (born 23 October 1961 in Brisbane
Brisbane

Brisbane is the state List of Australian capital cities of Queensland and its most populous city. It is also the List of cities in Australia by population in Australia, behind southern rivals Sydney and Melbourne....
) is a contemporary Australia
Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
n composer
Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, usually in the medium of musical notation, for interpretation and performance. The level of distinction between composers and other musicians varies, which affects issues such as copyright and the deference given to individual interpretations of a particular piece of music....
, violist
Viola

The viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.The casual observer may mistake the viola for the violin because of their similarity in size, closeness in pitch range , and nearly identical playing position....
 and conductor
Conducting

Conducting is the act of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. Orchestras, choirs, concert bands and other musical ensembles often have conductors....
.

1985 to 1999, Dean was a violist in the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2000, he decided to pursue a career as a freelance artist and returned to Australia. As a composer and musician, he is a regularly invited guest to many professional concert stages around the world.

He is Artistic Director of the Australian National Academy of Music
Australian National Academy of Music

The Australian National Academy of Music is a performance training venue for young musicians located in South Melbourne, Victoria. It is a member of the Australian Roundtable for Arts Training Excellence....
 in Melbourne
Melbourne

Melbourne is the more common name for the geographic region and Census in Australia of the Greater Melbourne metropolitan area. It is the second List of cities in Australia by population in Australia, with a population of approximately 3.8 million and serves as the List of Australian capital cities of Victoria ....
.

Dean is married to painter Heather Betts and often performs together with his brother, the clarinet
Clarinet

The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The name derives from adding the suffix -et meaning little to the Italian word clarino meaning a particular type of trumpet, as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet....
 player Paul Dean.

’s clarinet concerto Ariel’s Music won an award from the UNESCO
UNESCO

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations established on 16 November 1945....
 International Rostrum of Composers
International Rostrum of Composers

The International Rostrum of Composers is an annual forum organized by the International Music Council that offers broadcasting representatives the opportunity to exchange and publicize pieces of contemporary classical music....
 in 1995.






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Brett Dean (born 23 October 1961 in Brisbane
Brisbane

Brisbane is the state List of Australian capital cities of Queensland and its most populous city. It is also the List of cities in Australia by population in Australia, behind southern rivals Sydney and Melbourne....
) is a contemporary Australia
Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
n composer
Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, usually in the medium of musical notation, for interpretation and performance. The level of distinction between composers and other musicians varies, which affects issues such as copyright and the deference given to individual interpretations of a particular piece of music....
, violist
Viola

The viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.The casual observer may mistake the viola for the violin because of their similarity in size, closeness in pitch range , and nearly identical playing position....
 and conductor
Conducting

Conducting is the act of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. Orchestras, choirs, concert bands and other musical ensembles often have conductors....
.

Life

From 1985 to 1999, Dean was a violist in the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2000, he decided to pursue a career as a freelance artist and returned to Australia. As a composer and musician, he is a regularly invited guest to many professional concert stages around the world.

He is Artistic Director of the Australian National Academy of Music
Australian National Academy of Music

The Australian National Academy of Music is a performance training venue for young musicians located in South Melbourne, Victoria. It is a member of the Australian Roundtable for Arts Training Excellence....
 in Melbourne
Melbourne

Melbourne is the more common name for the geographic region and Census in Australia of the Greater Melbourne metropolitan area. It is the second List of cities in Australia by population in Australia, with a population of approximately 3.8 million and serves as the List of Australian capital cities of Victoria ....
.

Dean is married to painter Heather Betts and often performs together with his brother, the clarinet
Clarinet

The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The name derives from adding the suffix -et meaning little to the Italian word clarino meaning a particular type of trumpet, as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet....
 player Paul Dean.

