Sadie Harrison

[Sadie Harrison]

Biography

Sadie Harrison was born in Adelaide, Australia and moved to England in 1970. She gained her Masters and Doctorate in Composition at Kings College, London studying under Nicola LeFanu and David Lumsdaine. Performances of Sadie's works have been given by Lontano, London Chamber Symphony, Music Projects/ London, Ixion, Bournemouth Sinfonietta, Gemini, also the Kreutzer Quartet, Kaskados Trio, Double Image, Endymion Ensemble, Capricorn, the Tate Ensemble, New Music Players, Sarah Leonard, Stephen Gutman, Composers Ensemble, Kokoro and the St. Christopherus Chamber Orchestra, Vilnius.

Sadie's music has been released to critical acclaim on Sargasso, BML, Metier and Clarinet Classics. 'Taking Flight' (MSV CD92053) was chosen as Classical London's CD of the Month, February 2001. Her music has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and in Eastern Europe, Canada, Japan, Australia, America, Lithuania, The Netherlands and elsewhere and has been selected for several international festival performances. She was the only composer chosen to represent Australia at the ISCM World Music Days 2002 and her clarinet concerto 'The Fourteenth Terrace' was selected by the ISCM Australian Reading Panel this year to go forward to the World Music Days Zagreb 2005.

Recent projects include 'The Bride's Journey in Three Songs and a Memory' for the Kaskados Trio, premiered in May 2005 in Vilnius and broadcast live on European Radio; 'Bell Music for St. Casimir' for the ABRSM Spectrum Clarinet Series 2005 and 'Scathach (Lady of Shadows)' for the Scottish Clarinet Quartet commissioned for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2005. She is currently working on an opera based on the life of St. Christina the Astonishing with librettists Lesley Saunders and Jane Draycott. Her song cycle 'with what do winter's summers sing?' won the International Greig Memorial Composition Competition 2005.

A CD of Sadie's violin concerto 'An Unexpected Light' and other works related to the traditional music of the Northern Caucasus and the Near East will be released on NMC in 2006.

Sadie has recently been appointed the Artistic Director of the Semley Music Festival. Her music is represented by the Australian Music Centre.

"Rhythm and lyricism held in perfect balance" Gramophone

"a compelling, distinctive, and passionate compositional voice." Tempo

"this is distinctive, pungent music that demands close attention." Guardian

"music of a uniquely physical and spiritual presence." Dansk Musik Tidskrift

"Intense concentration is the first concept to come to mind when listening to this music. Not so much the concentration required of the listener, though there is undoubtedly such a requirement, as this is not 'easy listening' by a distance, but the sense of distillation, of the concentration of the essence of a musical argument. Sometimes the textures are exceedingly open and deceptively simple; sometimes a good deal of surface activity serves to illuminate the emotional intensity flowing just beneath. The combination of surface sensuality and intense and rigorous content produces tensions that constantly fluctuate and flow, drawing the listener into a slightly uneasy sound world, individual and unusual." Records International