“I started my journey at 27 and I became the music director for Warner Bros for all the theme parks. The job was based in QLD so I moved in 1993 with a cat and a pregnant wife. I hired 20 musicians and started work. I recorded heaps for them. I was doing concerts for the ABC which ended up leading to about 150 recordings from kids to country to jazz to symphonic repertoire. That led me to conduct the QLD Symphony which then led me to conduct all the other orchestras and working with great artists like James Morrison, Tommy Emmanuel, Kate Ceberano, the Whitlams and all the Play school people. I also worked with heaps of country artists. The first adult orchestral album I did with ABC was called Gershwin Country in 1999. We performed Gershwin with country singers, Troy Cassar Daley, Gina Jeffries, Tania Kernaghan and a whole host of people.
When the internet came around it kind of killed the recording industry so I conducted and did more writing for the concert hall. I wrote two operas for Opera QLD. I toured Europe with QLD Ballet. I toured England with James Morrison and worked with BBC concert orchestra.
In 2000 when I was 37, it was my overnight sensation internationally. I was asked by the ABC to compose their broadcast theme for the Sydney Olympics. That led me to meet William Barton, the great didgeridoo player who played on the track for me with the QLD symphony. A few years later William and I devised and created the Concerto for Didgeridoo and Orchestra. I was touring in Europe and got a phone call from ABC Classics wanting to interview me because we made No. 32 in their classic top 100 concertos with the Didgeridoo Concerto. That was so awesome.
In 2007 I was in Toronto in Canada with a show I’d help create called Scotland the Brave. Suzanne Kompass was booked to sing. The rehearsals were set in North York. I was late due to traffic. It was a vocal rehearsal and I could hear this glorious voice. I walked in and there was this woman dressed to the nines with this shock of red hair singing gloriously and I immediately fell in love. I chased her around for a couple of weeks and she won my heart when she bought me a beer one day after a rehearsal. We had a long distance relationship for a while and she came to Australia in 2009. She was an incredible singer, opera and art songs and she had a Platinum record in North America which is a lot more sales than here in Australia. She was still very humble. 13 months after she came here we married and moved to New York. She is stuck there now till May next year due to Covid.
In 2009 I wrote the music for The Ashes between Australia and England but I was commissioned by England because they thought I was English. I wrote the music and went to London with the Royal Philharmonic and half the board of the English and Wales Cricket board turned up. When they heard me speak, they almost died. They were expecting an Englishman and here’s this Aussie. I did a new version of Hubert Parry’s Jerusalem which is now played every time the English team take the field against Australia. In 2014 the Rugby League World Cup adopted it as their official anthem too.
At the end of 2014 I was nominated for an order of Australia. I thought it was an OAM but it was an AM There are only 365 awarded yearly which was so cool. That was for services to music in Australia and the world. I celebrated in Washington.
In between there were ballets and forays into higher education. I moved to New York in 2010 and ended up commuting to Pennsylvania to be an artist in residence at a place called Moravian College and found that I loved teaching. In between I would come back to Australia to do gigs. One I loved was Creative Generations in QLD which is like the NSW School Spectacular. I always came back for it and even in this Covid year I did the online version with them. I love doing that and that led to meeting up with the University of the Sunshine Coast who didn’t have a music program. I was invited to implement a music program which I did and in the first year we went from zero students to 120. That’s still going.
I was in lockdown in London for a few months and came back to Melbourne where I was in lockdown again. I went back to Brisbane and while I was in lockdown there I decided I wanted to find a community and embed myself in it. I wanted to give back some of life’s rich tapestry which has given me such great opportunities with fantastic teachers, great musicians and to impart my knowledge. When I was in Brisbane in quarantine I saw Northern Rivers Conservatorium were on the hunt for a conductor, brass and woodwind teacher which sounded like fun so I contacted the Director Anita. We talked about it and the Conservatorium here in Lismore decided to create a position called the Resident Creative Artist and that’s me.
