Mark Pollard
Australian composer Mark Clement Pollard has an eclectic style that draws on improvisation, jazz, pop, minimalism and the indigenous musics of South-East Asia.
His works have been commissioned by Elision, Pipeline, the Astra Choir, the Australian Chamber Soloists and Michael Kieran Harvey, among others.
From 2010, site-specific elements feature in many of his collaborative works. These have included Resonating Spaces projects in Vancouver, Edinburgh, Beijing, Singapore and the Cook Islands, and installation projects in Australia with the Melbourne Zoo, the Melbourne Museum, Scienceworks and the Royal Melbourne Hospital.
He is Professor of Interactive Composition at the University of Melbourne and teaches composition at the Victorian College of the Arts. He completed a Master's degree at La Trobe University and has been awarded several prizes, including the 1993 Spivakovsky Award, the 1992 Maggs Award, and a finalist place in the Third Tokyo International Composition Contest in 1988.
Recordings of his music range from ambient chamber works such as A Handful of Rain (MD 3218) and Dusting Off Roses (MCD 088) to piano, flute, guitar, string quartet and percussion pieces across the Australian contemporary repertoire.
Press quotes
[Pollard's] eclectic style embraces diverse influences such as collaboration, improvisation, jazz, pop, minimalism and the indigenous music of South-East Asia.
Performing as Gongworks Gamelan
Gongworks was set up in 1997 by Mark Pollard to create new work through the fusing of cross cultural and cross media materials. Sound, theatre and ritual are essential elements in a Gongworks performance. More about Gongworks Gamelan
A Handful of Rain
Inspired by Javanese gamelan and Japanese Shinto music, Mark Clement Pollard's ambient concert works pursue beauty and simplicity. A Handful of Rain gathers this acclaimed Australian composer's popular style from the mid-1990s.
Producer
Compositions by Mark Pollard also appear on
Shichiseki
Collaborations with violinist Miwako Abe and cellist Alister Barker sit beside solos written for Michael Kieran Harvey by Gabriella Vici and Andrián Pertout, spanning Japanese, Latin American and South Indian influences.
Flute Perspectives, Vol. 2
Derek Jones (flute) and Cameron Roberts (piano) present a programme of Australian works by Anne Boyd, Stuart Greenbaum, Rohan Phillips, Mark Pollard and Richard Meale.
Flute Perspectives, Vol. 1
Flautist Derek Jones and pianist Leigh Harrold present this anthology of contemporary Australian flute music, from Sculthorpe’s Torres Strait cycle to solo and duo works by leading local composers.
Astra 60
This recording captures a concert of Australian piano music celebrating Astra’s long support of Australian composers and performers. For sixty years the Astra Chamber Music Society has placed new Australian work beside international new-music currents, always with a distinctive cultural frame.
Broadway Boogie
Broadway Boogie gathers premiere recordings of recent Australian piano works by Andrew Ford, Andrew Byrne, John McCaughey, Nigel Westlake, Mark Pollard and Michael Kieran Harvey, loosely linked by allusions to New York. Melbourne’s Herald-Sun named it the best classical CD of 2008.
Ambient Voice
Ambient Voice places Dean Frenkel’s haunting harmonic vocals over and within works by outstanding Australian composers, among them Mark Clement Pollard, George Dreyfus, Andrew MacGregor and Invention in Time.
Mistika
Composer and keyboardist Linda Ceff sets past and present inspirations beside her own contemporary works. Homages to Stravinsky, Messiaen and Skryabin sit with multi-tracked piano, synthesised colour, bells and Asian-inflected writing.
Torquing Points
An exciting juxtaposition of 20th-century Australian and 19th-century European styles. Gordon Kerry's Torquing Points for String Quartet and Mark Pollard's The Quick or the Dead sit approachably beside the classical works on this programme.
Contemporary Australian Piano
A valuable collection of Australian piano works by some of the country’s most respected and inventive composers, performed by pianist-composer Larry Sitsky.
A Sympathetic Resonance
Peter Constant presents classical guitar works by Australian composers, joined by Marion Schaap on guitar, Mardi McSullea on flute and Helen Noonan, soprano.
Dusting Off Roses
The debut recording of Mark Pollard’s piece for two guitars, played by Z.O.O. Duo – Peter Constant and Marion Schaap – in five short movements of spare, atmospheric chamber writing.