Houston Dunleavy
Composer and Conductor
Biography
I was born in Ulster in 1962, ending up in Australia for the first time, in 1973. I'm formerly Senior Lecturer in Composition and Honorary Principal Fellow at the University of Wollongong, an am now, as part of my freelance life, Adjunct Fellow at the Australian National University in Canberra, an academic staff member at the Australian Institute of Music in Sydney and Muscial Director of the Sydney Male Choir. Since 1985, I have pursued a national and international career as a composer and conductor having benefitted from composition teachers including Peter Tahourdin, Barry Conyngham, Donald Erb, David Felder and Charles Wuorinen and conducting teachers Roland Yeung and Gilbert Brooks.
I've been Visiting Composer at James Madison University, The Cleveland Institute of Music, Ball State University, the University of Florida, Georgia State University, The University of Southern Florida, The Univeristy of Melbourne and the Univeristy of Tasmania. I've conducted, and had performances of my music, in Australia, the USA, the UK, France, China, Taiwan, Thailand, Italy, Singapore, Japan and Puerto Rico and was a participant the June in Buffalo Festivals, The North American New Music Festival and at the 1995 Hoy Composers Course, where I was invited by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies to write for the Scottish Chamber Orchestra String Quartet.
Recent performances of my music include the Florida Electro-acoustic Music Festival (April 2007), the 2008 Aurora Festival, the 2008 Albert Roussel Festival where I was Composer-in-Residence, The Delaware New Music Festival. In 2010, I had performances at the "Organs of the Goldfields" Festival in Ballarat, Vic., Adelaide, Wollongong, Melbourne and Sydney in Australia, as well as Taipei, Los Angeles, San Diego, Portland, (Oregon) in the USA, and Manchester, England. In 2011, my "Flying in Paradise" was premiered at the and the 2011 Tubamania Festival in Bangkok (the Australian premiere was given at the 2011 Melbourne International Festival of Brass). There were further performances at the 2011 Australian National Flute Festival and in the Opera Prometheus "Sydney in Love" Festival. The year was capped off in grand style by the world premiere, in Melbourne, of my concerto vor viola and symphonic winds "A Kiss Before The World's End" given by Brett Deubner, viola and the Grainger Wind Symphony, conducted by Roland Yeung.
My music is recorded on a number of CD's, on the Wirripang and Move labels.
My compositions have included music for orchestra, the theatre (including dance), the voice and the church, the combination of electro-acoustic and acoustic resources especially in real time (such as in my Spaces series of works), the exploration of virtuosity (good examples are my Gondwanaland: a Concerto for Tuba and Symphonic Wind Ensemble, Breathless Lover for solo piano and A Kiss Before the World's End which is a concerto for viola and Symphonic Wind Ensemble) and indigenous Australian music (the entire Earth Music series fits this description).
Major performances of my music have been given by international concert artists including Beverley Rinaldi, soprano, Alan Baer (principal tuba of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra), Steve Rosse, (principal tuba of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra), Kevin Orr, David Goldblatt, Stephen Manes and Duncan Gifford, pianists, Adam Meyer, trombone, Matt van Emmerick, euphonium, Susan Collins, violin, Harold Levin, viola, The Manes Duo, Sydney-based ensembles, Charisma, Kammer, The Kingfisher Trio and The Stables Ensemble, Jean Penny, flute and Andrew Blackburn (organ), Peter Sheridan (flutes) and Brett Deubner (viola) and ensemble like Melbourne's Syzrgy, Sydney's The Kingfisher Trio, Charisma, and Kammer, Bribane's Locana, and The Bugallo-Williams Duo, from the USA. Future projects are scheduled with Irish flute legend Bill Dowdall, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra low brass section and ensembles in Australia and the USA.
As a conductor I have led over 40 operas, operettas and musicals in Australia and the USA, including two world premiere seasons. After several years freelance conductor in music theatre in Melbourne in the late 1980's, I conducted the University Circle Choral and Chamber Choir in Cleveland, OH USA, the Niagara all-county chorus in New York, and freelanced in and around Washington DC. I conducted at the June in Buffalo and the North American New Music Festivals as well as being Guest Artist - Conductor of Opera and Music Theatre at The American University in Washington DC. For eight years, I conducted the Illawarra Choral Society after returning to Australia. I'm began my current post with the Sydney Male Choir in September 2010 following the retirement of Alan Thrift.
2012 looks to be an exciting year, with more premieres, new works to be performed, an exciting recording project or two and plenty of regular conducting gigs.
Bring it on!