Claire Edwardes Percussion  

 

    

  CLAIRE EDWARDES
PERCUSSION

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BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS

                              photo Belinda Webster

    CLAIRE EDWARDES CAREER HIGHLIGHTS 
Harrison Birtwistle’s The Axe Manual
recorded on the Metronome Label (***** BBC Music Magazine) with Nicolas Hodges w/ performance at the 2004 Birtwistle Festival (London)

Unsuk Chin’s Double Concerto conducted by Peter Eötvös w/ the Radio Chamber Orchestra, Concertgebouw
    (Amsterdam)

James MacMillan’s Veni Veni Emmanuel conducted by James MacMillan w/ the Sydney Symphony Orchestra

Solo festival performances: Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (UK), International Gaudeamus Music
    Weeks (Netherlands), Journées de la Percussions/ PASIC (France), Cutting Edge Series and tour (UK), Banff Centre (Canada)

Guest soloist and programmer: Percussion Group The Hague (The Netherlands), Synergy Percussion, Ensemble
    Offspring (Australia)

CLAIRE EDWARDES PRIZES & DEGREES 
2007 AMC/APRA Classical Music Awards  Award for Outstanding Contribution by an Individual (for Duo Vertigo the Duyfken Project)

2005 MCA/Freedman Fellowship for Classical Music (Australia)
     2005 Third Prize: DUO VERTIGO: Gaudeamus International Interpreters Competition (The Netherlands)               
    2003 Master of Music (Honours): Amsterdam Conservatorium of Music (The Netherlands )
   
2001 First Prize: Llangollen International Instrumentalist (Wales)
    2000 First Prize: Tromp Percussion Competition (The Netherlands)
    1999 Symphony Australia Young Performer of the Year (Australia)
    1997 Student of the Year (BMusHon1): Sydney Conservatorium of Music (Australia)

 

    OFFICIAL BIOGRAPHIES 2008
  (100/200/275 word and full length biographies to be used by festivals and promoters for concert programs + teaching biography for schools)


                                      photo Monty Coles

 

  100 WORD BIOGRAPHY
   
Claire Edwardes is an internationally renowned percussionist dedicated to the performance and promotion of contemporary music. For the past seven years she has been based in the Netherlands and she now divides her time   between Australia and Europe. She is known for her strong, personal musical interpretation and engaging presentation. Press have described her performances as riveting and enthusiastic, combining energy with great sensitivity. Claire is the assistant artistic director of Ensemble Offspring. Career highlights include solo performances at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, recording Harrison Birtwistle's The Axe Manual with the composer, prize-winner as part of Duo Vertigo at the 2005 International Gaudeamus Interpreters Competition and being named Symphony Australia's Young Performer of the Year (1999). Claire won the 2007 Classical Music Award for Outstanding Contribution by an Individual and is the 2005 MCA/Freedman Fellowship recipient.

200 WORD BIOGRAPHY
Australian percussionist Claire Edwardes is a passionate advocate of contemporary music with a successful performance career in Australia and Europe.
She graduated from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music as student of the year and undertook postgraduate studies at the Rotterdam and Amsterdam Conservatories graduating in 2003 as a Master of Music with distinction. Claire has had great success in many competitions throughout the world and was winner of the 1999 Symphony Australia Young Performer of the Year and the 2001 Llangollen International Instrumentalist Competition (Wales). In 2005 Claire was awarded the prestigious MCA/Freedman Fellowship for Classical Music
and in 2007 she won the Classical Music Award for Outstanding Contribution by an Individual .
 Claire has been invited to perform as soloist and chamber musician at festivals such as the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Cheltenham Festival, The Adelaide Bank Festival of the Arts and The Birtwistle Festival (London). Concerto highlights include performances with the Dutch Radio Chamber Orchestra (Concertgebouw, Amsterdam), the Amsterdam Sinfonietta, and the Sydney, Melbourne and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras. She is
assistant artistic director of Ensemble Offspring (Australia) and has initiated several new ensembles in Europe including her percussion duo with Niels Meliefste, Duo Vertigo. In April 2005 Duo Vertigo were awarded third prize in the Gaudeamus International Interpreters Competition.

