TONY GOULD

Pianist and composer Tony Gould is one of Australia’s most respected musicians. His career has embraced many styles of music, not least jazz and other improvisatory music in addition to traditional and contemporary classical music. He gives many concerts each year and for 50 years he has been involved in an extraordinary number of recording projects both as pianist and composer and has been at the forefront of music education in Australia via various tertiary institutions in Melbourne and throughout Australia.

His performances cover a wide range. He has accompanied such eminent jazz musicians as Clark Terry, Mark Murphy and Ernestine Anderson and has been a supporting artist to Dave Brubeck, Oscar Peterson, Sarah Vaughan, Jean Luc Ponty, Ray Brown, the Art Ensemble of Chicago and many other distinguished groups. Yet he is equally at home playing Bach and Mozart and has been a guest soloist with both the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and the Elizabethan Melbourne Orchestra.

He has recorded over twenty commercially released LPs and CDs debuting in 1974 with the album 'Tony Gould Solo'. He recorded on many labels. Over the past few years, Tony has become increasingly active as a composer. He has fulfilled commissions for the Victorian Arts Centre, the Hamilton Arts Festival, the Solitaire Tuba Ensemble, and has written works for horn and piano and tuba and piano. He has been a guest artist with the State Orchestra of Victoria for a premiere of his work Homage to Bach for symphony orchestra and piano trio. He was commissioned to write music for two award winning CSIRO documentary films. In 1997 his chamber work Under Milk Wood, based on Dylan Thomas' work, was premiered by the Queensland Philharmonic Orchestra and narrated by distinguished Australian actor John Stanton.

Tony's music has wide appeal. He draws from a wide range of musical influences including Bach, Mahler, Stravinsky, Bartok, Keith Jarrett and Bill Evans. His style of composition is marked by rhythmic vitality and a particular sensitivity to harmony. Tony is has recently resigned from his position as Dean of Music at the Victorian College of the Arts School of music. In 1997 he was visiting Head of Post Graduate Studies, at the Conservatorium of Music, Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts. In recent years he has also lectured at The University of Melbourne and acted as a consultant for the National Academy of Music and Director of their inaugural program for improvisation studies.

He has been a chief adjudicator for The Sun Aria competition for the last twenty years and adjudicator of eisteddfods and scholarships throughout Australia, including the National Finals of the Yamaha Music Competition and the World Final of the Yamaha Music Competition. He was a member of the founding committee of advisors in establishing the Yamaha Music Foundation and continues to be a senior member of examining panels for exams in Keyboard. Tony is a respected music writer and critic having contributed to The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, The Oxford Companion to Australian Music and Music Forum. He was chief (classical) music critic for The Sun newspaper (Melbourne) for a number of years and has also written for The Australian.

He has a PhD from Latrobe University, a Master of Arts from Monash University and a Bachelor of Music from the University of Melbourne. In early 2005 Tony resigned his position as Head of the School of Music, Victorian College of the Arts to renew his passion for a hands-on approach to music-making in performance, composition and writing. He currently is a Professor of Music at Monash University.

Recent awards include the APRA /Australian Music Centre (AMC) Classical Music Award for Outstanding Contribution to Australian Music in Education (2005), an Australia Council Music Board Fellowship (2006-2007) and a Distinguished Artist residency at Arthur Boyd’s artist’s studios in Bundanon (2007). He was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2007.

ALBUMS

'Tony Gould Solo' 1974

'Tony Gould' [with Brian Brown and Murray Wall] 1978 Jazznote
'Gould Plays Gould' [with John Sangster, Ray Martin] 1979 Move
'Best Of Friends' 1984 Move
'Spirit of the Rainbow' [with Brian Brown] 1990 Move
'Lirik' [with Ben Robertson and Steve Heather] 1993 Newmarket Music
'A Tin Roof For The Rain' 1998 Larrikin
'Chronicle: Orchestral Music Of Tony Gould' 1998 Move
'River Story' [with Peter Petrucci] 1998 Move
'Tomorrow, Just You Wait And See' [with Emma Gilmartin] 2002 Move
'From Within' [with Peter Petrucci] 2002 Move
'At The End of the Day' 2005 ABC
'In Memoriam' [with David Ward-Steinman] 2007 Move
'Under The Tall Trees' [with Imogen Manins and David Jones] 2008 ABC
'Here' [with Rob Burke] 2009 Jazzhead
The Lucky Ones' 2010 Move
'Home' [with Emma Gilmartin] 2010 Move
'The Cello & The Mockingbird' [Imogen Manins and David Jones] 2011 Move
'The Journey Home' [Peter Petrucci] 2012 Which Way Music
'Such A Sky' [with Imogen Manins] 2013 Move
'The Monash Sessions' [with Mike Nock] 2015 Jazzhead

References

.http://www.move.com.au/artist/tony-gould