Brad Gill

BIOGRAPHY

Brad Gill is a co-artistic director and Sideband percussionist. He began serious musical studies with a focus on xylophone and percussion, later developing an interest in composition, which he explored while a student at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music (from which he has an Honours degree and Ph.D.) and University of Western Australia. During this time he developed an interest in non-Western music, undertaking study in Javanese Gamelan and Tabla, as well as studying jazz vibraphone in addition to composition studies, resulting in a broad and highly individual compositional style.

Composer website: via Soundcloud.

FEATURED WORKS

Trails in the Sky, for Alto saxophone, vibraphone.

‘Trails in the Sky’ is in a sense a ‘trail’ or ‘trace’ of my recent set of piano variations Like Writing on Water. I was intending to create a largely improvised work for me (percussion), bass flute, viola and piano, but circumstance and inspiration conspired to lead me to write for me and my brother Sam Gill, an emerging improvising saxophonist and superb growing musician. My initial intention (for the quartet) had been to take unused pre-composition material from Like Writing … as a basis to compose a musical landscape or context for one or more free improvisers to musically traverse and engage with.’

Featured in Duo Waves – December 2016

One Word Full of Meaning, for vocal sextet and percussion.

‘One Word Full of Meaning’ was composed for the Sydney based Song Company in 2007. It is a musical setting of a number of Theravada Buddhist texts in the Pali language used for daily chanting by the monks- the texts focus on themes of transience of life and beauty, reflections of death, impermanence etc. and also includes the beautiful metta sutta (‘may all beings be well and happy ….’).’

Featured in Long Waves – August 2016

Orovela, for clarinet, guitar, horn, piano and percussion.

Composed in 1997 Orovela is a new music composition by Australian composer Brad Gill. Written for violin, clarinet, guitar, percussion, horn and piano it takes the Georgian folk song ‘Orovela’ as a basis for material which is transformed and explored and used to generate the piece.

Featured in Jazz-World Waves – November 2017

Like Writing on Water, for solo piano.

‘Like Writing on Water’ was composed in response to a commission by the excellent Sydney based pianist Daniel Herscovitch. A stipulation from the CD’s benefactor was that it include the piano variations of Anton Webern (op. 27). I took this as an opportunity both to really interrogate Webern’s work (what is it actually about? what is actually varied?) and to explore and apply a research interest in atonal theory.

– Brad Gill

Featured in Piano Waves- October 2019