Alicia Grant

Home Biography Performances Catalogue of Works

Biography

Current project: new piano work for Greek pianist Panos Karan to be premiered at Carnegie Hall, New York

Sydney-born composer and academic Alicia Grant recently achieved the distinction of Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) from the University of Oxford. The recipient of an ORS Award and Clarendon Fund scholarship, she studied composition with Professor Robert Saxton at Worcester College and was awarded the John Lowell Osgood Memorial prize for composition in 2004. Her doctoral thesis, titled 'From A Composer's Desk: Conceptualizing Musical Meaning', drew parallels between concepts theorized in cognitive science/linguistics (categorization, image schemata, and conceptual metaphor) and a composer's conceptualizations of 'musical meaning' in the creative process [see thesis abstract]. Grant also holds a LRAM and first-class BMus(Hons) degree from the Royal Academy of Music, University of London where she studied composition with Simon Bainbridge. Whilst at the RAM, she won numerous scholarships and prizes including the Charles Lucas prize, William Elkin prize, and the Arthur Hinton Memorial prize for composition.

Grant's works have been performed by renowned orchestras and ensembles, including the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, the Choir of Westminster Abbey, the BBC Singers, New College Choir, the Oxford Philomusica, the New Cambridge Singers, and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. Major public performances of her works have spanned a great variety of prestigious venues in the UK and Australia, and across the globe in Argentina, the Netherlands, France, and the USA. A sample of these include the Opera House Concert Hall and Entertainment Centre in Sydney, the Federation Concert Hall in Hobart, the Iwaki Auditorium in Melbourne, the Sheldonian Theatre and Holywell Music Room in Oxford, the Fondation des Etats-Unis in Paris, and the Royal Geographical Society, British Music Information Centre, Westminster Abbey, The Warehouse, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Australia House, Royal Over-Seas League and St John's Smith Square in London. Her work for solo piano Cross Currents was premiered in May 2007 at Carnegie Hall, New York, by the Greek pianist, Panos Karan. Another world premiere is scheduled for June 2009 at the same venue.

Alongside her performances, many of her compositions have been broadcast on radio, in particular for Australia's ABC Classic FM. One of her piano works, Water Shadow written for American pianist, Guy Livingston, was recently recorded on DVD as part of his signature '60 Seconds' programme. This piece will be performed throughout the Netherlands, France, Germany, and North America as part of Livingston's 2008-2009 'One Minute More' concert tours [see Performances for more information]. Grant's compositions have also featured in festivals such as the Bath International Music Festival, the Pärt Festival and the Kagel Festival at the RAM. She has been involved in projects with COMA, the London Sinfonietta, and the National Theatre, and many of her works have been showcased in concerts given by Oxford ensembles such as Ensemble Isis and the Oxford University Sinfonietta.

In 2005, her specially commissioned work ANZAC Anthem, for choir and organ, was premiered by The Choir of Westminster Abbey in the presence of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh to mark the 90th Anniversary of the Gallipoli Landings in 1915. In May 2006, her work for wind octet Figure of 8 was premiered by the Oxford Philomusica wind ensemble at a private concert held at the London home of Lady Marks. Another work, Becoming for symphony orchestra and large girls’ choir, was commissioned to celebrate the opening of the Gillian Moore Performing Arts Centre, officially opened by the Governor of New South Wales in a series of concerts at Pymble Ladies’ College, Sydney.