Stephen Adams Australia – Belgrade Art Studio Residency

Year of Residency: 2020

Composer/Improviser/Producer. Lives and works in Sydney, Australia.

Selected Commissions, Grants and Awards

2019 Sydney City Libraries: ‘Dismorphia: Tell Tale Bodies’ – live soundscapes.
Spineless Wonders commission
2019 Sunset Inside The Listening Room 40’ (performing installation for flutes, cello, and field
recording). Private commission to open Limeburners building, Easter at The Piano Mill 2019
2019 Newcastle Writers Festival: studio and live narrative sound treatments.
Spineless Wonders ‘Shuffle’ commissions (texts: Jen Craig and Sigley Hood)
2018 Near and Far 17’ (outdoor, mobile voices, flutes and radios). Clocked Out Productions
commission, Easter at The Piano Mill 2018
2016 Through Rain 10’ (score for piano, cello, bass clarinet and field recording)
100 Clicks West, private commission to launch concert series
2015 APRA/AMCOS Art Music Awards, Finalist, Vocal Music category
2014 Piano in a field of recordings 7’ (score for piano and electronics)
Playing With Fire, Western Sydney University Music Department commission
2014 Afterwards 10’ (choir, radios and percussion soloist)
Sydney Chamber Choir commission, with the assistance of the Australia Council Music Fund
2014 Overpainting 11’ (solo flute/voice)
Janet McKay solo flute project commission and collaboration
2013 Sometimes snow fell, sometimes darkness 4’ (for soprano, mezzo and alto flute)
‘Kingfisher’ Halcyon15th anniversary project commission
2013 Lyrebird: a performance 11’ (soprano, viola, percussion, field recording)
Chronology Arts commission
2012 Kalaya: meeting place 7’ (chamber choir). Sydney Conservatorium of Music commission for
centenary ‘101 commissions’ project
2009 Reverse 8’ (flute and synthesizer). Artist commission/collaboration with flautist Janet McKay
2007 A Short Service (for John Cage) 10’ (vocal sextet and radio). Song Company commission for
‘Cage Uncaged’ project
2005 Spin: play pieces for choir 14’ (8-part mobile choir). Sydney Chamber Choir commission with
assistance from the Australia Council Music Fund
2004-7 Radiophonic studio pieces for The Night Air, ABC RN
2001-4 The Audience and Other Psychopaths 60’ (electro-acoustic composition; text: Amanda Stewart)
Commissioned by The Opera Project with the assistance of the Australia Council New Media
and Hybrid Arts Board, Performance Space, and Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Festival
2001 Migrant Hostel 8’ (choir, orchestra and baritone soloist).
Ars Musica Australis commission for Centenary of Federation project
2000 empyrean 9’ (girls choir, semi-chorus, wind quintet, string orchestra; text: Joanne Burns)
Queenwood School for Girls 75th anniversary commission
1997 Desires: movements towards the divine 23’ (score for vocal sextet) Song Company commission
1995 memory pieces 27’ (8-part mobile choir; text: Ania Walwicz) Sydney Chamber Choir commission
1993 The Women of Jerusalem 5’ (for mobile voices (4), clarinet and percussion).
Sydney Metropolitan Opera commission for ‘Via Crucis Australis’
1992 Sydney Dreaming Theatre 65’ (score and libretto for one-hour a capella music-theatre work)
Contemporary Singers and The Native Rose Music Theatre Company commission
1991 2MBS Young Composer Award, joint winner

