Nineteen to the Dozen

October 11, 2018

Update, Oct 2019: this piece is now rehearsed and embarking on tour. Details and tickets here. Here is my ‘program note’ while heeding Artistic Director Antony Pitts’ wish to have no program and no title … Untitled (2019) for Voices – Lyle Chan Human beings are meaning-seeking creatures. Spiritual teachers and psychologists alike tell us this. […]

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Three Bilitis Movements

October 2, 2018

Illustration by Georges Barbier, 1922. My good friends Alicia Crossley and the Acacia Quartet recently recorded my new work Three Bilitis Movements for an upcoming album, and already premiered the first movement at Extended Play. The entire work will be premiered at Sydney Opera House on December 8, 2018 in conjunction with the album release. Tickets […]

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Messiah, Reimagined

June 9, 2018

Michelle Leonard, me, and pianist Ben Burton in rehearsal. Photo by Leichhardt Espresso Chorus I’m so thrilled to be working with the fantastic Leichhardt Espresso Chorus for the first time. It’s a community choir that spends much of its resources commissioning new music – a staggering 200 works since 1998, in fact. This being its […]

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Six Sonates pour Divers Instruments – a Debussy Centenary project

February 17, 2018

Update July 10, 2018. The final Sonata No. 6 for 13 instruments was broadcast by ABC Classic FM. You can hear it here, with my profound thanks to the student players of ANAM, conductor Tristram Williams and ABC production team. The score and parts are available on Nkoda here. Update May 2018. Australian Music Centre […]

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Wandteppiche

January 26, 2018

This unusual new work for speaking voice and portatif organ – called Wandteppiche – was commissioned by the Art Gallery of NSW Foundation and Music Curator Jason Catlett as part of Music in this Stillness, a new-music program to greet the six-panel French medieval tapestry suite La dame à la licorne as it begins its Sydney […]

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(“Andante Moderato”)

October 23, 2017

My dear friends the Acacia Quartet will give 4 performances of this new work over Oct and Nov 2017 in Sydney and Melbourne. You can see details here or in the Calendar. Like nearly all my pieces that Acacia has premiered, it is an excerpt from my ongoing String Quartet and was sketched many years […]

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Serenade for Tenor, Saxophone and Orchestra (“My Dear Benjamin”)

September 12, 2016

______________ Lyle Chan · Radio Broadcast: Serenade for Tenor, Saxophone and Orchestra Update August 2017: Serenade won the Orchestral Work of the Year category of the 2017 Art Music Awards. As a first-time nominee of these awards, words cannot describe my gratitude to the judging panel and to APRA and the Australian Music Centre. Update […]

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String Quintet (The Holidays)

May 1, 2016

A 50th birthday present for dear Stefan Duwe, violist of the incomparable Acacia Quartet, here joined by Stefan’s old teacher from Germany, Emile Cantor. String Quintet “The Holidays” is in three sections: • A Swing Band New Year – • Birthday Serenade (incorporating Hoffstetter’s Andante Cantabile) – • Tipitina (incorporating “O Holy Night” arranged and copyright […]

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Love is always born (Michael Leunig)

October 24, 2015

[Update December 2015: the above recording was made by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation at the City Recital Hall concert in November. My thanks to producer Don Bate and engineer Matthew Dewey.] The wonderful Song Company and its artistic director Roland Peelman will premiere a new vocal piece of mine, Love is always born, in its […]

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Wind Farm Music, Dedicated to Tony Abbott

August 11, 2015

[update Sept 2016: a video of Estivo Trio playing this work in Sydney] __________ Last month Julian Burnside and I were chatting at the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition, and I realised he was sizing me up for an unusual commission. Julian said, “Normally when I commission a piece, I give the composer a completely free […]

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