Download Stephen Leek

Stephen Leek
Australian Composer, Conductor, Educator and
Publisher
Biography
Stephen Leek’s distinctive music is immediately recognizable, capturing the
enigmas, drama, rhythms, colours and ethos of Australia. He has been
accredited with having made a significant impact on and a major contribution
to the development of Australian choral composition and performance and
how that has been promoted and discussed throughout the world over the
past 25 years.
“If one were to dream about an ideal way for Australian choral music to truly
make its mark, one might:
Firstly, focus on developing a body of choral repertoire that tells the world
about the perspective and concerns of our place and our time, and encourage
the development of compositional skills that articulate this perspective with
clarity and nuance;
Secondly, develop the musical skills and the experience in young singers
to articulate and realise this repertoire, giving it a life, with enthusiasm, joy,
vigour, clarity, and above all, with the utmost musicality and rigour;
Thirdly, provide the singers with an experience that will significantly
impact on their lives, and provide audiences with a rich, meaningful, and
above all, entertaining experience;
Fourthly, perform often, at home and away, in a variety of contexts,
directly communicating with audiences;
And lastly, continue to motivate, enthuse, excite, stimulate, and challenge,
always aiming high, never faltering, and truly setting a benchmark for others
to emulate.
But wait a minute! This already exists, and has existed for 15 years! In
Stephen Leek and The Australian Voices! How blessed are we in this country
to claim them as our own?”John Davis – Chief Executive Officer, The
Australian Music Centre Limited
Born in Sydney in 1959, Stephen Leek is an extensively commissioned
freelance composer, freelance conductor, educator and publisher. Teaching
sessional Composition and Improvisation at the Queensland Conservatorium,
Griffith University until 2009 Leek, resigned from this position in order to
develop further his already hectic free-lance schedule of commissions,
workshops and guest appearances and to take up a non-remunerative
position on the Board of the International Federation of Choral Music – a
project of UNESCO. He is currently a Vice President of the IFCM. A pioneer in
developing composer residencies, Leek’s involvement with numerous choral
and music groups at every level of accomplishment has had vital influence on
recent Australian music.“
Luminary is not an exaggeration when applied to Stephen Leek. His music is published,
performed and recorded in many countries of the world. His name is well-known among many
thousands of people, not all of them seasoned musicians. He has influenced the lives of many
hundreds of young Australians…. Only a relatively small percentage of Australia’s many
composers might boast such a profile, yet books on Australian music – even the more recent
ones – have ignored Leek’s work, or at best, passed it of in one or two sentences.”
Dr Helen Lancaster – Music Council of Australia
In Australia he has been Composer in Residence to numerous leading
organisations such as the Sydney Children’s Choir / Gondwana Choirs, The St
Peters Chorale, the National Music Camps Association of Australia (AYO), and
the Eltham East Primary School Choir, that have defined new directions and
pathways for Australian music. Leek has also be widely commissioned here
and abroad with some of the most recent commissions including The
Australian Voices (AUS), The Glen Ellen Children’s Choir (USA), The Adelaide
Chorale (AUS), Eltham East Primary School Choir (AUS), SongBridge 2000
(Netherlands), Gondwana Choirs (AUS), the San Francisco Girls Chorus
(USA), Taipei Male Choir (Taiwan), Sydney Male Choir (AUS) World Sun
Songs Project (Latvia) Singapore Chamber Choir (Singapore) to name but a
few. Having worked extensively at all levels of Australian and international
music-making, Leek has devoted much of his time to generating workshops
and repertoire that stimulates, excites and challenges the very youngest
performers to seasoned professionals, putting performance practises and
skills in place to enable all ages and skills levels to interpret, understand and
appreciate the unique qualities of his music and other Australian composers.
“There exists an unspoken prejudice among certain professional musicians –
composers, performers, critics, administrators, funding bodies – against
music written for amateurs. Most believe that sort of activity to be beneath
their dignity; some performers, (like actors) regard it as a risk to been seen
and heard in the company of amateurs (and children and animals); critics
and journalists, similarly, prefer not to be associated without the big names.
For this reason Stephen Leek is not as widely known as he should be. Of
course, Leek may have the last laugh, because there is a new generation of
young musicians in Australia that would probably mention him first when
asked to name a living composer.Leek doesn’t compose exclusively for
amateurs, but it seems to be his preferred domain. Certainly he is expert at
it, and the result of such expertise is to transcend the amateur tag altogether.
Like Orff, Britten and Maxwell Davies – to name only three – Leek writes
music for his young performers that is in the first place challenging, but soon
turns out to be exceptionally grateful to sing; the difficulties can be overcome.
And, like the other three composers’ music for non-professionals, Leeks’
sound more technically difficult than it really is. In other words, choirs do this
music because it makes them sound good, and that’s not a bad
reason.” Andrew Ford - Composer, Broadcaster, Commentator
From 1989 – 1996, with his improvisational vocal group vOiCeArT, Stephen
Leek confronted the Australian music world head-on by throwing out wild
challenges to the mainstream about the notion and practices of choral
singing. In 1993 he was joint founder, and from 1997 – 2009 Artistic
Director/Conductor, of The Australian Voices, an elite ensemble of young
adult singers who, through their motivated commitment to the work of
Australian composers, have significantly challenged and changed the
landscape of choral music in Australia and taken Australian music to the most
prestigious festivals and events around the globe.
“The Australian Voices has led the way in shifting Australian choral music –
and our perceptions of it – from the fringes to the mainstream. The fact that
choral organisations all over Australia now regard it as core activity to
promote, commission and perform Australian repertoire is in no small part
due to the commitment and expertise of this wonderful organisation.”Graham
Abbott - Conductor, Music Educator and Broadcaster
Among Stephen Leek’s array of personal accolades is the award in 2003 of
the prestigious Robert Edler International Prize for Choral Music. Cited by an
international jury for his ‘decisive influence’ on both the Australian music
scene and the international choral community as a composer and conductor,
Leek has been admitted into the pantheon of leading choral composers and
conductors worldwide alongside Conductors Freider Bernius, Karmina Selic,
Maria Guinaund and institutions such as the World Youth Choir. He has won
numerous other national and international awards for his music including
several Sounds Australian Awards, and in 2004, his work die dunkle Erde was
selected by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation to represent Australia at
the UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers in Paris.
“The enormous range of Stephen Leek’s choral activities and the
extraordinary quality of his composition work have made him one of the most
interesting and promising of the rising generation of composers in the world
today.” Dir. Dolf Rabus, International Federation of Choral Music, Director –
Marktoberdorf International Chamber Choir Competition, Germany
In recent years Leek’s activities have expanded more on the international
scene where he has been Composer in Residence at the Marktoberdorf Musik
Akademy, Germany; Guest Conductor with the acclaimed Formosa Singers,
Taiwan, The Crystal Choir, USA, Composer NOT in Residence with Choral
Artists of San Francisco, and, Guest Conductor with the Singapore Ministry of
Education, The Taiwan National Youth Choir, The Crystal Choir in the USA,
guest composer at the Sun Music Festival in Riga, Latvia, a juror at the World
Choir Games in Austria, and presenter at numerous music, education and
choral Conferences around the world. His list of national and international
commissions now reads like a list of “Who’s Who”. With his work regularly
being performed by choirs and primarily amateur organisations around the
world, Leek is arguably one of the most performed, yet largely ignored by
the establishment in his own country.
“Stephen Leek’s Uluru (from Great Southern Spirits) is one of the
most compelling, electrifying new choral compositions I have
heard.” Mark Gresham, Chorus! USA