BIOGRAPHY

After initial studies in composition at the University of Melbourne and the Victorian College of the Arts, Christine moved to the UK in 1997 to study with James MacMillan at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, and later received a research scholarship to complete a PhD in composition at the University of Edinburgh. Composition prizes and awards include the The Dorian Le Galienne Composition Award, The Lyrebird Music Society A.N.A. Prize for Composition and a Bundanon Artists Trust Residency. Christine’s work covers a range of styles from chamber music to electroacoustic composition and video.

Many of Christine’s compositions have been performed by leading ensembles and soloists, both in Australia and Internationally, including the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, soloists from the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the Vienna Piano Trio and Topology Ensemble (Australia). Her piano trio Anregung , a commission from Musica Viva Australia, was premiered by the Vienna Piano Trio during their Australian tour in 2000 and was later performed by the trio at the Vienna Musikverein. Night Alchemy, commissioned and premiered by The Australia Ensemble, was selected for the Australian representation at the 2002 Internationally Composers Rostrum in Paris, resulting in a number of European broadcasts of the work. Recent commissions include new works for the Artisan Trio, Edinburgh Three Kinds of Silence and the Australian Chamber Choir A Lexicon of Dreams both premiered in 2013 and received favourable reviews. A Lexicon of Dreams has subsequently been performed on tour by the choir in both Australia and Europe.

Composer website: https://christinemccombe.com

FEATURED WORKS

The Fastness of Forgetting (3rd movement), for saxophone, piano, violin, viola and double bass

This piece was written for a video performance work commissioned for and premiered by Topology Ensemble. The work explores themes of memory, time and its passing.

Featured in Dream Waves playlist, December 2017