Honours

Dean’s clarinet concerto Ariel’s Music won an award from the UNESCO
UNESCO

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations established on 16 November 1945....
 International Rostrum of Composers
International Rostrum of Composers

The International Rostrum of Composers is an annual forum organized by the International Music Council that offers broadcasting representatives the opportunity to exchange and publicize pieces of contemporary classical music....
 in 1995. Winter Songs for tenor and wind quintet received the Paul Lowin Song Cycle Prize in 2001; Moments of Bliss for orchestra was named Best Composition at the Australian Classical Music Awards
APRA Awards

The APRA Awards are several award ceremonies run in Australia and New Zealand by Australasian Performing Right Association to recognise songwriting skills, sales and airplay performance by its members annually....
 in 2005. In 2002–2003, Dean was artist in residence with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra

The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is an orchestra based in Melbourne, Australia.Melbourne has the longest continuous history of orchestral music of any Australian city and the MSO is the oldest professional orchestra in Australia....
 and composer in residence at the Cheltenham Festival
Cheltenham Festival

The Cheltenham Festival is the most prestigious meeting in the National Hunt racing calendar in the United Kingdom and has race prize money second only to the Grand National....
. In 2007–2008, he became artist in residence with the Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR
Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra

The Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra is an orchestra based in Stuttgart in Germany. The ensemble was founded in 1945 by USA occupation authorities as the orchestra for Radio Stuttgart, under the name Sinfonieorchester von Radio Stuttgart ....
.

He has been awarded an honorary doctorate
Honorary degree

An honorary degree or a degree honoris causa is an academic degree for which a university has waived the usual requirements . The degree itself is typically a doctorate or, less commonly, a master's degree, and may be awarded to someone who has no prior connection with the institution in question....
 from Griffith University
Griffith University

Griffith University is a public university based on the Gold Coast, Queensland and in Brisbane, Australia. The total enrolment is 31,000 undergraduate students and 6000 postgraduate students....
 in Brisbane.

On 1 December 2008, he was awarded the 2009 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition
Grawemeyer Award (Music Composition)

The Grawemeyer Award for Music Composer is an annual prize instituted by H. Charles Grawemeyer, industrialist and entrepreneur, at the University of Louisville in 1984....
 for his violin concerto, The Lost Art of Letter Writing.

Works


General

Dean began composing in 1988 initially focusing on experimental film and radio projects as well as improvisational performance. Since then, he has created numerous compositions, mainly orchestral or chamber music
Chamber music

Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber....
 as well as concerto
Concerto

The term Concerto usually refers to a three-part musical work in which one solo instrument is accompanied by an orchestra. The concerto, as understood in this modern way, arose in the Baroque period side by side with the concerto grosso, which contrasted a small group of instruments with the rest of the orchestra....
s for several solo instruments. His most successful work is Carlo for strings, sample and tape, inspired by the art of Gesualdo
Carlo Gesualdo

Carlo Gesualdo, known as Gesualdo da Venosa , Prince of Venosa and Count of Conza, was an Italian music composer, lutenist and nobleman of the late Renaissance music....
. His most important project at present is the opera Bliss based on the novel
Bliss (novel)

Bliss is a novel by Australian writer Peter Carey . Published in 1981, the book won that year's Miles Franklin Award.Written as a dark, comic fable, the story concerns an advertising executive, Harry Joy, who briefly 'dies' of a myocardial infarction....
 by Peter Carey
Peter Carey

Peter Philip Carey is an Australian novelist and short story writer. He is one of only two writers, the other being J. M. Coetzee, to have won the Man Booker Prize twice....
. On 7 September 2008 his new work Polysomnography for wind quintet and piano will receive its world premiere at the Lucerne Festival; on 2 October 2008 Simon Rattle
Simon Rattle

Sir Simon Denis Rattle, Order of the British Empire, Royal Society of Arts, is an England Conducting. He rose to prominence as conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and is currently principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic ....
 will conduct the first performance of the orchestral song cycle Songs of Joy in Philadelphia.

Dean's compositional style is known for creating dynamic soundscapes and treating single instrumental parts with complex rhythms. He shapes musical extremes, from harsh explosions to inaudibility. Modern playing techniques are as characteristic for his style as an elaborate percussion
Percussion instrument

A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound by being hit with an implement, shaken, rubbed, scraped, or by any other action which sets the object into vibration....
 scoring, often enriched with objects from everyday life. Much of Dean’s work draws from literary, political or visual stimuli, transporting a non-musical ‘message’. Environmental problems are the subject of Water Music and Pastoral Symphony, while Vexations and Devotions deal with the absurdities of a modern society obsessed with information.

List of compositions


Stage
  • One of a Kind – Ballet in three acts for solo cello and tape (1998)
  • Bliss – Opera (2004ff.)


