First Round - Vatche Jambazian performed music written for him by Australian composer, Andrew Howes. Howes was in the audience to see his amazing contemporary/classical "Moments Musicaux" premiere

Vatche Jambazian says, “I performed the Moment Musicaux in my first recital at the Australian National Piano Award in Shepparton and Andrew was there in the audience.  This is the Australian and World Premiere of the work which I will also perform later in the year in New York”.

ANDREW HOWES, COMPOSER:

“Moments Musicaux is a collection of musical ideas I worked on directly with Vatche, where we’ve dipped our toes into several genres of the piano lexicon, with the thought of finding new ways to explore old ideas. It contains a Passacaglia, a Barcarolle and a Fripperie, as well as a reactionary Tombeau, composed after the Paris attacks on the 13th of November, 2015”, says Andrew Howes.

BACKGROUND BIO – ANDREW HOWES

Andrew Howes has recently graduated from the Manhattan School of Music, having completed his MMus in Composition. He studied under Susan Botti, and also studied with Alison Kay and Simon Holt whilst completing his BMus at the Royal College of Music in London, where he was the recipient of the Clifton Parker award.  He has composed for a wide variety of ensembles, including the Sydney Symphony, the Kasba Trio, Moorambilla Voices, the Song Company, and the Enigma Quartet. His longstanding association with Moorambilla Voices includes a role in their APRA award-winning 10th and 11th seasons.

Andrew’s compositions in the last two years have been predominantly chamber and solo works. His chamber opera, The Mermaid, for Soprano and Piano Trio was premiered at the Utzon room in June 2017, and his second, third and fourth string quartets were premiered in 2018. In May he was invited to Budapest for the premiere of his string sextet, by students from the Liszt Academy. Non-chamber works include dissent/descent, a dance+electronics collaboration with choreographer Lliana Kleinman for The Roof, Peter Looked, an orchestral work premiered by the Manhattan School of Music Symphony Orchestra in February, 2018, and a new mass setting, commissioned by Ars Musica Australis for the Song Company.