BIOGRAPHY

Robert Burrell has a PhD in music composition. He is married with three children and has recently returned to Australia from Malaysia where he was working as a senior lecturer in the music faculty of UPSI. He composes in acoustic and electroacoustic mediums with many of his works featuring avian elements. Robert’s creative output covers a wide spectrum of performance abilities encompassing simple beginner works, canons and rounds to complex and difficult works for virtuoso performers.

Composer website:  robertburrell.com.au

FEATURED WORKS

Robinson Gorge, for saxophone orchestra.

Robinson Gorge, for saxophone orchestra, was commissioned by Diana Tolmie for the Queensland Saxophone Orchestra to take to the 2012 Edinburgh Festival and the 2012 International Society for Music Education Conference, held in Greece.

Working from aural transcriptions made at Robinson Gorge, Queensland, the work is contrapuntal and loosely based on a fugal form. A traditional ‘subject’, ‘counter-subject’ and ‘free’ components are present as well as episodic modulations and stretti. However, there is a contrasting ‘B’ section that is not fugal, but which develops some of the counter-subject and free material as accompaniment figures.

Featured in Playlist 11 – Saxophone Waves (30/11/2015)

Serenade for Strings mvt 2, for string orchestra.

This is a gentle work that features the call of a Pied Butcherbird. The birdcall was recorded in Morningside, Brisbane in 2010.

Featured in Spotify Waves – February 2017 (01/02/2017)