Orchestra
  • Carlo – Music for strings, sampler and tape (1997)
  • Beggars and Angels Music for orchestra (1999)
  • Amphitheatre – Scene for orchestra (2000)
  • Etüdenfest for string orchestra with off-stage piano (2000)
  • Game over for instrumental soloists, string orchestra and electronics (2000)
  • Pastoral Symphony for chamber orchestra (2000)
  • Dispersal for orchestra (2001)
  • Shadow Music for small orchestra (2002)
  • Between Moments – Music for orchestra, in memory of Cameron Retchford (2003)
  • Ceremonial for orchestra (2003)
  • Moments of Bliss for orchestra (2004)
  • Parteitag – Music for orchestral groups and video (2004/05)
  • Short Stories – Five interludes for string orchestra (2005)
  • Komarov’s Fall for orchestra (2005/06)
  • Testament – Music for orchestra, after version for 12 violas (2008)


Concertos
  • Ariel’s Music for clarinet and orchestra (1995)
  • Viola Concerto (2004)
  • Water Music for saxophone quartet and chamber orchestra (2004)
  • The Lost Art of Letter Writing for violin and orchestra (2006) - based on four significant 19th century letters, including Brahms's love letter to Clara Schumann
    Clara Schumann

    Clara Josephine Wieck was a German musician, one of the most distinguished pianists of the Romantic music, as well as a composer. Her prestige — she became known as "the high priestess of music" — exerted over a 61-year concert career, changed the format and repertoire of the piano concert and the tastes of the listening publi...
  • The Siduri Dances for solo flute and string orchestra (2007)


Chamber music
  • Fledermaus
    Die Fledermaus

    Die Fledermaus is an operetta composed by Johann Strauss II to a German language libretto by Carl Haffner and Richard Gen?e....
    -Overture     by Johann Strauß
    Johann Strauss II

    Johann Strauss II was an Austrian composer famous for having written over 500 waltzes, polkas, March , and galops. He was the son of the composer Johann Strauss I, and brother of composers Josef Strauss and Eduard Strauss....
    , arr. for octet (1988)
  • Wendezeit (Homage to F.C.) for 5 violas (1988)
  • some birthday… for 2 violas and cello (1992)
  • Night Window – Music for clarinet, viola and piano (1993)
  • Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche by Richard Strauss
    Richard Strauss

    Richard Georg Strauss was a German composer of the late Romantic music and early modern eras, particularly of operas, Lieder and tone poems. Strauss was also a prominent Conducting....
    , arr. for octet (1995)
  • Twelve Angry Men for 12 cellos (1996)
  • Voices of Angels for strings and piano (1996)
  • Intimate Decisions for solo viola (1996)
  • Night’s Journey for 4 trombones (1997)
  • Three Pieces for Eight Horns (1998)
  • hundreds and thousands for tape (1999)
  • Huntington Eulogy for cello and piano (2001)
  • Testament for 12 violas (2002)
  • Eclipse for string quartet (2003)
  • Three Caprichos after Goya for solo guitar (2003)
  • Equality for piano (with speaking part) (2004)
  • Demons for solo flute (2004)
  • Prayer for piano (with speaking part) (2005)
  • Recollections for ensemble (2006)
  • Polysomnography – Music for piano and wind quartet (2007)


Choral
  • Katz and Spatz for eight-part mixed chorus (1999/2002)
  • Bell and Anti-Bell (From Parables, Lullabies and Secrets) for children’s choir and small orchestra (2001)
  • Tracks and Traces – Four Songs for children’s choir, based on texts by indigenous Australians (2002)
  • Vexations and Devotions for choirs and large orchestra (2005)
  • Now Comes the Dawn for mixed chorus (2007)


Vocal
  • Winter Songs for tenor and wind quintet (2000)
  • Buy Now, Pay Later! by Tim Freedman
    Tim Freedman

    Tim Freedman is the lead singer and pianist of the Australian band The Whitlams. He was born in Sydney and was raised in Collaroy, New South Wales, in Sydney's Northern Beaches region, and was educated at the prestigious Shore School in North Sydney, New South Wales....
    , arr. for voice and ensemble (2002)
  • Sparge la morte for solo cello, vocal consort and tape (2006)
  • Poems and Prayers for mezzo-soprano and piano (2006)
  • Wolf-Lieder for soprano and ensemble (2006)
  • Songs of Joy for baritone and orchestra (2008)


External links