Australian Youth Orchestra
Maddie Hammond Takes the Reins of the AYO Podcast
In her own words, Maddie Hammond is a Perth-based ‘composer, trumpet player, music educator, and above all music enthusiast’. In January 2023, Maddie was one of three participants of the Words About Music program at AYO National Music Camp.
During camp, (between writing program notes, devising blog posts, presenting at concerts and creating content for the annual camp calendar) Maddie conducted several interviews which she compiled into three episodes for the AYO podcast. Check them out below!
Applications for AYO’s 2024 programs are now open. Find out more here
New Music Part 1 & 2
Sofia Gubaidulina, Valerie Coleman, Wojciech Kilar. Even the most seasoned of concert goers might take a double take at names like these. You might be wondering, who are they? It’s possible you’ve never heard of these composers or heard their music in a concert hall. The question is, why don’t we know them?
On the topic of new music, I’ve had the pleasure of speaking with some of the composers and conductors attending AYO National Music Camp, to get a better sense of new music’s place in Australia’s concert scene. I wanted to talk to the veterans of the classical music scene, both in Australia and beyond our bubble, as well as our emerging artists. Why is there a stigma around new music? Is the programming of new music tokenistic? What has been the reception of new music?
Listen to part 1 below to hear the perspectives of conductors Umberto Clerici and James Judd
Download the full audio transcript of this episode
Listen to part 2 below to hear from composer Anne Cawrse, tutor of the Composition program at AYO National Music Camp 2023, and emerging composers Phillip Cullen and Nick Kyrikakis
Download the full audio transcript of this episode
The Question of Privilege
I want you to think back to primary school. All those years ago when your ears hadn’t yet heard the sound of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons or Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, and you didn’t even know what a piano or a violin sounded like. Then one day, you were walking past the ensemble that only the big kids played in or you heard a performance by an ensemble that visited your school and naturally, everything changed for you. Was it the violin, the clarinet or the trumpet that caught your attention? Perhaps at that moment you felt an inherent pull towards music. You were overcome with a feeling of, ‘I have to do music’. But is it really that straightforward?
On the question of privilege, I had the pleasure of speaking with a number of AYO National Music Camp participants to learn more about their trajectory and how they got to where they are now. I wanted to better understand how visibility played a role for them, how important their teachers were in their success, and what curveballs were thrown at them. To explore these questions, I spoke with Lauren McCormick and Zinia Chan as part of the young composer cohort.
Listen to the episode below to hear from emerging composers Lauren McCormick and Zinia Chan
Download the full audio transcript of this episode