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, 2021
Dale Barltrop – Violin I
Francesca Hiew – Violin II
Christopher Cartlidge – Viola
Michael Dahlenburg – Cello
Composed by Matt Laing, 2020
Produced by Jakub Gaudasinski
Recording Engineer Tom Henry
Mixed & Mastered by Jakub Gaudasinski
Recorded at ABC Adelaide, South Australia, Kaurna Country, September 2021
Artwork – Jim Tsinganos Illustration
Art Direction – Cul-de-Sac Creative
Angelina Zucco – ASQ Chief Executive
Sophie Emery ASQ Operations Manager
Special thanks to Matt Laing for his valued support of this release.
PROGRAM NOTES
An encore like this gives an opportunity to really explore an atmosphere or a space rather than a fully-fledged musical narrative. This short work uses a limited harmonic range and delicate fleeting textures to very actively stay in the one spot, like a hyperactive nocturne.
BIOGRAPHY
Matt has a varied career as a freelance composer and viola player currently based in Melbourne.
His music,“thought provoking and unusually beautiful”, is fundamentally driven by an interest in story telling through sound, typically around themes of social connection and environment.
Matt has been writing music since he started university, sketching ideas whilst training to be a viola player, and completing a Bachelor of Music/Bachelor of Commerce at the University of Melbourne. Following a successful participation in the Flinders Quartet’s 2017 composer workshop, his first big commission Out of Hibernation was premiered by the Quartet in 2019 through which he was awarded an Ian Potter Cultural Trust grant to work on the quartet with mentoring from Brett Dean in London and Berlin.
Having participated in the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s 2020 Young Composer program, he was subsequently selected as the Orchestra’s Young Composer in Residence for 2021, culminating in the premiere of his bassoon concerto Of Paradise Lost in July 2022. Matt has had residencies with the Four Winds Festival, was a recipient of a 2021 Prelude Residency through the Peggy Glanville-Hicks Composer House Trust, and is a Musica Viva FutureMaker for 2021-23.
Matt’s first work premiered overseas, Portrait of Blood, was performed in London on a tour by Affinity Quartet and Lotte Betts-Dean in February 2020. Other compositional engagements have included works for the Australian String Quartet, the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, Melbourne Chamber Players, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Affinity Quartet, the Australian National Academy of Music, Ossicle Duo, Wattleseed Ensemble, and the Z.E.N. Trio through Musica Viva.
Matt’s been a professional freelance viola player since 2012, playing regularly with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Orchestra Victoria, and as a core member of the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra. He has also performed in the Australian Octet, and Melbourne-based ensembles Quartz, Rubiks and Arcko.
Festival engagements as a performer have included the Perth and Melbourne International Arts Festivals, the Bermagui Four Winds Festival, and the Australian String Quartet’s Dunkeld festival.
