NOMINATION: Performance of the Year - Notated Composition
For the performance of a single Australian work, showcasing the performer(s)’ success in revealing the nature and intention of a composition with clear notated instructions for the performer. Works with significant improvisatory aspects should instead be submitted for Performance of the Year: Jazz / Improvised Music.
A work is defined as a single complete musical composition, or expression. This includes music with movements or sub-works (i.e. song cycles), installations, and real-time compositions (improvised music).
If you believe your performance to be nominated in the wrong category or the details of your nomination to be incorrect, please contact the AMC via email at awards@australianmusiccentre.com.au before proceeding with the nomination.
Art Music Award guidelines →
Nominee
Matt Styles and the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, Umberto Clerici- conductor
Nominee email
tyrrella@waso.com.au
Title of the work
Superhighway (Sax Concerto)
Composer(s) of the work
Holly Harrison
Performance Date
9/8/2024
Venue
Perth Concert Hall
Nominator Statement
Matt Styles and WASOs world premiere performance of Harrisons sax concerto, Superhighway, is electric, bold, captivating, and virtuosic. Equally at home in jazz and contemporary art music contexts, Styles is the perfect soloist for Harrisons work, deftly crossing multiple genres in a short space of time. Superhighway draws from a range of genres and stylistic juxtapositions, including elements of funk, metal, punk, disco, prog-rock, blues, gospel and hip-hop. Styles seamlessly traverses this smorgasbord of genres to reveal the extraordinary musical and emotional range of the saxophone.
This isnt a classical saxophonist playing a work with jazz and rock influences this is an uncommon breed of musician who convincingly inhabits all sound worlds Superhighway offers up. Always ready to take a musical risk, Styles playing is spontaneous and reactive, all while reading from a score. Across three movements, he fully embraces the dynamic nature of the work, playing both alto and soprano sax. His playing is bold and fearless, continually toggling between dirty and gritty, wailing and warbling, and rich and beautiful lines. The work is technically demanding, calling for extreme agility and rhythmic virtuosity. Superhighway frequently pushes the saxophone into its altissimo register limit and Styles shapes this with serious attitude. In a concerto written especially for him, Styles demonstrates a strong understanding of the work and its trajectory Styles and Harrison are well-matched collaborators.
Under Clericis baton, WASO grooves and is positively on fire. There is a liveliness to the orchestra, approaching the work with a knowing-wink and a playful bombast. Clerici and orchestra are sensitive to Styles, simmering as necessary, and then exploding with tutti responses. WASO perfectly embraces the concertos intention, playing with a riot of colour, joy and detail, in a celebration of all things sax.
Although predominately notated, the work features a few semi-improvised elements: an extended multiphonic cadenza in the first movement, a lyrical improvisation across a variegated textural drone in the second, and a gospel-inspired trio with tuba and drum kit in the third. Styles and orchestra navigate each of these with ease, blurring the line between what is scored and what is extemporised a true intention of the work.
Nominee
Matt Styles and the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, Umberto Clerici- conductor
Nominee email
tyrrella@waso.com.au
Title of the work
Superhighway (Sax Concerto)
Composer(s) of the work
Holly Harrison
Performance Date
9/8/2024
Venue
Perth Concert Hall
This isnt a classical saxophonist playing a work with jazz and rock influences this is an uncommon breed of musician who convincingly inhabits all sound worlds Superhighway offers up. Always ready to take a musical risk, Styles playing is spontaneous and reactive, all while reading from a score. Across three movements, he fully embraces the dynamic nature of the work, playing both alto and soprano sax. His playing is bold and fearless, continually toggling between dirty and gritty, wailing and warbling, and rich and beautiful lines. The work is technically demanding, calling for extreme agility and rhythmic virtuosity. Superhighway frequently pushes the saxophone into its altissimo register limit and Styles shapes this with serious attitude. In a concerto written especially for him, Styles demonstrates a strong understanding of the work and its trajectory Styles and Harrison are well-matched collaborators.
Under Clericis baton, WASO grooves and is positively on fire. There is a liveliness to the orchestra, approaching the work with a knowing-wink and a playful bombast. Clerici and orchestra are sensitive to Styles, simmering as necessary, and then exploding with tutti responses. WASO perfectly embraces the concertos intention, playing with a riot of colour, joy and detail, in a celebration of all things sax.
Although predominately notated, the work features a few semi-improvised elements: an extended multiphonic cadenza in the first movement, a lyrical improvisation across a variegated textural drone in the second, and a gospel-inspired trio with tuba and drum kit in the third. Styles and orchestra navigate each of these with ease, blurring the line between what is scored and what is extemporised a true intention of the work.