Composer Attachments
The Composer Attachment program provides an exciting opportunity for composers to spend three to six months working closely with one of Australia's major symphony orchestras in a specific role, with agreed aims benefiting both composer and orchestra.
Sometimes the attachment is specific to a section of the orchestra (for example, its Education Program). At other times outcomes include a series of works for selected orchestral musicians or occasional works for a specific type of concert. Composers usually become immersed in the entire life of the orchestra.
The most successful attachments have involved composers who give pre-concert talks, involve themselves in the education program, attend artistic committee meetings and even write program notes! In this way the composer and orchestra become totally familiar with each other and a creative partnership is born.
A number of composers have spent time with a variety of orchestras in Composer Attachments. These include Matthew Hindson (Sydney Symphony and The Queensland Orchestra), Gerard Brophy (The Queensland Orchestra), Iain Grandage (West Australian Symphony Orchestra), James Ledger (Adelaide Symphony Orchestra), Liza Lim (Sydney Symphony) and Brett Dean (Melbourne Symphony Orchestra).
Specific longer-term projects are also undertaken such as the immensely successful liaison between indigenous composers and the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra titled 'Music is our Culture' in 1998 and 'Journey to Horseshoe Bend' with the Sydney Symphony in 2003 (composer Andrew Schultz, librettist Gordon Kalton Williams).