Maria Grenfell
Maria Grenfell writes chamber, orchestral and film music shaped by poetry, image and the natural world. Guitar miniatures catch Leunig’s whimsy in colour and gesture; percussion pieces skitter like insects through accents and sudden turns of melody.
Four Leunig Pieces for guitar follow the stories in Michael Leunig cartoons as short, vividly drawn scenes. Di Primavera, for guitar and marimba, grew from a trip to Italy and the sound world of Monteverdi. Stings and Wings came out of her score for the documentary Quoll Farm, its three movements tracking jack jumpers, dragonflies and moths. The writing is compositionally clear and approachable rather than overtly modernist, full of colour, repeated gestures and birdsong-like turns. She has also scored Living With Devils and written extensively for the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, letting literary, visual and non-Western sources shape the material.
Compositions by Maria Grenfell appear on
Rhythms of Change
In 2020, Australian musician Claire Edwardes, described recently as 'the wonder woman of percussion' began a movement in her home country. Rhythms of Change is a project that addresses the parity of the representation of women in classical music and specifically in the rarefied world of solo percussion music.