Iain Grandage

Composers

Iain Grandage composes, conducts and performs. He has received the prestigious Sidney Myer Performing Arts Award, the Ian Potter Emerging Composer Fellowship, and been Composer-in-Residence with the WA Symphony Orchestra, and Musician-in-Residence at the UWA School of Music, where he is currently an Honorary Research Fellow.

Iain’s concert works have been performed by the LPO, ACO, MSO, WASO, Brodsky String Quartet, Australian String Quartet and choirs and orchestras around Australia. Recent highlights include the Victorian Opera production of his opera The Riders, based on the Tim Winton novel with libretto by Alison Croggon, which had Michael Shmith writing in The Age “…an opera of rare dramatic power, utmost musicality and first-rate performances. “, Peter Burch in The Australian writing “…a bewitching jewel of contemporary music theatre.” For the Centenary of ANZAC day, Iain conducted the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra in the critically and publically acclaimed world premiere performance of his oratorio Towards First Light, written with Kate Mulvany. Gordon Forrester in Limelight wrote “Grandage shows us intimacy, vulnerability, inspiration, comfort and desolation in this exceptional piece, “and Graeme Strahle in The Australian wrote “this was a memorable world premiere of a major new Australian work. Grandage conducted a polished Adelaide Symphony Orchestra with tremendous flair and energy.”

His compositions for the theatre include Helpmann Award winning scores for Cloudstreet, The Secret River, When Time Stops, The Rabbits (as an associate with Kate Miller-Heidke) and Satan Jawa (with Rahayu Suppangah) and Green Room Award winning scores for The Riders, Lawn, In the Next Room, Babes in the Wood, The Odyssey and The Blue Room for theatre companies including Belvoir, Black Swan, Malthouse, MTC and STC.

He continues to collaborate with Katie Noonan, Megan Washington and Meow Meow.

In 2018, after three successful years as Artistic Directorship of the Port Fairy Spring Music Festival, Iain stepped into his current role of Artistic Director of the Perth Festival.