Paul Grabowsky | One of Australia’s Most Distinguished Artists | The Art Hunter | Ep 34 | Now LIVE
In this episode of The Art Hunter, David Hunt’s special guest is pianist, composer, arranger, and conductor, Paul Grabowsky.
Paul Grabowsky is a pianist, composer, arranger, and conductor – and is one of Australia’s most distinguished artists.
Born in Papua New Guinea, Paul was raised in Melbourne. During the late 70s, he became prominent in the music scene in Melbourne, working in various jazz, theatre and cabaret projects.
He lived and worked in Europe and the US from 1980 to 85, during which time he performed with many jazz luminaries including Art Farmer and Johnny Griffin. He returned to Australia in 1986 and established a reputation as one of Australia’s leading jazz musicians with such bands as his own trio and sextet, the Wizards of Oz and as musical director for singer Vince Jones.
He was musical director of Tonight Live with Steve Vizard (a nationally televised variety show) from 1990 to 1992.
He was Commissioning Editor (Arts and Entertainment) for ABC Television from 1995 to 1998.
He has written the scores for over twenty feature films in Australia, the UK and the US including “Innocence” (Paul Cox), “Last Orders”, “The Eye of the Storm”, “Words and Pictures” (Fred Schepisi) and “Shiner” (John Irvin). His television credits include the series “Phoenix” and “Janus” and the Emmy-winning “Empire Falls”. His works for the theatre include four operas and various multimedia works. His most recent opera, created for soprano Emma Matthews, “The Space Between”, with libretto by Steve Vizard, premiered at Arts Centre Melbourne in September 2018.
He is the Founding Artistic Director of the Australian Art Orchestra, which he led from 1994 to 2013.
He has won seven ARIA awards (most recently in 2019 for his recording ‘Tryst’ with singer Kate Ceberano)), two Helpmann awards, several APRA and Bell Awards and a Deadly award. He was the Sydney Myer Performing Artist of the Year in 2000 and received the Melbourne Prize for Music in 2007. He was the 2010 Australian National University H.C.Coombs Fellow.
He was Artistic Director of the Queensland Music Festival from 2005 to 2007 and was Artistic Director of the Adelaide Festival of Arts for 2010 and 2012.
He is currently a Professor at Monash University, and director of the Monash University Academy of Performing Arts and the Monash Art Ensemble. In 2014 he was made an Officer of the Order of Australia for services to music and arts administration.
David Hunt explores the artist with an in-depth look into their background; where they came from, the type and work they do, their latest work and where they see the future.
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Host: David Hunt
Producers: David Hunt and Simon Barnett (https://etainment.com.au/)
Director: Tim Barnett
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To watch programs go to: https://thearthunter.tv
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