BIOGRAPHY

Celebrated Australian composer-pianist Sally Greenaway (b.1984) composes and performs in an exceptionally wide range of musical styles – from classical to jazz to film soundtracks. Hailing from Canberra, Greenaway’s music has been performed all over the world. Her third album Aubade & Nocturne (2015) was released to critical acclaim on ABC Classics and made history as the first classical album to make the Australian Music Prize long-list. The album also earned her a coveted Canberra Critics Circle Award. Her choral work Stay Awhile features in the ABC Classic 100 “LOVE” countdown 2017, and her most ambitious work to date, The 7 Great Inventions of the Modern Industrial Age won ‘Instrumental Work of the Year’ in the State Award category of the APRA Art Music Awards 2017.

Greenaway’s music has been performed by the Melbourne and Canberra Symphony Orchestras, jazz ensembles Trichotomy and the Jazzgroove Mothership Orchestra, chamber music ensembles Plexus and Syzygy, and most notably by numerous community groups in the Canberra region, including the Resonants, the National Capital Orchestra and many others.

She is a graduate from the Royal College of Music, London, where she received the Lucy Anne Jones award. She has more than 60 works published, many of which are available through the Australian Music Centre.

Composer website: www.sallygreenaway.com.au

FEATURED WORKS

The Feud Suite, for Soprano & Narrator, Piano, Violin 1, Violin 2, Viola, Cello, Double Bass.

The Feud Suite is a collection of 7 short movements of music separated by vivid poetry. The music for this suite was originally composed for an original film soundtrack for the short film The Nest, directed by Em Cooper (London, 2010). Upon returning to Canberra, I wanted to re-work the film music into a suite for concert hall and collaborated with Canberra writer Tanya Kiermaier, whose poetry harks poignantly towards the darker side of Australia’s Montague Island history:

“…Through the bitterness of dark, the light circles, deep and silent as the universe.
While wind flaps and hums through snarls of kikuyu whips round the children’s graves and flings itself out into the spreadeagled ocean…”

Featured in Playlist 6: Meditative Waves 30/06/15

Flywheel, for Jazz trio; piano, bass and drums.

Stylistically influenced by Tord Gustavsen, EST and Vijay Iyer this work is written in a modern jazz style, drawing upon the harmonic language of poetic classical music and Eastern European/Middle Eastern harmonies. A relentless background triplet figure underpins expansive melodic phrases. The bass is also featured prominently in the piece, intertwining the melody parts with the piano. This was commissioned by Restrung (festival of new music) for jazz ensemble Trichotomy (Sean Foran on Piano; Sam Vincent on Bass; John Parker on Drums) for whom the work has been dedicated.

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

Falling of Seasons, for big band

Falling of Seasons was written specially for the Jazzgroove Mothership Orchestra when the composer Sally Greenaway was 20 years old. The work won their highly acclaimed National Big Band Composition Competition in 2008. This recording is from her 2nd album ‘Dig This Mallow’, which features the live broadcast recording of the competition on ABC Classic FM’s Jazztrack with Mal Stanley. The work’s opening was inspired by Maria Schneider’s lyrical orchestration style (with flutes and clarinets for a more orchestral colour palette), leading into a burning bass ostinato with angular horn voicings.

Featured in Jazz-World Waves – November 2017