Brett Dean

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Brett Dean (born October 23, 1961 in Brisbane ) is an Australian composer , violist and conductor .

Life

Dean studied in Brisbane and was a member of the Berliner Philharmoniker from 1985 to 1999 . He then decided to work as a freelancer. He currently lives in Berlin, but can be seen as a composer and musician on many concert stages around the world.

Dean is married to the painter Heather Betts and often performs with his brother, the clarinetist Paul Dean .

Honors

Dean's Clarinet Concerto Ariel's Music (1995) received an award from the International Rostrum of Composers of the UNESCO International Music Council in 1999, Winter Songs for tenor and wind quintet received the Paul Lowin Song Cycle Prize in 2001; The same award went to the string quartet with soprano And once I played Ophelia in 2016 . Moments of Bliss for orchestra was named Best Composition at the 2005 Australian Classical Music Awards. In 2002/03 Dean was Artist in Residence with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Composer in Residence at the Cheltenham Festival , 2007/08 Artist in Residence with the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra of the SWR ; He is also an Honorary Doctor of Griffith University in Brisbane and Artistic Director of the Australian National Academy of Music in Melbourne . He received the Grawemeyer Award for “Musical Composition 2009” for his violin concerto The Lost Art of Letter Writing and the Stoeger Prize 2010–2011 for his chamber music work. In 2010 he received the Sir Bernard Heinze Memorial Award for his services to Australian music . His opera Hamlet , premiered in 2017 at Glyndebourne Festival Opera , was named "World Premiere of the Year" at the 2018 International Opera Awards and received the South Bank Sky Arts Award.

Compositions

Dean's first own works date from 1988 - in addition to arrangements, he first created radio and film music and participated in improvisation projects. In the meantime there are numerous works, especially in the genres of orchestral, chamber music and solo concerts. Dean's best-known work is Carlo, inspired by Gesualdo's music , for strings, sampler and tape. His opera Bliss - based on a novel by Peter Carey - premiered in March 2010 at the Sydney Opera House ; Conducted by Simone Young , the work opened the 2010/2011 season at the Hamburg State Opera .

Typical of Dean's compositional style are dynamized sound surfaces that arise from a fabric of differentiated rhythmic individual voices; extremes are often designed, from blaring outbursts to inaudibility. Characteristic is the use of modern, sometimes noisy playing techniques with usually classical instruments, but often with large percussion and enriched with everyday objects. Many works are inspired by non-musical ideas (literature, paintings, current affairs), often they convey a socio-political message; environmental destruction is the theme in Water Music and Pastoral Symphony , or the upheavals of the modern information society are thematized in Vexations and Devotions .

Works

stage

  • One of a Kind - Ballet in three acts for cello solo and tape (1998)
  • Bliss - Opera (2010)
  • Hamlet - Opera (2013-2016), world premiere 2017, Glyndebourne ,

orchestra

  • Carlo - music for strings, sampler and tape (1997)
  • Beggars and Angels Music for Orchestra (1999)
  • Amphitheater - scene for orchestra (2000)
  • Etude festival for string orchestra with piano off-stage (2000)
  • Game over for instrumental solos, 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)
  • Party Congress - 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, based on the original version for 12 violas (2008)
  • Between the spaces in the sky (In Memoriam Richard Hickox) for string orchestra (2011)
  • Fire Music for orchestra (2011)
  • Angel wing for orchestra (2013), also version for woodwinds, brass and percussion
  • Music of Memory for string orchestra (2016)
  • Approach for two solo violas and instruments (2017)

Solo concerts

  • Nobody Just Talks for viola and piano, composed with Simon Hunt (1987)
  • Don´t Wake Mother - miniature for piano (1991)
  • 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)
  • The Siduri Dances - music for flute (or saxophone) solo and string orchestra (2007)
  • Electric Preludes for e-violin and strings (2011–2012)
  • Dramatis personae for trumpet and orchestra (2013)
  • Cello Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra (2018)

Chamber and ensemble music

  • Fledermaus Overture by Johann Strauss , arr. For octet (1988)
  • Turning time (Homage to FC) for 5 violas (1988)
  • some birthday ... for 2 violas and cello (1992)
  • Night Window - Music for clarinet, viola and piano (1993)
  • Till Eulenspiegel's funny pranks by Richard Strauss , arr. For octet (1995)
  • Twelve Angry Men for 12 cellos (1996)
  • Voices of Angels for strings and piano (1996)
  • Intimate Decisions for viola solo (1996)
  • Night's Journey for 4 trombones (1997)
  • Three Pieces for Eight Horns (1998)
  • hundreds and thousands for playback (1999)
  • Winter Songs for tenor and wind quintet (2000)
  • Huntington Eulogy for cello and piano (2001)
  • Testament for 12 violas (2002)
  • Eclipse for string quartet (2003)
  • Three Caprichos after Goya for guitar solo (2003)
  • Equality for piano (with spoken text) (2004)
  • Demons for flute solo (2004), also version for soprano saxophone
  • Prayer for piano (with spoken text) (2005)
  • Recollections for Ensemble (2006)
  • Polysomnography - music for piano and wind quintet (2007)
  • Dream Sequence - Music for Ensemble (2008)
  • String Quintet (2009)
  • Sextet (Old Kings in Exile) (2010)
  • Berlin Music for violin and piano (2010)
  • Epitaphs for string quintet (2010)
  • Sketches for Siegbert for viola solo (2011)
  • String Quartet No.2 ("And once I played Ophelia") with soprano (2013)
  • Eleven weird strategies for solo cello (2014)

Choir

  • Katz und Spatz for eight-part mixed choir (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 Australian aborigines (2002)
  • Vexations and Devotions for choirs and large orchestra (2005)
  • Now Comes the Dawn for mixed choir (2007)
  • The Annunciation for four- to twelve-part choir and small orchestra (2011/12)

singing

  • Buy Now, Pay Later! by Tim Freedman, arr. for voice and ensemble (2002)
  • Sparge la morte for cello solo, 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)
  • The Last Days of Socrates for bass baritone, choir and orchestra (2012)
  • From Melodious Lay (A Hamlet Diffraction) for soprano, tenor and orchestra (2016)

literature

  • Berliner Philharmoniker: Variations with Orchestra - 125 Years of the Berliner Philharmoniker , Volume 2, Biographies and Concerts, Verlag Henschel, May 2007, ISBN 978-3-89487-568-8

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Brett Dean in: Australian Music Center
  2. ↑ Brett Dean awarded 2010 Sir Bernard Heinze Memorial Award on the University of Melbourne website
  3. ^ True history of the Bliss gang ( Memento from December 30, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) by Matthew Westwood, in: The Australian from March 6, 2010
  4. ↑ Gina Thomas: "Hamlet" in Glyndebourne: Shakespeare, freshly squeezed, without seeds . In: FAZ . June 15, 2017. Retrieved July 4, 2017 .
personal data
SURNAME Dean, Brett
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Australian composer, conductor and violist
DATE OF BIRTH October 23, 1961
PLACE OF BIRTH Brisbane