Martin Cheney
Founder of AWO and Composer extraordinaire
Martin is a composer, music theatre lecturer, repetiteur, pit orchestra pianist, music director, and writer. He graduated from the Elder Conservatorium with First Class Honours in Music Education (Most Outstanding Graduate, 2009) and is currently awaiting the final examination of his thesis for a PhD in Composition. Martin joined the teaching staff of the Bachelor of Music Theatre in 2020.
Martin is primarily a composer of wind orchestra, choral and chamber works. He co-founded the Adelaide Wind Orchestra in 2012 in which he played soprano/alto saxophone until 2018. AWO has performed and recorded a number of Martin’s pieces, including Auguries of Innocence (with the Graduate Singers) in 2019, and the World Premiere of Tangent: symphony for wind orchestra in 2021.
Most recently, Martin was one of the mentor composers for the 2022 ReClassified music festival under the leadership of renowned Australian composer Anne Cawrse, alongside Rachel Bruerville and David John Lang. In 2023, he will be composing his first film score. Martin is represented in Australia by Matt Klohs Music and internationally by Murphy Music Press, LLC. Martin is also a published Arts writer and critic who publishes on his own website, Sharp Four Reviews, has by-lines at the Australian online film magazine FilmInk, and recently began contributing for CutCommon.
You can find some of Martin's work for purchase here:
Connor Fogarty
Inaugural winner of the AWO Composition Contest
Pieces performed by AWO - Three Landscapes (2019), Oboe Concerto (2022), Symphony (2023)
Connor Fogarty is an emerging composer based in Adelaide. He recently graduated with a PhD in music composition from the University of Adelaide where he was tutored by Professor Graeme Koehne and Professor Charles Bodman Rae. He has written music for soloists, chamber groups, choir and both wind and symphony orchestra, as well as for film and theatre. His music has been performed and recorded by ensembles such as the Australian String Quartet, Australian Youth Orchestra, Adelaide Wind Orchestra, Elder Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra, Elder Conservatorium Wind Orchestra, Elder Music lab, Adelaide Horn Jam, and St. Peter’s Cathedral Choir. He has also won several awards for his work, including the 2019 Adelaide Wind Orchestra’s Inaugural Composers’ Competition, the 2020 Artology Fanfare Competition, and the 2020/21 Accompanist’s Guild of South Australia Composers’ Competition. A recent highlight of his career was the premiere performance of his Oboe Concerto by the Adelaide Wind Orchestra with soloist, Celia Craig.
Jodie Blackshaw
AWO has performed 'Twist','The Bitter and the Sweet', and 'Symphony No.1 : Leunig's Prayerbook'.
AWO was a part of the commissioning project which produced the composition, 'Symphony No.1 Leunig's Prayerbook'.
Dr. Jodie Blackshaw (b. 1971) grew up in the south-east of rural Australia and formed a very personal relationship with music early in life through the creative application of her imagination to musical colours and movement. Today, she continues to seek creative experiences for students through her teaching and composing so they, too, may enjoy the personal relationship she discovered in her formative years.
In 2020 Blackshaw completed her PhD in Composition with Dr. Christopher Sainsbury at the Australian National University. In addition to composing and presenting music education workshops, Blackshaw is passionate about fostering equality in concert programs, including schools. In 2018 she curated the website www.colourfullmusic.com to share diverse wind band programs created by leading conductors within the global wind music community. In 2022 Jodie was proudly elected onto the Board of WASBE (World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles).
In high demand internationally as a composer and clinician, Jodie has written extensively for apprenticing musicians and is fanatical about ensuring that the music they play enriches both the performer and creator in every student.
To find out more please visit: www.jodieblackshaw.com
Rachel Bruerville
In 2017, Rachel's work The Hildegard Concerto was performed by the Adelaide Wind Orchestra: a double concerto composed for siblings Samantha Webber (clarinet) and Daniel Webber (alto sax), conducted by Luke Dollman.
Rachel Bruerville (b. 1991) is an Australian composer, arranger, cellist, singer, and writer, who proudly calls Adelaide her home. Represented by the Australian Music Centre, she has held the position of Young Adelaide Voices' 2019/20 Composer in Residence, supported by a 2019 Carclew Fellowship.
Rachel was commissioned by the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra in partnership with CanDo4Kids, Access2Arts, Tutti Arts, and the City of Adelaide to compose a new work based on the Australian children's book Milli, Jack and the Dancing Cat by Stephen Michael King, which featured in the ASO's very first relaxed concert in June 2021, and at family concerts in October 2021. More composition highlights include the 2022 collaborative ‘Music For All’ project, The Nest, commissioned by Connecting the Dots in Music; a Sydney Opera House premiere with Young Adelaide Voices at the opening of the Gondwana World Choral Festival, July 2019; and being commissioned by The Hush Foundation for the 2018 ABC Classic album Collective Wisdom – music to reduce stress in children's hospital environments.
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In 2017, Rachel's work The Hildegard Concerto was performed by the Adelaide Wind Orchestra: a double concerto composed for siblings Samantha Webber (clarinet) and Daniel Webber (alto sax), conducted by Luke Dollman. Also for wind orchestra, Rachel was commissioned by the Western Australian Wind Symphony to compose The Colours of Light, which premiered in July 2022 at the Perth Concert Hall, conducted by Samuel Parry.
In her life as a performer, Rachel is a core member of the internationally acclaimed Adelaide Chamber Singers, and is active as a freelance cellist around Adelaide. She has sung solo with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and Paul Rissmann, presenting new work for children in the 2017, 2018, and 2022 Festivals of Learning.
Rachel is currently composing a cello and vocal score for the interactive theatre experience Guthrak, to be presented by Under the Microscope at the 2023 Dream Big Festival, Adelaide Festival Centre.
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Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rachelbruervillemusic
Instagram @rachelbruervillemusic
Anne Cawrse
The Adelaide Wind Orchestra has premiered two works by Cawrse – the 2018 Percussion concerto ‘Skin Metal Wood’ with Jamie Adam as soloist, and ‘Love is Born’ in 2021.
Composer Anne Cawrse is inspired by stories, art, nuance, and the fragility of the human condition. Based in Adelaide, she composes for orchestral, choral, and chamber groups, as well as solo instruments and voice. Commissions include works for the Australian String Quartet, the Benaud Trio, the Adelaide Chamber Singers, Sharon and Slava Grigoryan, Claire Edwardes, the Australian Vocal Ensemble, Bowerbird Collective, Adelaide Wind Orchestra, and the Melbourne and Adelaide
Symphony Orchestras. Her debut album ‘Advice to a Girl’ was released through ABC Classic in February 2022.
Recent awards include repeated recognition at the APRA/AMC Art Music Awards (two-time finalist in 2022 for Orchestral and Choral categories, and winner of Chamber Work of the Year and SA Luminary award in 2021), shortlisting for the Paul Lowin Orchestral Prize in 2022, the 2021 Albert H Maggs Award for composition, and a 2022 Prelude Composer Residency. In 2021 and 2022 she curated the ‘She Speaks’ Festival of Women Composers for the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra.
Cawrse is highly sought after as a composition teacher and mentor. Projects for 2023 include a Marimba Concerto for Claire Edwardes and the ASO, a Piano Trio for the Lyrebird Trio, and a new work for Arcadia Winds.
The Adelaide Wind Orchestra has premiered two works by Cawrse – the 2018 Percussion concerto ‘Skin Metal Wood’ with Jamie Adam as soloist, and ‘Love is Born’ in 2021.
Many of Anne’s works are available through the Australian Music Centre. For any other queries or information, please visit www.annecawrse.com