Claire Edwardes

Claire Edwardes has been making a mark on the Australian contemporary music landscape since winning the ABC's Young Performer of the Year in 1999 and the prestigious Freedman Fellowship in 2005. She has returned from studies and performances in Europe and is now involved in several new music ensembles in Australia as well as establishing herself as a soloist.

This is her debut solo CD, and sparkles with the energy and vitality that characterise her live performances. The centrepiece of the repertoire Claire has chosen for this recording is Ross Edwards' More Marimba Dances. His earlier Marimba Dances has become one of the world's most-played and most-loved percussion works. This second work contains all the qualities that made the earlier piece such a favourite with both performers and audiences alike.

Middle-generation Australian composers are further represented here by substantial works from Gerard Brophy, Andrew Ford and Andrew Schultz. The individual compositional and rhythmic styles of these three composers is very evident when they write for solo percussion. Each has written a strong piece, with elements of both virtuosity and emotion.

Claire has also encouraged composers of her own age to write for her, and we see the results in the works by Damien Ricketson and Dominik Karski - not wildly outlandish works but pushing the conceptual and musical boundaries just far enough.

When all that is done we can relax with the gentle minimalism of Mark Pollard's two short works - better than an aspirin!

 

"Coil is a wonderfully apt image for the album, conjuring something wound, expanding and contracting, full of force but also of a controlled unleashing of sounds delicate and powerful, whether in a music box or a grand pendulum clock or, as realised here, on vibraphone, marimba and drums. The compositions on the CD beat and pulse regularly as we would expect of percussion but, by turns, they dance, muse, grow introspective, dramatic and ache for transcendence...Claire Edwardes has located the kinetic energy in these compositions and let them uncoil. With each play of the CD, their magic is released.” Keith Gallasch, RealTime

 

"Claire Edwardes is a marvellous advocate for her profession and this repertoire - much of which she helped to create by commissioning, cajoling and encouraging composers to take solo percussion seriously as an option for expressive new work.” Dominy Clements, Music Web International

 

"In the last years the star is rising for the Netherlands-residing Australian percussionist Claire Edwardes. She pairs her energetic point-precise playing with an open stage presence. And she has a good nose for interesting composers. Furthermore, Edwardes is a preferred guest with international ensembles and orchestras….The title piece “Coil” is the groovy work for vibraphone from Gerard Brophy that opens immediately setting a good tone for this recording: freshly interpreted and placed in one gesture, with guts and risk, reaching far borders.” Anthony Fiumara, De Trouw

 

"The first official solo CD release from Australian percussioninst Claire Edwardes is a showcase of local works from the last decade or so. Edwardes has recently returned to Australia after successful stints in Europe, and we are luckier for it - how nice it is to see local talent returning home. The playing itself, as expected from this acclaimed musician, is precise, vigorous, passionate and actually highly personal. Highlights are Ross Edwards' More Marimba Dances and Damien Ricketson's Hol-Spannen-Luiden." Katarina Krostakova, Limelight 

 

"With playing of well-coloured liveliness, Claire Edwardes captures a range of characteristic sounds (predominantly marimba and vibraphone)..” Peter McCallum, Sydney Morning Herald