Mary Finsterer

Mary Finsterer is an Australian composer.

Life

Finsterer was born in Canberra in 1962; her siblings are the actors Anni Finsterer and Jack Finsterer. She graduated in 1987 with a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Melbourne. A recipient of the Royal Netherlands Government Award in 1993, she continued her studies in Amsterdam with Louis Andriessen, then returned to Australia and studied with Brenton Broadstock, completing a Master of Music degree in 1995 at the University of Melbourne. She completed a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 2003.[1] In 2006 she received a Churchill Fellowship for her continuing work in multimedia. Finsterer is married to the photographer Dean Golja.[2]

Recognised as one of Australia’s most innovative orchestral composers, Mary received the Apra Amcos Art Music Award in 2014 for her large-scale piece Aerea while other works including her latest symphonic work Lake Ice | Missed Tales no.1 and her large-scale work for two pianos, Falling, have been finalists. Her percussion concerto, Silva, was the featured work in the Ensemble Offspring programme at the Sydney Opera House in 2013 and toured nationally in 2015.

In 2009 her orchestral fanfare Afmaeli, was the opening piece for the 70th Birthday celebrations of world–renowned composer Louis Andriessen at the Holland Festival. In the same year Mary was the winner of the Paul Lowin Orchestral Prize for In Praise of Darkness, an orchestral work commissioned by Tura Music and ASKO│Schönberg in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Her body of work also includes Julian Suite No.1 Movement 1 Nobility for Plexus, Angelus for Ensemble Liaison, a violin duet, Spherica 1, for acclaimed soloists Natsuko Yoshimoto and James Cuddeford, a string quartet for the Goldner String Quartet, a chamber work for the Sydney Soloists, and a number of works for her 2009 Composer in Residence position at the Campbelltown Performing Arts Centre.

Finsterer has taught music and composition at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, the University of Montreal in Canada, the University of Wollongong, the Victorian College of the Arts, the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, the University of Sydney and the Australian Film Television and Radio School where she became an Honorary Research Fellow in 2009. Finsterer is a Vice-Chancellor's Professorial Fellow at Monash University and in July 2014 was announced as the inaugural Chamber Music Australia Chair of Composition at Monash University.[3] Her works have been performed internationally.[4]

Finsterer has composed for films and electro–acoustic events for the Music Biennale Zagreb, Le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, Ensemble InterContemporain, and Ictus Ensemble for performance in Lille and Brussels.[1] She worked as an orchestrator on the 2007 film Die Hard 4.0. Her film music for the 2010 feature film South Solitary received a Film Critics Circle of Australia nomination in 2010, and has since been released on the CD label ABC Classics. She is presently completing her first opera, Biographica.

Honors and awards

Works

Selected works include:

References

  1. 1 2 "Mary Finsterer". Australian Music Centre. Retrieved 9 December 2010.
  2. ↑ "What Happens Next: Meeting Mary Finsterer" by Andrew Ford, The Monthly (October 2011)
  3. ↑ Monash University Alumni Relations (14 July 2014). "Gift to develop the 21st century musician". Monash University Alumni Community. Monash University. Retrieved 12 January 2015.
  4. ↑ Dees, Pamela Youngdahl (2004). A Guide to Piano Music by Women Composers: Women born after 1900.

External links

External image
Mary Finsterer
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