Now I live in two cities, Brisbane for a few days a week and Lismore for a few days a week. I’m not planning on going overseas for many years and I want to build something here in Lismore. With the Con I’m really involved in some of the ensembles here, particularly the flagship jazz orchestra. I want to introduce some composition and invite really good artists I’ve worked with to come here and share their knowledge. I want James Morrison to come here and Andy Firth who is a fabulous jazz clarinet and sax player from Newcastle. I want to delve more into music and technology so I’ve written a big list of ideas we want to do here in Lismore and it’s exciting stuff.”
When the internet came around it kind of killed the recording industry so I conducted and did more writing for the concert hall. I wrote two operas for Opera QLD. I toured Europe with QLD Ballet. I toured England with James Morrison and worked with BBC concert orchestra.
In 2000 when I was 37, it was my overnight sensation internationally. I was asked by the ABC to compose their broadcast theme for the Sydney Olympics. That led me to meet William Barton, the great didgeridoo player who played on the track for me with the QLD symphony. A few years later William and I devised and created the Concerto for Didgeridoo and Orchestra. I was touring in Europe and got a phone call from ABC Classics wanting to interview me because we made No. 32 in their classic top 100 concertos with the Didgeridoo Concerto. That was so awesome.
In 2007 I was in Toronto in Canada with a show I’d help create called Scotland the Brave. Suzanne Kompass was booked to sing. The rehearsals were set in North York. I was late due to traffic. It was a vocal rehearsal and I could hear this glorious voice. I walked in and there was this woman dressed to the nines with this shock of red hair singing gloriously and I immediately fell in love. I chased her around for a couple of weeks and she won my heart when she bought me a beer one day after a rehearsal. We had a long distance relationship for a while and she came to Australia in 2009. She was an incredible singer, opera and art songs and she had a Platinum record in North America which is a lot more sales than here in Australia. She was still very humble. 13 months after she came here we married and moved to New York. She is stuck there now till May next year due to Covid.
In 2009 I wrote the music for The Ashes between Australia and England but I was commissioned by England because they thought I was English. I wrote the music and went to London with the Royal Philharmonic and half the board of the English and Wales Cricket board turned up. When they heard me speak, they almost died. They were expecting an Englishman and here’s this Aussie. I did a new version of Hubert Parry’s Jerusalem which is now played every time the English team take the field against Australia. In 2014 the Rugby League World Cup adopted it as their official anthem too.
At the end of 2014 I was nominated for an order of Australia. I thought it was an OAM but it was an AM There are only 365 awarded yearly which was so cool. That was for services to music in Australia and the world. I celebrated in Washington.
In between there were ballets and forays into higher education. I moved to New York in 2010 and ended up commuting to Pennsylvania to be an artist in residence at a place called Moravian College and found that I loved teaching. In between I would come back to Australia to do gigs. One I loved was Creative Generations in QLD which is like the NSW School Spectacular. I always came back for it and even in this Covid year I did the online version with them. I love doing that and that led to meeting up with the University of the Sunshine Coast who didn’t have a music program. I was invited to implement a music program which I did and in the first year we went from zero students to 120. That’s still going.
I was in lockdown in London for a few months and came back to Melbourne where I was in lockdown again. I went back to Brisbane and while I was in lockdown there I decided I wanted to find a community and embed myself in it. I wanted to give back some of life’s rich tapestry which has given me such great opportunities with fantastic teachers, great musicians and to impart my knowledge. When I was in Brisbane in quarantine I saw Northern Rivers Conservatorium were on the hunt for a conductor, brass and woodwind teacher which sounded like fun so I contacted the Director Anita. We talked about it and the Conservatorium here in Lismore decided to create a position called the Resident Creative Artist and that’s me.
Now I live in two cities, Brisbane for a few days a week and Lismore for a few days a week. I’m not planning on going overseas for many years and I want to build something here in Lismore. With the Con I’m really involved in some of the ensembles here, particularly the flagship jazz orchestra. I want to introduce some composition and invite really good artists I’ve worked with to come here and share their knowledge. I want James Morrison to come here and Andy Firth who is a fabulous jazz clarinet and sax player from Newcastle. I want to delve more into music and technology so I’ve written a big list of ideas we want to do here in Lismore and it’s exciting stuff.”