CREDITS
Commissioned as part of the ‘ASQ Encore’ project with funds received from Creative Partnerships Australia through the Australian Cultural Fund, and made possible with thanks to generous support form the Thyne Reid Foundation.
Performed by the Australian String Quartet, 2020
Dale Barltrop – Violin I
Francesca Hiew – Violin II
Stephen King – Viola
Sharon Grigoryan – Cello
Composed by Joe Chindamo, 2020
Produced by Stephen Snelleman
Recording Engineer Jakub Gaudasinski
Mixed & Mastered by Jakub Gaudasinski
Recorded at UKARIA Cultural Centre, Peramangk Country, South Australia, September 2020
Artwork – Jim Tsinganos Illustration
Art Direction – Cul-de-Sac Creative
Angelina Zucco – ASQ Chief Executive
Sophie Emery ASQ Operations Manager
Special thanks to Joe Chindamo for his valued support of this release.
PROGRAM NOTES
Meows & Muses is a story about a fantastical and futuristic nocturnal world where cats reign supreme. Since that unfortunate historical event back in 2020, when humans beings were locked down and placed under curfew, due to a plague which had no quarrel with cats, the latter seized their moment and usurped the vibrant nightlife once peculiar to the former. Once theirs, they forevermore refused to relinquish it and became the masters of an even grander metropolis, transforming the streets into the greatest theatrical stage the world has ever known.
Joe Chindamo, 2020
BIOGRAPHY
Joe Chindamo is a musical polyglot whose art defies classification. While forging an international career as a brilliant jazz pianist – producing 23 CDs, topping the jazz charts in Japan, winning a slew of awards (including being inducted into the Bell Award Hall of Fame in 2016) and touring the world with the genre’s leading figures- he was working as first- call pianist on over 60 film soundtracks and performing & recording with a plethora of leading artists from the worlds of opera, jazz, theatre and pop.
More recently Chindamo has emerged as a coveted new voice in contemporary classical composition, receiving numerous commissions from Australia’s leading soloists, chamber groups and symphony orchestras, including the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Australian String Quartet, Camerata and the Melbourne and Queensland Symphony Orchestras.
In 2011 Joe co-founded the innovative duo with violinist Zoë Black. The duo has performed at all the major festivals in Australia and recorded 3 ARIA nominated CDs, (RE-IMAGININGS , DIDO’S LAMENT and their re-versioning of the THE GOLDBERG VARIATIONS, premiering the latter at Carnegie Hall in 2015. The duo made their debut Italian performance at the Spinacorona Festival in Naples, at the invitation of renowned pianist, Michele Campanella in 2018.
In 2016 he ventured the realm of theatre as a composer, collaborating with Steve Vizard to create the highly acclaimed one-woman musical – Vigil – for the Adelaide Cabaret Festival, starring Christie Whelan Brown.
Recent highlights include the premiere of his Concerto for Drums and Orchestra (2018), commissioned and performed by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, the premiere of his Concerto for Orchestra (2021) for the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, and the performance of his work This House (2018) – for string orchestra- for the centenary of Australia House, London (Commissioned by the Australian High Commissioner in London and performed in the presence of HRH Prince Charles in November 2018).
In May 2022 the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra premiered his Ligeia – Concerto for Trombone & Orchestra, written for ASO Principal Colin Prichard and commissioned by the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. In the same month, the premiere performance of his Principia Clarinettica – commissioned by the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra – was given by associate principal clarinettist Philip Arkinstall and string quartet.
In 2022 Joe was added to the Queen’s birthday honours list and awarded the medal of the order of Australia for his services to music and the performing arts – OAM”
