Composer: Vine, Carl (b. 1954)

You can read our October 2013 review of Carl Vine here.

Carl Vine first came to prominence in Australia as a composer of music for dance, with 25 dance scores to his credit. His catalogue includes seven symphonies, seven concerti, music for film, television and theatre, electronic music and numerous chamber works. His piano music is played frequently around the world. Although primarily a composer of modern “classical” music he has undertaken tasks as diverse as arranging the Australian National Anthem and writing music for the Olympic Games (1996 Atlanta Olympics, Sydney 2000 presentation).

Born in Perth, he studied piano with Stephen Dornan and composition with John Exton at the University of Western Australia. Moving to Sydney in 1975, he worked as a freelance pianist and composer with a wide range of ensembles, theatre and dance companies over the following decades. His writing for piano, however, remains an important and increasingly popular part of his output; he has written two piano concerti, three piano sonatas and a host of smaller collections including Five Bagatelles (1994) and The Anne Landa Preludes (2006).

Amongst his most acclaimed scores are Mythologia (2000), Piano Sonata (1990) and Poppy (1978) for the Sydney Dance Company, and Choral Symphony (no. 6, 1996) for the West Australian Symphony Orchestra. His first six symphonies are available on the ABC Classics double-CD set Carl Vine: The Complete Symphonies performed by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Much of his chamber music is available on three discs from Tall Poppies Records (TP013, TP120 and TP190), and a CD of his complete string quartet music was recently released on ABC Classics with critics praising his quartets as “assured, tuneful and immaculately crafted”.

Since 2000 Carl has been the Artistic Director of Musica Viva Australia, the world’s largest entrepreneur of chamber music. Since 2006 he has also been the Artistic Director of the Huntington Estate Music Festival, Australia’s most prestigious annual chamber music event. His recent compositions include Fantasia (2013), a piano quintet for the Melbourne Festival, Piano Concerto no. 2 (2012) for the Sydney Symphony and London Philharmonic Orchestras, The Tree of Man (2012), a secular cantata for soprano and strings (premiered by Danielle de Niese and the Australian Chamber Orchestra) and Ring Out, Wild Bells (2012), a carol for the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at King’s College Cambridge.