William Barton (musician)
Encyclopedia
William Barton is an Australia
n Aboriginal
didgeridoo
player. He was born in Mount Isa, Queensland
on 4 June 1981. and learned to play from his uncle, an elder of the Wannyi, Lardil and Kalkadunga tribes of Western Queensland
. He is widely recognised as one of Australia's finest traditional didgeridoo players and a leading didgeridoo player in the classical world.
"I'm doing what I love," Barton says. "I want to take the oldest culture in the world and blend it with Europe's rich musical legacy."
, playing for Aboriginal dance troupes. At the age of 15 he toured America, after which he decided he wanted to become a soloist rather than a backing musician and started to study different kinds of music. In 1998, he made his classical debut with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra
, and became Australia’s first didgeridoo artist in residence with a symphony orchestra.
William has since appeared at music festivals around the world and has also recorded a number of orchestral works. He featured in Peter Sculthorpe
’s Requiem, a major work for orchestra, chorus and didgeridoo, which premiered the Adelaide Festival of Arts
in 2004 with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra
and Adelaide Voices conducted by Richard Mills
. This was reputedly the first time a didgeridoo has featured in a full symphonic work. The work has since been performed in the UK at The Lichfield Festival
with The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
and Birmingham's acclaimed choir Ex Cathedra
, conducted by Jeffrey Skidmore
.
In May 2004 ABC Classics released Songs Of Sea and Sky an Album of works by Peter Sculthorpe revised for didgeridoo and orchestra. Performed by William Barton and the Queensland Orchestra conducted by Michael Christie, this album was nominated for Best Classical Album at the ARIA Music Awards of 2004
.
In 2005 Barton performed at the 90th Anniversary Gallipoli
at ANZAC Cove
, Turkey, and in debut concerts with the London Philharmonic Orchestra
at Royal Festival Hall in London.
In 2005/2006 Barton collaborated with orchestras, choral directors and composers in Australia, America and Europe, developing new commissions for the didgeridoo.
William Barton has been featured on the ABC television program, Australian Story
.
He was jointly selected with pianist Tamara Anna Cislowska
for the prestigious 2004 Freedman Fellowship for Classical Music by the Music Council of Australia
.
In 2004 he was awarded the Brisbane
Lord Mayor's Young and Emerging Artists' Fellowship, and the following year he was a Metropolitan Finalist for the Suncorp Young Queenslander of the Year Award.
Nominated in the ARIA Music Awards of 2004
for Best Classical Album with ABC Classics recording Songs of Sea and Sky by composer Peter Sculthorpe with conductor Michael Christie and The Queensland Orchestra.
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n Aboriginal
Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....
didgeridoo
Didgeridoo
The didgeridoo is a wind instrument developed by Indigenous Australians of northern Australia around 1,500 years ago and still in widespread usage today both in Australia and around the world. It is sometimes described as a natural wooden trumpet or "drone pipe"...
player. He was born in Mount Isa, Queensland
Mount Isa, Queensland
-Culture and sport:The local theatre group, the Mount Isa Theatrical Society, or MITS, often holds plays and musicals, at least once every few months or so....
on 4 June 1981. and learned to play from his uncle, an elder of the Wannyi, Lardil and Kalkadunga tribes of Western Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
. He is widely recognised as one of Australia's finest traditional didgeridoo players and a leading didgeridoo player in the classical world.
"I'm doing what I love," Barton says. "I want to take the oldest culture in the world and blend it with Europe's rich musical legacy."
Biographical details
Taught to play the digeridoo from an early age by aboriginal elders, by the age of 12 William Barton was working in SydneySydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, playing for Aboriginal dance troupes. At the age of 15 he toured America, after which he decided he wanted to become a soloist rather than a backing musician and started to study different kinds of music. In 1998, he made his classical debut with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra
Queensland Symphony Orchestra
The Queensland Symphony Orchestra is an Australian orchestra, based principally in Brisbane in the state of Queensland.The QSO played its first concert on 26 March 1947, with the orchestra consisting of 45 musicians, conducted by Percy Code. John Farnsworth Hall was recruited from the Sydney...
, and became Australia’s first didgeridoo artist in residence with a symphony orchestra.
William has since appeared at music festivals around the world and has also recorded a number of orchestral works. He featured in Peter Sculthorpe
Peter Sculthorpe
Peter Joshua Sculthorpe AO OBE is an Australian composer. Much of his music has resulted from an interest in the music of Australia's neighbours as well as from the impulse to bring together aspects of native Australian music with that of the heritage of the West...
’s Requiem, a major work for orchestra, chorus and didgeridoo, which premiered the Adelaide Festival of Arts
Adelaide Festival of Arts
The Adelaide Festival of Arts is an arts festival held biennially in the South Australian capital of Adelaide. Although locally considered to be one of the world's greatest celebrations of the arts, that is internationally renowned and the pre-eminent cultural event in Australia, it is actually...
in 2004 with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra
Adelaide Symphony Orchestra
The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra was founded as a 17 player radio ensemble in 1936, in Adelaide, South Australia. The orchestra reformed in 1949 as the 55 member South Australian Symphony Orchestra. It reverted to its original and present title, the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, in late 1974, and...
and Adelaide Voices conducted by Richard Mills
Richard Mills
Richard John Mills AM, DMus BA Qld, is an Australian conductor and composer. He currently works as Artistic Director of the West Australian Opera and Artistic Consultant with Orchestra Victoria...
