National Boys Choir of Australia have released a new CD featuring two sets of my choral works - Songs of the Sea & Sky and Three Poems of Walter De La Mare - together with music by Australian composer Calvin Bowman.
The CD, Songs of Earth, Sea & Sky, can be ordered directly from NBCA on (+61) 03 9872 4480, or email office@nationalboyschoir.com.au.
Follow this link for more details:
The National Boys Choir of Australia gave the Australian premiere of my new choral work, Three Poems of Walter De La Mare, at the Melbourne Recital Centre on Saturday 21st July. The boys gave a first class performance under the direction of Peter Casey, accompanied by Robyn Cochrane on piano, as part of their Winter Concert, alongside works by Bach, Faure and Morricone. Congratulations and thanks to all at the NBCA.
The poems are a setting for three-part upper voices of words by the English Poet Walter De La Mare - Five Eyes, Silver and Tartary.
The National Boys' Choir of Australia have given the world premiere of my recent work for upper voices and piano, Three Poems of Walter De La Mare, on their recent tour of New Zealand.
The premiere was given at St Peter's Church, Takapuna in Auckland, as part of a joint concert with the Orlando Singers and the Auckland Boys Choir. The boys went on to perform the work in concerts at the Rotorua Civiv Theatre, Waiapu Cathedral and Wellington Cathedral.
Congratulations to the Senior Choir of University College School Junior Branch, who gave the UK premiere of 'Hush, the Waves' at their recent Spring Concert. The boys gave an excellent performance under the expert direction of musical director Stephen Lanigan-O'Keefe. Many thanks to all involved!
My new set of choral pieces - Three Poems of Walter De La Mare - will receive its premiere performance this July by the National Boys Choir of Australia at the Melbourne Recital Centre. The work is a setting for three-part upper voices of poems by the English poet Walter De La Mare: Five Eyes, Silver and Tartary.
The National Boys Choir of Australia is one of Australia's leading treble-voice choirs. They gave the world premiere of Songs of the Sea & Sky in 2010, also at the MRC, and the work was part of their repertoire for their tour to China later that year.
Copies of the Three Poems of Walter De La Mare can be ordered through the BUY section.
Hal Leonard have published my set of three choral pieces, Songs of the Sea & Sky, as part of the Henry Leck Creating Artistry Series. The songs are available as sheet music and digital downloads.
Click the cover below to go to the Hal Leonard page:
Congratulations and many thanks to the men of the Pemulwuy National Male Voice Festival, who performed my commissioned work, The Redemption of Captain Ahab, in their Finale Concert at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre last week.
The piece, with words by Queensland poet Mark Svendsen, develops the idea that the ghost of Captain Ahab would not be too pleased to hear about another white whale wandering free! This time, the whale is not Moby Dick, but Migaloo, the white humpback who journeys along the east coast of Australia every year. As the title suggests, it has a rather different ending to Melville's classic novel...
The men of the Pemulwuy Festival Adult Choir did a first rate job and were a pleasure to work with and sing with (I joined the choir for the Festival). We performed under the superb direction of internationally renowned choral conductor Dr Christopher Kiver and with the great accompanying of Justine Favell. The Festival is organised by Voices of Birralee and brought together over five hundred men and boys, choirs from all round the country, conductors, teachers and composers. It was a huge success and we all left in great spirits! A CD and DVD of the Finale Concert will be available soon. Many thanks also to Kate Albury and the boys of the Brisbane Grammar School Chamber Choir, who gave a very sensitive performance of Hush the Waves at the Sunday evening concert!
Congratulations to the boys and girls of Junior Gondwana, conductor Kate Albury and pianist Thomas Johnson. They performed my piece, Hush The Waves at their National Choral School Prelude Concert yesterday at the Verbrugghen Hall, Sydney Conservatorium of Music. It was a really sensitive and thoughtful performance which told the story of the piece - many thanks to all involved! It was also a pleasure to meet the choir earlier in the week and have a chance to talk about the piece with them.
