William Barton (musician)
| William Barton | |
|---|---|
| Born | 4 June 1981 Mount Isa, Queensland, Australia |
| Occupation | Musician, didgeridoo player |
| Website | williambarton.com.au |
William Barton is an Australian Aboriginal didgeridoo player. He was born in Mount Isa, Queensland on 4 June 1981.[1] and learned to play from his uncle, an elder of the Wannyi, Lardil and Kalkadunga tribes of Western Queensland. He is widely recognised as one of Australia's finest traditional didgeridoo players and a leading didgeridoo player in the classical world.[2][3]
"I'm doing what I love," Barton says. "I want to take the oldest culture in the world and blend it with Europe's rich musical legacy."[4]
Barton has been featured on the ABC television program, Australian Story.[5]
Early life and work
Taught to play the digeridoo from an early age by aboriginal elders, by the age of 12 Barton was working in Sydney, playing for Aboriginal dance troupes. At the age of 15 he toured America, after which he decided he wanted to become a soloist rather than a backing musician and started to study different kinds of music. In 1998, he made his classical debut with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, and became Australia's first didgeridoo artist-in-residence with a symphony orchestra.[6]
Performances
Barton has appeared at music festivals around the world and has also recorded a number of orchestral works. He featured in Peter Sculthorpe's Requiem, a major work for orchestra, chorus and didgeridoo, which premiered the Adelaide Festival of Arts in 2004 with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and Adelaide Voices conducted by Richard Mills. This was reputedly the first time a didgeridoo has featured in a full symphonic work.[7] The work has since been performed in the UK at The Lichfield Festival with The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Birmingham's choir Ex Cathedra, conducted by Jeffrey Skidmore.
In May 2004, ABC Classics released Songs of Sea and Sky, an album of works by Peter Sculthorpe revised for didgeridoo and orchestra. Performed by Barton and the Queensland Orchestra conducted by Michael Christie.
In 2005, Barton performed at the 90th anniversary Gallipoli at ANZAC Cove, Turkey, and in debut concerts with the London Philharmonic Orchestra at Royal Festival Hall in London.[4] In 2005/2006, Barton collaborated with orchestras, choral directors and composers in Australia, America and Europe, developing new commissions for the didgeridoo.[2]
On 5 November 2014, Barton performed at the memorial service for former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam in the Sydney Town Hall.[8]
In 2015, Barton performed at the 100th anniversary opening Gallipoli at ANZAC Cove, Turkey for dawn service.[9]
Awards
Barton was jointly selected with pianist Tamara Anna Cislowska for the 2004 Freedman Fellowship for Classical Music by the Music Council of Australia.[10]
In 2004, he was awarded the Brisbane Lord Mayor's Young and Emerging Artists' Fellowship,[11] and the following year he was a metropolitan finalist for the Suncorp Young Queenslander of the Year Award.[12]
He was nominated in the ARIA Music Awards of 2004 for Best Classical Album with ABC Classics recording Songs of Sea and Sky.
On 3 October 2012, Barton won the ARIA Music Awards of 2012 for Best Classical Album[13] at the Fine Arts and Artisan awards presented at the Art Gallery of NSW. The ABC Classics release features the title track "Kalkadungu", a collaborative work by Barton and Matthew Hindson, along with solo works by Barton and Peter Sculthorpe's Earth Cry and Requiem.
Discography
- Songs of Sky and Sea by Peter Sculthorpe with conductor Michael Christie and the Queensland Orchestra, ABC Classics (2004)
- Earth Cry / Piano Concerto / Kakadu by Peter Sculthorpe, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Naxos.[14]
- Journey compositions for solo didgeridoo, self released
- Requiem by Peter Sculthorpe, a major work for orchestra, chorus and didgeridoo, with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, ABC Classics (2006)
- Concerto for Didgeridoo by William Barton and Sean O'Boyle, ABC Classics (2007)
References
- ↑ Queensland Choir Media Release Accessed 5 September 2007 Archived 30 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Artist Profile, Camden Music Festival 2007 website. Archived 29 August 2007 at the Wayback Machine
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- ↑ "Young master of Didgeridoo wins prestigious award", William Barton website Archived 19 August 2006 at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ "Young Queenslander of the Year Award – Finalist 2005", William Barton website. Archived 29 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine
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- ↑ Album details, Naxos website
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- Profile Arts in Australia website.[dead link]
External links
- Official site
- 2004 live performance on YouTube, Queensland Conservatorium 2004
- 2006 live performance on YouTube, Brisbane Music Festival 2006]
- 2013 live performance of SCULTHORPE (b.1929) Earth Cry on AYO Website
- Use Australian English from May 2011
- All Wikipedia articles written in Australian English
- Use dmy dates from February 2012
- Articles with hCards
- No local image but image on Wikidata
- Articles with dead external links from May 2010
- 1981 births
- Living people
- Didgeridoo players
- Indigenous Australian musicians
- Contemporary classical music performers
- Australian classical musicians
- People from Mount Isa, Queensland