Selected Collaborative Projects and Performances

2019 Easter at The Piano Mill – performing installation
Newcastle Writers Festival – narrative and sound panel and performance
Sydney Writers Festival – ‘Little Fictions’ performance 5’
Sydney City ‘Late Night Library’ performance: ‘Dismorphia: Tell Tale Bodies’
2018 The Guesthouse Project, Cork, Ireland – international guest artist (with Karen Power et al)
Easter at The Piano Mill – outdoor sound performance
2017 Ort festival, SNO (Sydney Non-Objective galleries) – electro-acoustic collaborative improvisation
with film-maker Peter Humble
Kings Cross and Surry Hills Libraries- ‘Off The Page’ collaborations with author Jen Craig
2015 Places+Spaces, Glebe Town Hall – ‘A Body of Water’ project with singer Karen Cummings
To Be Continued, live-to-the-internet 24-hr round-the-world relay performance
2014 ‘Playing with Fire’, Western Sydney University (Tamara-Anna Cislowska)
Sound Bites #18 (with Weizen Ho et al), Jerel’s Ol’ Skool House, Katoomba
A Body of Water (with singer Karen Cummings), Phoenix Theatre, Wollongong
Judith Wright Performing Arts Centre, Brisbane (Janet McKay recital)
2013 Chronology Arts, Dickson Space, Newtown, Sydney
2012 Sound Bites #5– with Yessen (Korean string and drum trio) et al, Paragon Café, Katoomba
Sound Bites #3 – ‘A Body of Water’ (with singer Karen Cummings), Paragon Café, Katoomba
Verbruggghen Hall, Sydney Conservatorium of Music (Conservatorium Chamber Choir)
2012 New York Radio Awards, Silver Medal for Gerard Brophy’s Gethsemane (music producer)
2009 Random Overtones gallery tour, Queensland College of Arts Brisbane), The Wulf (Los Angeles),
Meridian Gallery (San Francisco), Dougherty Arts Centre (Austin, Texas), Heaven Gallery
(Chicago), The Tank (New York)
2007 Totally Huge New Music Festival, West Australian Art Gallery, Perth (The Song Company)
Carriageworks, Sydney – ‘Cage Uncaged’ (Song Company and Ensemble Offspring)
2005 Music Workshop, Sydney Conservatorium of Music (Sydney Chamber Choir)
Marktoberdorf International Choir Festival, Bavaria, Germany (Ensemble de la Rue)
Französische Friedrichstadtkirche, Berlin, Germany (Ensemble de la Rue)
2004 Tage Alter Musik Regensburg, Germany (Song Company)
Performance Space, Sydney Mardi Gras Arts Festival (The Opera Project)
2001 Centenary of Federation concert, Blacktown, Sydney (Combined schools choir and orchestra)
2000 Queenwood School for Girls, Sydney, Australia
1999 Sagra Musicale Festival, Perugia, Italy (Song Company)
Rosza Centre, University of Calgary, Canada (Ensemble de la Rue)
St Matthias’ Church, Westmount, Montreal, Canada (Ensemble de la Rue)
1998 First Presbyterian Church, Edmonton, Canada (Ensemble de la Rue)
Access Contemporary Art Gallery, Redfern, Sydney (Song Company)
Sunday Live, ABC Ultimo Centre, live-to-air on ABC Classic FM (Song Company)
Adelaide Festival, St Peter’s Cathedral, Adelaide, Australia (Adelaide Chamber Singers)
1996 4th World Symposium of Choral Music, Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House
1995 Horizons Festival of Contemporary Choral Music, ABC Ultimo Centre (Sydney Chamber Choir)
The Great Hall, University of Sydney (Sydney Chamber Choir)
1994 World Choral Festival, Seoul, Korea
1993 Idyllwild National Music Camp, Los Angeles USA
Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, USA
1992 Opening Ceremony, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
The Edge Theatre, Newtown, Sydney (Native Rose Music Theatre Company)
1991 2MBS Studios, Sydney (Song Company)
Horizons Festival, Joseph Post, Sydney Conservatorium (The Contemporary Singers)
1989 l’Opus, Reims, France – Le Trio Flache (with guitarist Gerry Weise & poet Jean Marie le Sidaner)

Audio Releases

Forthcoming – Sunset Inside The Listening Room (Vinyl/digital release) Harrigans Lane Collective 2019
Forthcoming – Playing With Fire (pianist Tamara-Anna Cislowska) Wirripang 2019
Kingfisher – Songs for Halcyon Tall Poppies TP236, 2016
Arc of Light Wayfarer (pianist Aaron McMillan) ISD 29663F1, 2007
Memory Pieces (Ensemble de la Rue, Canada) EdlR Productions, 2005
2002 MLC School Australian Music Day (education kit: teachers booklet, CD, DVD and scores)
Australian Music Centre, 2002
Landscape’s Creatures (Sydney Chamber Choir) Tall Poppies TP160, 2001
Drive (Educational CD-Rom) JLN-2000-01, 2000
Sydney Dreaming (The Contemporary Singers) ABC Classics, ABC 454 510-2, 1996
Tranceform (One Over Zero 90-minute cassette album) NVZ21, 1988
Leaning from the steep slope (One Over Zero 4-track EP) AMO, 1987

Education, Artist Residencies and Development Programs

Memoria: Voice, Body Memory Workshop, Weizen Ho, Blue Mountains Cultural Centre, July 2019
De Quincey Company Impro Exchange, March 2019
The Piano Mill artist residency, Harrigan’s Lane, March 2018
Bundanon Trust joint artist residency with writer Jen Craig, September/October 2010
Researches toward Creative PhD, with, Queensland University of Technology 2003-4
(Supervisor: Professor Richard Vella; discontinued due to incompatibility with new ABC role)
Graduate Diploma in Adult Education (TESOL), University of Technology, Sydney, 1993-4
Bachelor of Music (Hons) in composition, University of Sydney, 1982-86
(Composition teacher – Peter Sculthorpe, Reader in Music)

Examples of Recent Works

Sunset Inside The Listening Room (excerpt) – https://youtu.be/odn6w5NckQY
Performers: Danielle Bentley (cello), Hannah Reardon-Smith (piccolo), Stephen Adams (flute, field
recording)
Near and Far (2018) – https://soundcloud.com/texturetext/near-and-far
Performers: Hannah Reardon-Smith (flutes), Merida Diaz-Jayasinga (voice) Stephen Adams (flute,
voice, ocarina, radios, field recordings)
Jamming (2019) – https://soundcloud.com/texturetext/adams-jamming-jen-craig
Text: Jen Craig; Performers: Jen Craig (voice), Stephen Adams (recordings, objects, processing)
Ice Cube (2019) – https://soundcloud.com/texturetext/adams-ice-cube-kim-hood
Text: Sigley Hood; Performers: Eleni Schumacher (voice), Stephen Adams (synth, recordings, objects,
processing)
To Be Continued (2015) – https://soundcloud.com/texturetext/to-be-continued-performance
Performer: Stephen Adams (voice, microphones, flute, mandolin, objects, radios, field recordings,
synths)