My song, 'Let it Go, Brother' was awarded an Honorable Mention in the folk/acoustic category of the Indie International Songwriting Competition 2008. You can listen to the song in the MUSIC section, or click on the link below and head to WINNERS to find my page at Indie International.
I've added some new music and links to the site to show some of the film music I've written over the last few years. They include piano music for "Mother's Crown" by Perth-based filmmaker Misagh Habibi, a beautiful documentary that follows sculptor J J Jannu as he works on a new piece. Habibi's film has a great sense of stillness, which I reflect in the music, basing it on a short prayer that Jannu sings in the middle of the film as he is sculpting. You can also follow the link to Joe Hughes' eccentric "Victoria Bridge", an affectionate take on a bridge in Western Sydney being renamed after Victoria Beckham. It was recently screened at the Winter Magic Festival in the Blue Mountains. The music allowed for a little irony... Head to MUSIC and LINKS to check them out. Todd
I've had some great feedback on 'All My Good Intentions', some of which you can read about in the REVIEWS section. The people at TAXI, the big independent A&R company, have been pretty impressed and have forwarded some of my work to producers and recording artists.
Also a big thank you to Cass Pride at Qwerty Photography for the great new publicity shots. They're up on the website now and I'll be using them in all my publicity. Todd
Most of the songs were composed during a few months of fervent creativity when I moved to Australia in 2003. I’d been working with lyricists Tom Green (Twice its Weight in Gold) and Aidan Matthews (Star). Then I found myself a long way from home with a piano, a few months to spare and my beloved wife out at film school, and these songs just started coming out, lyrics and all - I didn’t have much choice! I knew I needed a big, decent voice to do the songs justice, so i teamed up with lush British vocalist Emma Lewendon. I first heard Emma sing back in the UK when she was with the contemporary folk trio Kai and I was blown away by the full, warm tone and beauty of her voice. What I didn’t realise at the time was how versatile a performer she is: far from being a folk music specialist, she’s equally at home with jazz, pop and music-theatre. When I found out through our mutual friend, English composer Richard Leigh, that Emma was coming to Sydney for six months, I knew I had to get her to sing these songs. In choosing the other musicians I was really influenced by the sound on Jamie Cullum’s first album. I wanted jazz players who could help create that same warm, natural sound of quality pop songs with jazz instrumentation. Dave Ellis (bass) and Lawrie Thompson (drums) fitted the roles perfectly, and there was some fantastic solo work from Graham Jesse (flute) and Peter Kartu (trumpet) on a couple of tracks. I don't like to say too much about the songs themselves. They're mostly pretty personal, but I hope people can find their own point of contact. I found on the occasions I tried to tell Emma exactly what a song meant to me she gave me a kind of look and I felt I was intruding...so i just let it go. One song, maybe, is worth explaining: Bird with the Burning Wings was inspired by a story from the partition of India. In a particular city many people kept pigeons on their rooftops, but so many houses were burning that the birds had nowhere to rest and they had to keep flying, but their wings had caught fire with all the fighting, so they were flying with burning wings and nowhere to rest. **************************************** Emma Lewendon – vocals, backing vocals Todd McNeal – piano, keyboards Dave Ellis – acoustic bass, electric bass Lawrie Thompson – drums Graham Jesse – flute on Black Dog and Star Peter Kartu – trumpet on Star Produced by Todd McNeal Recorded and mixed by Michael Bartolomei at One Chook Studio, Bondi Mastered by Albert Zychowski at Sony DADC Mastering, Huntingwood Art Direction & Design by Kathleen Woolford Photography by Jedda Bradley
Good Intentions come to those who wait...or something. Anyway, my album 'All My Good Intentions' is ready, finished, here, available, and sounds great! Huge thanks to Kathleen Woolford for the great artwork. You can check out out some of the songs from the album in the MUSIC section, all in decent long audio clips. Enjoy... Oh yes, and you can buy it online at CD Baby. Just go to the BUY section above and click the link.
My songwriter's album - All My Good Intentions - with vocals by stunning UK singer Emma Lewendon, is finally on the way. Just the artwork to finalise and then off to Melbourne for manufacture. Watch this space!
