Alicia Grant
Professional
Biography
Sydney-born Alicia Grant holds a LRAM and first-class BMus(Hons) degree from the Royal Academy of Music, University of London where she studied composition with Simon Bainbridge. Whilst at the RAM, she won numerous scholarships and prizes including the Charles Lucas prize, William Elkin prize, and the Arthur Hinton Memorial prize for composition. Having received an ORS Award and a Clarendon Fund scholarship from the University of Oxford, she is currently completing a doctorate in composition and analysis at Worcester College with Dr Robert Saxton. In 2004 she was the recipient of the John Lowell Osgood Memorial prize for composition at Oxford.
Grant’s works have been performed by renowned orchestras and ensembles, including the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, the Choir of Westminster Abbey, the BBC Singers, New College Choir, the Oxford Philomusica, the New Cambridge Singers, and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra.
Major public performances of her compositions have spanned a great variety of prestigious venues in the UK and Australia, and across the globe in Argentina, the Netherlands and the USA. Many of these have been broadcast on radio, in particular for Australia’s ABC Classic FM.
In 2005, her specially commissioned work ANZAC Anthem, for choir and organ, was premiered by The Choir of Westminster Abbey in the presence of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh to mark the 90th Anniversary of the Gallipoli Landings in 1915. Earlier this year, a commission for wind octet, entitled Figure of 8, was premiered by the Oxford Philomusica wind ensemble at a private concert held at the London home of Lady Marks.
Grant enjoys exploring the potential of a musical idea in varying instrumentations, for instance, the work Transparent Voices exists in two versions: one for chamber ensemble and another for symphony orchestra. Grant’s orchestral work Cross Currents, composed for the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, is also a piece for solo piano. The piano version will be given its world premiere in May 2007 in Carnegie Hall, New York by the Greek pianist, Panos Karan. The same month, her orchestral work Centrifugue, which also exists as a chamber ensemble piece, will receive its US premiere in Piedmont by the California-based Community Women's Orchestra, conducted by Dr Kathleen McGuire.
Grant frequently finds inspiration in texts that are philosophical reflections on the transience of life, such as in the choral works I steal a look and Fire.
Grant has said, ‘for me, music represents life in its fleeting beauty, its moments of truth, its humour, and its intense emotion. The spirit finds voice in music as it does in life, through the magic of passing moments.’
| Important Works |
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Performances |
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- ANZAC Anthem (for choir and organ)
- Cross Currents (for orchestra)
- Interweaves (for orchestra)
- Centrifugue (for orchestra)
- I steal a look (for a cappella choir)
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- 19/05/2007: Cross Currents (for solo piano) will be given its world premiere by Greek pianist, Panos Karan, at the Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall, New York, USA
- 25/11/2005: Centrifugue (for orchestra) was performed by the Oxford Philomusica, conducted by John Georgiadis, at the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, UK
- 25/04/2005: ANZAC Anthem (for choir and organ) was premiered by The Choir of Westminster Abbey, directed by James O'Donnell, at Westminster Abbey, London, UK, in the presence of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh
- 02/12/2004: Interweaves (for orchestra) was premiered by the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Kenneth Young, at the Federation Concert Hall, Hobart, Australia
- 24/09/2003: Cross Currents (for orchestra) was premiered by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Markus Stenz, at the Iwaki Auditorium, ABC Southbank Centre, Melbourne, Australia
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