John Peterson, Hovea Music Press composer
John Peterson was born in Wollongong, New South Wales in 1957 and
was a freelance percussionist, pianist, band master and music teacher
before commencing composition studies at the University of Sydney in
1986. He studied composition with Eric Gross, Ross Edwards and Peter
Sculthorpe and graduated with a Bachelor of Music (1st class Honours)
in 1990, followed by a Master of Music in Composition in 1994. He is
currently completing a PhD in Composition, again studying with Peter
Sculthorpe and Ross Edwards, at the University of Sydney.
As a composer John Peterson has written music for, and had music performed by, many groups including The Contemporary Singers, The Seymour Group, the Coruscations ensemble, Sydney Mandolins, the Sydney University Symphony Orchestra, the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and the National Orchestra of Wales. He has also written solo and duo works for many performers including Adrian Hooper (mandolin), Michael Hooper (mandolin), Eleanor Lewis (cello), Ken Murray (guitar), Marianne Powles (contralto), Kerry Yong (piano) and Robert Zocchi (piano).
In 1992 Peterson's Walking on Glass, for solo piano, received a High Commendation in the "Jean Bogan Prize for Piano Composition", a competition run by Newcastle University Conservatorium of Music. In 1995, his orchestral work, Cyberia, received a High Commendation in the Queensland Philharmonic Orchestra's Orchestral Composition Competition.
In September 1997, John Peterson was selected from over 1,000 entrants as one of fifteen semi-finalists for the inaugural Masterprize competition, an international competition run jointly by BBC Music Magazine and the London Symphony Orchestra to find new and exciting works for symphony orchestra. Peterson's entry for this competition, Rituals in Transfigured Time, was subsequently recorded by the National Orchestra of Wales and broadcast on widely on BBC Radio 3 in the UK and in Europe and on ABC Classic FM throughout Australia. Rituals in Transfigured Time is published by Chester Music in the UK.
As a participant in the 1998 Australian Composers' Orchestral Forum (ACOF), Peterson was commissioned to write a new work for the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. The resulting score, Port Kembla, received its premiere performance by that orchestra in Hobart, Tasmania, in November 1998.
Other recent works include Of Quiet Places, a song cycle for voice and guitar, Staring at the Sun, for large mixed ensemble (premiered by the Coruscations ensemble at the 1998 Sydney Spring Festival), Diabolic Dance for violin and cello, Drive for alto saxophone and piano, Wired Life for mandolin duo, Hyper-Ballads for mixed ensemble, Spike for two cellos, Moving Fast through Autumn Light for solo mandolin, and Propeller for string quartet.
John Peterson has recently been commissioned by Musica Viva Australia to write a new work for the Shostakovich String Quartet, to be performed during that group's Australian Tour in 2000. He is also one of five composers contributing a movement for choir and orchestra towards a work celebrating the centenary of Federation. Commissioned by Ars Musica Australis, this work is scheduled for performance in 2001.
John Peterson's music has frequently been broadcast on ABC Classic - FM, as well as on radio 2MBS-FM in Sydney. Two of his earlier works,Walking on Glass (for solo piano) and the song cycle A Voice from the City (for voice and small ensemble), can be heard on the "Greenbaum, Hindson, Peterson" CD, available from the Australian Music Centre. Four other chamber works by Peterson are featured on three CDs due for release during 2000.
John Peterson is a fully-represented composer-member of the Australian Music Centre and is a founding member of the Contemporary Performers' & Composers' Fellowship (CPCF), a Sydney-based group formed in 1991 and dedicated to the presentation of contemporary Australian music. He is also currently Vice-President and Secretary of the Fellowship of Australian Composers (FAC).
At the Still Point: printable sample, programme note