rip to Japan for 'exceptional'
player
Ian Shanahan, in the Department of Music's Experimental Sound Studio, doing a didgeridoo
impression on his bass recorder, one the 20 recorders he possesses.
Ian Shanahan, a Masters student in composition who, according to his
supervisor, Associate Professor Eric Gross, can 'make the recorder talk', has
been invited to take part in a composers' forum in Japan this month.
'Ian has an exceptional technique,' says fellow composer Professor Gross
of the Department of Music. 'He can do the most extraordinary things
with the recorder and has composed some fine recorder music.'
Last October Mr Shanahan, aged 25, was the Australian delegate at the
11th Asian Composers' League Festival at Taipei. His playing so impressed .
scholars attending that they invited him to attend the Asian Composers'
Forum in Sendai, Japan, on 15 September.
Mr Shanahan will play one of his compositions, 'Echoes - Fantasies', for
bass clarinet and percussion (vibraphones and tubular bells), as well as
several recorder pieces.
The recorder is very similar to one of the most common wind instruments
played inJapan, the shakuhachi. Mr Shanahan has developed techniques
to produce sounds on the recorder similar to those of the shakuhachi.
Having studied the music of the shakuhachi while doing Honours in Music,
he is interested in the similarity between the two instruments.
Mr Shanahan will also give a paper at the Forum in Japan on
'Contemporary Techniques of Recorder Playing'.
Another of Mr Shanahan's interests is composing computer music. At
the WATT concert at the Seymour__Centre, 20-22 August, which presented
computer music and audio-visual compositions, his piece for synthesiser
and tape, 'Arcturus Timespace', was presented. It was described by a Sydney
Morning Herald reviewer as a work of 'galactic awe'.
Among his other musical interests Mr Shanahan sings bass with a choir,
the Contemporary Singers. He has played various instruments in a number
of groups, including the University's Renaissance Players and has a liking
for early music.
Mr Shanahan, who also majored in Pure Mathematics, is a keen chess
player and a Fellow of the British Chess Problem Society. SA
The University of Sydney News, 1 September 1987, - 181