EDWARDS, ROSS Maninyas 5
soprano and piano

One of Australia's most distinguished composers, Ross Edwards lives and works in Sydney. For more than two decades his commitment to the ideal of music as a positive and regenerative force within the community has led him to explore beyond the confines of Western Art Music.

Edwards' distinctive sound-world interfuses shapes and patterns from nature with a variety of musical resources which reflect and celebrate Australia's cultural diversity. In his Maninya (dance-chant) pieces, Edwards has pursued an ideal of wholeness - a reintegration of mind, body and spirit and a restoration to 'serious' music of such qualities as lightness, spontaneity and the impulse to dance. Naturally these works have attracted choreography, notably Stanton Welch's ballet Maninyas - based on the violin concerto of the same name - for the San Francisco Ballet and the Singapore Dance Company, as well as Chrissie Parrott's recent interpretation for the West Australian Ballet.