ABOUT
The Aus­tralian Band and Orches­tra Dir­ect­ors’ Asso­ci­ation Queens­land (ABODA QLD) is proud to announce the 2012 Com­mis­sion­ing Pro­ject as a unique oppor­tun­ity for band dir­ect­ors to be act­ively involved in devel­op­ing our Aus­tralian rep­er­toire. ABODA QLD has resolved to lead two con­sor­ti­ums res­ult­ing in two com­pos­i­tions of dif­fer­ing levels from Jodie Blackshaw.

Acknow­ledging that it is dif­fi­cult for schools to afford com­mis­sions on their own, ABODA QLD through the 2012 Com­mis­sion­ing Pro­ject will be lead­ing the form­a­tion of two con­sor­ti­ums of schools and other organ­isa­tions. The con­sor­ti­ums will pool the money of the con­sor­tium mem­bers so that the com­poser can be paid the com­mis­sion fees. This will make it pos­sible for dir­ect­ors to share with their stu­dents the com­mis­sion­ing of a new work, as well as the joy of per­form­ing the premiere of the work in their area.

ABOUT THE COMPOSER
Jodie is an Aus­tralian com­poser and exper­i­enced music edu­cator who stud­ied with Pro­fessor Larry Sit­sky. She won the inaug­ural Frank Ticheli Com­pos­i­tion Con­test in 2006 and her works ‘Whirl­wind’ (Grade 1) and ‘Terp­si­chorean Dances’ (Grade 3) are pub­lished with New York based Man­hat­tan Beach Music. In 2009 her emo­tion­ally com­pel­ling Grade 5 piece ‘Soul­ström’ was premiered in Texas by the Uni­ver­sity of North Texas Sym­phonic Band under the baton of esteemed con­ductor and edu­cator Pro­fessor Den­nis Fisher. She appears as a guest clini­cian and adju­dic­ator for band fest­ivals through­out Aus­tralia and is fan­at­ical about pro­du­cing qual­ity, mean­ing­ful works for band. Jodie desires that her music not just be “another piece, but an edu­ca­tional and spir­itual jour­ney for both the play­ers and the director”.

REGARDING THE COMPOSITIONS FOR THE CONSORTIUMS
Fol­low­ing is from the composer …

Con­sor­tium 1
Work­ing Title: Belah Sun Woman
Dif­fi­culty level: Grade 2 – Second Year Ensemble

The work will be edu­ca­tion­ally designed to develop young musi­cians over a period of time. It is based on a com­pel­ling story of Belah Sun Woman, an Indi­gen­ous tale from the ancient people of the Flinders Rangers in South Aus­tralia. ‘Belah’ is planned to be a highly unusual work in 5 move­ments that draws upon teach­ing exper­i­ences from both the classroom and the podium. Stu­dents will be inspired to become more open-minded, express­ive and col­lab­or­at­ive musical thinkers.

The single, ulti­mate goal of the piece will be that of ‘awareness’.

Con­sor­tium 2
Work­ing Title: Twist
Dif­fi­culty level: Grade 4

This work for advan­cing high school band will be a hoot to play and con­duct. Your audi­ence will also be struck by the con­stantly chan­ging timbres and mean­der­ing, lyr­ical pas­sages. The piece is being inspired by both land­scape and ancient tales of Australia’s most cher­ished water source, the Mur­ray River. The ever-changing nature of this mag­nan­im­ous water­way was exper­i­enced first-hand by the com­poser who was born and raised in the Riv­er­ina N.S.W. It has long been her desire to emu­late the beauty of the Mur­ray and all of its sur­rounds in a piece that is both exhil­ar­at­ing and beautiful.

CONSORTIUM CONTRIBUTIONS
Costs to be a mem­ber of the 2012 ABODA QLD Com­mis­sion­ing Con­sor­ti­ums is:
1. $200 for Con­sor­tium 1: Belah Sun Woman (the level 2 piece), and
2. $250 for Con­sor­tium 2: Twist (the level 4 piece).

Notes: The con­sor­ti­ums will be lim­ited to 15 mem­bers and 10 mem­bers respect­ively for each work. Schools may elect to par­ti­cip­ate in one or both of the com­mis­sion­ing con­sor­ti­ums. Each partici­pating school will receive a set of parts (one of each with per­mis­sion to copy) and a score within a month after the ANBOC2012 Premiere.

PREMIERE PERFORMANCE
The pieces will be premiered at the ANBOC con­fer­ence in July 2012. The names of all par­ti­cip­at­ing schools (or com­munity ensembles) and their dir­ect­ors will be prin­ted in the music. Con­sor­tium mem­bers will receive Aus­tralian per­form­ance rights to the work for six months after the premiere.

NEXT STEP
To secure your place, down­load the inten­tion to join a con­sor­tium and for­ward to ABODA QLD either by email or mail. If there are pos­i­tions avail­able in the con­sor­ti­ums of your choice an invoice will be for­war­ded to you. Par­ti­cip­a­tion in the ABODA QLD 2012 Com­mis­sion­ing Pro­ject is on a first-come, first-served basis. You will be advised if there are no remain­ing places in the con­sor­ti­ums and per­haps an altern­at­ive may be presented!

This is a truly excit­ing oppor­tun­ity for you to join your col­leagues from other schools to con­tinue devel­op­ing our Aus­tralian repertoire.

Look­ing for­ward to you join­ing the consortium!

Dr Lewes Ped­dell
Pres­id­ent, ABODA QLD