Making arrangements

Posted on Wednesday, March 9, 2011


Australian Chamber Orchestra	Mark Mandarano of Sinfonietta of Riverdale

There's something quite relaxing about making arrangements. Tidying up the final orchestration is always one of my favourite parts of the composing process, and doing an arrangement feels like composing, but with all the hard work removed.

This month the Australian Chamber Orchestra is touring a concert curated by the celebrated New Yorker critic Alex Ross which features a newly commissioned arrangement by me of two of John Dowland's laments, featuring mezzo Fiona Campbell. The show was to have played at the Sydney Opera House, which I was pretty excited about, but due to some last minute availability crises it will now get two outings at Sydney's City Recital Hall instead, as well as performances in Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane.

And for the 13th May, my friend Mark Mandarano has commissioned a new arrangement of Ravel's insanely beautiful Kaddisch (from Deux mélodies hébraïques) for his flourishing bronx-based ensemble, Sinfonietta of Riverdale.

Later in the year I'm also doing some new arrangements of Irish folk songs, together with a brand new commission for a stella line-up of musicians - clarinettist David Orlowsky and his trio, violinist Daniel Hope, and cellist Vincent Segal. That forms part of a program at the Mecklenburg Vorpommern festival in Northern Germany. More on that later.

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