Christopher Purcell
CREATIVE PRACTICE
Music
Composer, Musician & Music Educator. Alongside my own creative pursuits, I have been involved with community music in Armidale since 1990. At the New England Conservatorium of Music, I have taught guitar to individual students for over a decade, directed the Armidale Youth Guitar Ensemble, and as part of my commitment to accessible music education, I have also directed a community choir for over twenty years.
ARTIST STATEMENT
I am a composer, musician and music educator from Invergowrie, NSW. As a composer, my main interest is in the marriage of words and music and I love the voice’s ability to express emotion in an immediate and intimate setting. Ongoing influences on my work include Baroque and classical music, show tune composers, folk melodies, pop writers such as Lennon and McCartney, and blues and rock & roll. My experience in writing symphonic music (ballet scores/operas) and incidental music for theatre productions enables me to score for a variety of instrumental textures and voices. In 2005 & 2006, I collaborated with librettist James Scanlon on ‘Phoenix: A Ballet With Songs’, which featured a symphony orchestra, a choir, vocal soloists and a dance troupe – and ‘Dunbar: A Folk Opera’, which featured six musicians, four soloists and a chorus. In 2014, I collaborated with playwright Ian Purcell on a work-in-progress music theatre piece ‘Urania or Love Conquers All: A Colonial Melodrama’, my composition incorporating a range of popular 19th century song styles. Since 2015, I have been collaborating with Armidale lyricist Helena Pastor and together we have created an eclectic collection of emotionally engaging songs that illuminate sensitive aspects of human life. We are currently recording this catalogue of songs as part of an Arts project called ‘Stories in Song’ (funded by Arts North West and Regional Arts NSW), collaborating with a number of different vocalists including mezzo-soprano Ruth Strutt, a Principal Artist with Opera Australia, and Georgie Chorley, a Jazz vocalist and musician from Bellingen.
BIO
Selected Compositions:
https://soundcloud.com/pastor_purcell
Theatre:
1997: Incidental music for Womb Loom by Dr. W. McDonald (Armidale).
1998: Incidental music for True Sex by Dr. W. McDonald (Armidale).
2003: Incidental music for Macbeth by W. Shakespeare (Armidale).
Other:
2006: 3 Serenades for 2 Guitars. Commissioned and recorded by Armidale classical guitar duo EphenStephen.
1980-2020: Approximately 200 songs in a wide range of genres.
Major Works:
2005: Phoenix - A Ballet With Songs. Libretto by Jim Scanlan. Staged in Armidale 2005.
2006: Dunbar - A Folk Opera. Libretto by J. Scanlan. Staged in Armidale 2006 & 2007, in Sydney 2007 and Uralla 2015.
2015: Urania: A melodrama with songs. Libretto by Ian Purcell.
2016: Lullaby and Lament - A Song Cycle. Lyrics by Helena Pastor. Performed in 2016 by Ruth Strutt in Armidale.
2018-2020: Work in progress, Tattoo Songs, Lyrics by Helena Pastor.
2018-2020: Miscellaneous songs, Lyrics by Helena Pastor.
CONTACT
chris.purcell@outlook.com
0428 625 685