. This was reputedly the first time a didgeridoo has featured in a full symphonic work. The work has since been performed in the UK at The Lichfield Festival
The Lichfield Festival
The Lichfield Festival is an annual multi-art-form festival held in Lichfield, Staffordshire, which aims to combine high quality, challenging and diverse events of an international calibre, alongside community-based, locally-sourced activities. Performances include drama, dance, film, literature,...
with The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra is a British orchestra based in Birmingham, England. The Orchestra's current chief executive, appointed in 1999, is Stephen Maddock...
and Birmingham's acclaimed choir Ex Cathedra
Ex Cathedra
Ex Cathedra is a British choir and early music ensemble based in Birmingham in the West Midlands, England. It performs choral music spanning the 15th to 21st centuries, and regularly commissions new works....
, conducted by Jeffrey Skidmore
Jeffrey Skidmore
Jeffrey Skidmore is the conductor and artistic director of Ex Cathedra, a choir and early music ensemble based in Birmingham in the West Midlands, England...
.
In May 2004 ABC Classics released Songs Of Sea and Sky an Album of works by Peter Sculthorpe revised for didgeridoo and orchestra. Performed by William Barton and the Queensland Orchestra conducted by Michael Christie, this album was nominated for Best Classical Album at the ARIA Music Awards of 2004
ARIA Music Awards of 2004
The 18th Annual Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards were held on 17 October 2004 at the Sydney Superdome within the Sydney Olympic Complex...
.
In 2005 Barton performed at the 90th Anniversary Gallipoli
Gallipoli
The Gallipoli peninsula is located in Turkish Thrace , the European part of Turkey, with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles straits to the east. Gallipoli derives its name from the Greek "Καλλίπολις" , meaning "Beautiful City"...
at ANZAC Cove
Anzac Cove
Anzac Cove is a small cove on the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey. It became famous as the site of World War I landing of the ANZAC on April 25, 1915. The cove is a mere long, bounded by the headlands of Ari Burnu to the north and Little Ari Burnu, known as Hell Spit, to the south...
, Turkey, and in debut concerts with the London Philharmonic Orchestra
London Philharmonic Orchestra
The London Philharmonic Orchestra , based in London, is one of the major orchestras of the United Kingdom, and is based in the Royal Festival Hall. In addition, the LPO is the main resident orchestra of the Glyndebourne Festival Opera...
at Royal Festival Hall in London.
In 2005/2006 Barton collaborated with orchestras, choral directors and composers in Australia, America and Europe, developing new commissions for the didgeridoo.
William Barton has been featured on the ABC television program, Australian Story
Australian Story
Australian Story is a national weekly documentary series, produced and broadcast on ABC Television.Since 1996 Australian Story has featured many Australians from diverse backgrounds and reputations...
.
Awards
In 2003 William Barton served as the first Artist-in-Residence with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, the first appointment of an indigenous musician to an Australian symphony orchestra.He was jointly selected with pianist Tamara Anna Cislowska
Tamara Anna Cislowska
Tamara Anna Cislowska is an Australian concert pianist and chamber musician. She has performed across most of the world, including the United States, United Kingdom, Italy, Japan, Germany, Colombia, Greece, The Netherlands and Poland, and has associated with the Philharmonia, the London...
for the prestigious 2004 Freedman Fellowship for Classical Music by the Music Council of Australia
Music Council of Australia
The Music Council of Australia is a national peak music organisation for Australia. It is the official Australian representative to the UNESCO world peak music organization, the International Music Council , Paris...
.
In 2004 he was awarded the Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
Lord Mayor's Young and Emerging Artists' Fellowship, and the following year he was a Metropolitan Finalist for the Suncorp Young Queenslander of the Year Award.
Nominated in the ARIA Music Awards of 2004
ARIA Music Awards of 2004
The 18th Annual Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards were held on 17 October 2004 at the Sydney Superdome within the Sydney Olympic Complex...
for Best Classical Album with ABC Classics recording Songs of Sea and Sky by composer Peter Sculthorpe with conductor Michael Christie and The Queensland Orchestra.
Discography
- Songs of Sky and Sea by Peter Sculthorpe with conductor Michael Christie and The Queensland Orchestra ABC Classics (2004)
- Earth Cry / Piano Concerto / Kakadu by Peter Sculthorpe, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra Naxos.
- Journey compositions for solo didgeridoo, self released
- Requiem by Peter Sculthorpe, a major work for orchestra, chorus and didgeridoo, with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. ABC Classics (2006)
- Concerto for Didgeridoo by William Barton and Sean O'Boyle (composer)Sean O'Boyle (composer)Sean O'Boyle is an Australian composer and conductor.His River Symphony was performed by the Queensland Orchestra and released on ABC Classics in 2007 on a CD that also included Concerto for Didgeridoo composed with and recorded by William Barton...
. ABC Classics (2007)