Anne Cawrse : Represented Artist
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Random Audio Sample: Parting Songs : for soprano, tenor and piano by Anne Cawrse, from the CD Musical images for piano |
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Photo: Emma Luker
Email:
Artist website: http://www.annecawrse.com/
Anne Cawrse is an award-winning Australian
composer of acoustic solo, chamber, orchestral and vocal
works.
Cawrse's music blends soaring, lyrical melodies, dexterous
rhythmic interplay and an unpredictably colourful harmonic
palette. She is particularly fond of discovering the expressive
musical potential hidden within the words of female writers.
Growing up in the small rural town of Freeling in South
Australia, Cawrse moved to Adelaide to pursue studies in
composition at the Elder Conservatorium of Music. In 2008 she
completed her PhD in Composition under the supervision of Graeme
Koehne and Charles Bodman Rae. Cawrse's penchant for text setting
has made her the most commissioned composer of the award-winning
Adelaide Chamber Singers (five commissions since 2005) and a
highly revered art song composer, with notable performances by
Greta Bradman, Lorina Gore, Emma Horwood, Robert Macfarlane, Kate
Macfarlane, Cheryl Pickering and Bethany Hill.
Cawrse is highly sought after as an orchestral
and chamber music composer, with major commissions from the
Adelaide and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras, the
Australian String Quartet, Plexus Ensemble, the Adelaide Wind
Orchestra, the Benaud Trio and the Zephyr Quartet. Her first
opera, Innocence, was developed with Singular
Productions and the State Opera Company of South Australia with
support from an Arts SA Major Commission grant. Suite from
Innocence was premiered in June 2021 by the Adelaide
Symphony Orchestra at 'She Speaks', a mini-festival curated by
Anne which celebrated female composers.
Most recent awards include the 2021 APRA/Australian Music Centre
Art Music Award for Chamber Work of the Year for A Room of
Her Own (Australian String Quartet), the South Australian
Luminary Award for sustained contributions to composition and
education, and a 2022 Prelude Composer Residency. Previously,
Cawrse's choral work On Earth As In Heaven (Adelaide
Chamber Singers) received the South Australian State award at the
2018 Art Music Awards, and her orchestral work
Musaic (Melbourne Symphony Orchestra) was a finalist in
the 2008 awards. She is the recipient of numerous awards and
grants, including the Bishop Memorial Commission, the Momentum
III Covid-19 Sue W Special Commission and the inaugural Women in
Music commission.
Meaningful musical collaborations include works
for Katie Noonan's vocal quartet AVE, guitarist Alex Tsiboulski,
pianists Michael Ierace, Stefan Cassemenos and Leigh Harrold,
Sharon and Slava Grigoryan, and percussionist Claire Edwardes. A
favourite in new music circles in Adelaide, Cawrse gratefully
acknowledges the ongoing support of many of the preeminent music
organisations in her hometown. Alongside the aforementioned
groups, she has received multiple commissions from Various People
Inc., is a frequent contributor to the chamber music programs of
The Firm New Music Concert series, and has been regularly
performed by the Elder Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra.
Cawrse is a casual lecturer at the
Elder Conservatorium of Music in Adelaide. She has tutored
composition privately, at tertiary and senior secondary level,
and as part of the ASME Young Composer's Program (2015) and the
Australian Youth Orchestra's Composition program (2021 and
2022).
Anne Cawrse — current to June 2022
Awards & Prizes
Year | Award | Placing | Awarded for |
---|---|---|---|
2021 | Albert H Maggs Composition Award | First Prize | A Room of Her Own |
2021 | Art Music Awards: Work of the Year: Chamber Music | Winner | A Room of Her Own |
2018 | Art Music Awards: Work of the Year: Vocal/Choral | Finalist | On Earth as in Heaven |
2018 | Art Music Awards: State Awards | Winner: SA State Award | On Earth as in Heaven |
Selected Commissions
Work | Commission Details | |
---|---|---|
|
Dance Vignettes : for solo marimba (2021) | Commissioned with assistance from the APRA AMCOS Creative Recovery Fund, and the Modest Expectations Foundation |
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Grounded : for guitar and cello (2021) | Commissioned as part of the Momentum III Sue-W Covid-19 Special commissions |
|
Love Is Born : for wind orchestra (2021) | Commissioned by Adelaide Wind Orchestra. |
Fancy and Flight : marimba solo (2021) | Commissioned by Claire Edwardes with funds from APRA/AMCOS Creative Recovery Grant and the Modest Expectations Foundation | |
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Advice To A Girl : for soprano or mezzo soprano with piano trio (2021) | This arrangement made for 'Domestic Voices', part of 'She Speaks' (June 2021), presented by the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and the Elder Conservatorium of Music |
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A Gathering : SATB choir (2021) | Commissioned for program 1 of the Adelaide Chamber Singers 2021 season, 'Renewal' |