275 WORD BIOGRAPHY
Australian percussionist Claire Edwardes has been described as “engaging to watch”, and "riveting", exuding “infectious brio” as well as “strength and energy”, by press throughout the world.
 She graduated from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music as student of the year and undertook postgraduate studies at the Rotterdam and Amsterdam Conservatories graduating in 2003 as a Master of Music with distinction. Claire has had great success in many competitions throughout the world and was winner of the 1999 Symphony Australia Young Performer of the Year, the 2000 Tromp Percussion Competition (The Netherlands), and the 2001 Llangollen International Instrumentalist Competition (Wales). In June 2005 Claire was awarded the prestigious MCA/Freedman Fellowship for Classical Music to further develop her international career
and in September 2007 she was the recipient of the Classical Music Award for Outstanding Contribution by an Individual
Claire has been invited to perform as soloist and chamber musician at festivals such as the Huddersfield Festival of Contemporary Music, The Australian Festival of Chamber Music (Townsville), The Adelaide Bank Festival of the Arts and The Birtwistle Festival (London). Concerto highlights include performances with the Dutch Radio Chamber Orchestra (Concertgebouw, Amsterdam), the Amsterdam Sinfonietta, and the Sydney, Melbourne and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras. She is a
ssistant artistic director of Ensemble Offspring (Australia) and has initiated several new ensembles in Europe including Deux Femme with Australian saxophonist, Amy Dickson and her percussion duo with Niels Meliefste, Duo Vertigo. In April 2005 Duo Vertigo were awarded third prize in the Gaudeamus International Interpreters Competition.
She is a passionate advocate of contemporary music and has close working relationships with many composers including Harrison Birtwistle, James Wood, Sam Hayden and Ross Edwards.  
Based in the Netherlands for the last seven years, she now divides her time between Australia and Europe.

TEACHING BIOGRAPHY
 Claire’s teaching experience includes
giving master-classes at tertiary institutions throughout Australia, Sweden, Belgium, The Netherlands and Germany. Recently she was invited to give a marimba master-class to the percussion department of the Royal Academy of Music, London. She is a regular guest teacher at the Victorian College of the Arts and was guest Head of Percussion for several weeks in 2005. Before relocating to the Netherlands in 1999 Claire was the percussion teacher at Newtown School of the Performing Arts and Sydney Boys High School. She also taught a private studio of percussion and piano students.
Her musical background includes learning the piano from the age of five culminating in LTCL (Trinity) and AMUS.A as well as studying flute in high school to sixth grade standard.  She was a student of Fort Street High School where her TER was 98.95% and she then went on to graduate from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music with a Bachelor of Music (first class honours) as Student of the Year. She studied percussion performance at Amsterdam and Rotterdam Conservatories for four years, graduating with a Masters of Music.

500 WORD BIOGRAPHY
Born in Sydney in 1975, percussionist Claire Edwardes is well known for her combination in performance of a strong, personal interpretation and exciting presentation. She has been described as “engaging to watch”, and "riveting", exuding “infectious brio” as well as “strength and energy”, by press throughout the world.
She studied percussion at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music where her teachers were Daryl Pratt and Richard Miller and graduated in 1998 as Student of the Year with first class honours. She went on to undertake postgraduate studies with Richard Janson, Jan Pustjens and Peter Prommel at the Rotterdam and Amsterdam Conservatories where she graduated in 2003 as a Master of Music with distinction. She was resident in the Netherlands for seven years. Claire has had great success in many competitions throughout the world and was named Symphony Australia Young Performer of the Year in 1999, awarded first prize in the 2000 Tromp Percussion Competition (The Netherlands), 2000 Vriendenkrans Competition (Concertgebouw, Amsterdam) and the 2001 Llangollen International Instrumentalist Competition (Wales).
In June 2005 Claire was awarded the prestigious MCA/Freedman Fellowship for Classical Music to further develop her international career and in September 2007 she was the recipient of the Classical Music Award for Outstanding Contribution by an Individual
Claire is a founding member and assistant artistic director of Ensemble Offspring (Australia), an active member of new music ensemble, Insomnio (The Netherlands) and has initiated several new ensembles in Europe including her percussion duo with Niels Meliefste, Duo Vertigo. In 2005 they were awarded third prize in the Gaudeamus International Interpreters Competition. She has been invited to perform as soloist and chamber musician at events such as the Huddersfield Festival of Contemporary Music, International Gaudeamus Music Week, The Adelaide Festival of Arts, TURA’s Totally Huge New Music Festival, The London Birtwistle Festival, Musica Viva Countrywide touring and the BMIC’s Cutting Edge Series.  As soloist she has performed under Peter Eötvös in the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam with the Radio Chamber Orchestra, under Markus Stenz with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and under Ettiene Siebens with the Amsterdam Sinfonietta. Other orchestras she has performed as soloist with include the Sydney, and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras, the Brabants Orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the London Sinfonietta and the Australian Youth Camerata Orchestra. She performs throughout the world regularly with such groups as Percussion Group The Hague (The Netherlands), Champ d’Action (Belgium), Asko/Shönberg Ensemble (The Netherlands), Ensemble Modern (Germany) and Synergy Percussion (Australia).
Dedicated to the performance and promotion of new music, Claire is a keen advocate of contemporary music. She has close working relationships with many composers around the world including Harrison Birtwistle, James Wood, Sam Hayden, Louis Andriessen, Juan-Felipe Waller and all of the composers on this CD. Claire recently recorded Birtwistle’s The Axe Manual with pianist Nicolas Hodges on the Metronome Label, which received rave reviews including five stars in the BBC Music Magazine. In 2005 she recorded a CD of works written exclusively for Duo Vertigo at The Banff Centre, Canada, called Vertigo One (Karnatic Lab Records). Coil is
the name of her first official solo CD release on the Tall Poppies label.

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